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ACCOUNTABILITY
AND THE EVIL OF ADMINISTRATIVE ETHICS
Dubnick,
Melvin J., and Jonathan B. Justice. 2006. Accountability
and the Evil of Administrative Ethics. ADMINISTRATION
& SOCIETY 38 (2) May:236-267.
Scholars of administrative ethics have
recently been attentive to the problem of so-called
administrative evil. The authors argue that evil can
be understood as a socially constructed category of
agents and acts specific to particular circumstances
and moral communities, and the authors apply a framework
of accountability to reflect the dynamics of that
constructed reality. Selected examples of efforts
to hold evil actors accountable or otherwise to account
for evil acts illustrate a paradox: Responses to so-called
evil may themselves be labeled evil in hindsight or
by members of other contemporaneous communities. In
light of this paradox and attendant ethical dilemmas,
the authors argue that conventional ethical and behavioral
prescriptions are necessary but insufficient protections
against catastrophic mis-, mal-, or nonfeasance in
and by organizations.
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