Private relationships are often given (For Ex: Life partner, Friends) or inherited (For Ex: Parents) that are relatively permanent with more tolerance for imperfections.
Private relationship – Ethical Principles
- Care and Affection – Emotional bond of affection and care goes beyond limitations. This bond is not driven by legal rules or quid pro quo but by human emotions. For instance, In Mahabharata, King Dhritrashtra had unconditional affection for his sons despite their misdeeds and always took their side while being the King of Hastinapur.
- Fidelity – This is a key driver of a marital relationship and the essence of the ethics of marriage. It refers to being loyal to one’s life partner and avoiding sensual distraction or committing an adulterous act.
- Confidentiality – To maintain the sanctity of private relationships, secrecy and privacy are of paramount importance. For example, we generally restrain ourselves to share secrets of our friends, colleague, life-partner etc. without their permission else it would bring disharmony in such relationships.
- Truthfulness – Truthfulness is the key demand in private relationships. It amplifies mutual trust and strengthens the emotional bonds in such relationships. For instance, being always truthful helps in avoiding unnecessary conflicts that may arise out of one’s alleged suspicious activities.
- Responsibility & Accountability – In private relationships, one is bestowed with various responsibilities such as responsibility towards a child, life partner, parents etc. This requires fulfilling the responsibility towards them and also being accountable to them, in case of non-fulfilment of responsibility.
- Tolerance and acceptance of minor imperfections – Human beings can never achieve perfection thus there is bound to be conflict in private relationships in absence of any prescribed rules and regulations. Therefore, one must accommodate the imperfections of others to bring peace and harmony to such relationships. For instance, your wife is quite an introvert in public interactions, you being a civil servant don’t like this but tolerate it for peaceful marital life.
Source of Ethics in private relationships
- Divine command and Religion – Those who are religious and theists accept Divine commands and follow them in their personal life to please God to attain salvation. For example, the Ten Commandments (of the Bible) is the source of guidance for Christians regarding their behaviour with family, neighbour and society at large.
- Individual experiences (Intuition and Emotions) – Even intuition and emotions are quite crucial in understating the proper behaviour towards private relationships. For example, the Emotion of love and care is naturally inclined towards our family which doesn’t need any social conditioning.
- Social conditioning – Some of the values are also learned from environmental factors that influence human beings such as Family, peer groups, society etc. For example, a child learns from his parents – How one should behave with elders in the family.
- Law of the land (Constitution) – Some of the ethical principles are governed by legislation and constitutional values. For example, not outraging the modesty of women is a Fundamental duty under the Indian constitution. Similarly, Adultery though now legal to commit and can be cited as the reason for divorce. Thus, ensuring fidelity in a marital relationship has legal directives.
Ethics in public relationship.
Public life means that which is located and transpires within and engages with the public domain, whether in public spaces or the media and which is for broad public consumption and participation rather than for a private or limited engagement.
The Committee on Standards in Public Life was sometimes referred to as Nolan Committee after its first Chairman, Lord Nolan. Its terms of reference were to “examine concerns about standards of conduct of all holders of public office, including arrangements relating to financial and commercial activities, and make recommendations for changes in present arrangements which might be required to ensure the highest standards of respectability in public life.”
In 1997, the Committee’s terms of reference were extended by Prime Minister Tony Blair “to review issues about the funding of political parties, and to make recommendations as to any changes in present arrangements”.
The Committee’s terms of reference were further clarified in a House of Lords to explain that the Committee’s remit means it “can examine issues relating to the ethical standards of the delivery of public services by private and voluntary sector organisations, paid for by public funds, even where those delivering the services have not been appointed or elected to public office.”
The Nolan Committee’s Seven Principles of ethical conduct The Committee has published Fourteen Reports so far. The First Report of the Committee drew up the Seven Principles of Public Life as a restatement of the general principles of conduct underpinning public life, and stated that,
- All public bodies should draw up Codes of Conduct incorporating the Seven Principles which are as follows;
- Selflessness – Holders of public office should act solely in terms of the public interest. They should not do so to gain financial or other benefits for themselves, their family or their friends.
- Integrity – Holders of public office should not place themselves under any financial or other obligation to outside individuals or organizations that might seek to influence them in the performance of their official duties.
- Objectivity – In carrying out public business, including making public appointments, awarding contracts, or recommending individuals for rewards and benefits, holders of public office should make choices on objective criteria.
- Accountability – Holders of public office are accountable for their decisions and actions to the public and must submit themselves to whatever scrutiny is appropriate to their office.
- Openness – Holders of public office should be as open as possible about all the decisions and actions they take. They should give reasons for their decisions and restrict information only when the wider public interest clearly demands.
- Honesty – Holders of public office have a duty to declare any private interests relating to their public duties and to take steps to resolve any conflicts arising in a way that protects the public interest.
- Leadership – Holders of public office should promote and support these principles by leadership and example.
- Internal systems for maintaining standards should be supported by independent scrutiny
- More needed to be done to promote and reinforce standards of conduct in public bodies, in particular through guidance and training, including induction training.
In present times, Governments and international agencies are drawing their attention to developing and maintaining high standards and values, ethics and conduct in public administration as an important measure for combating corruption.
Similarly, OECD called for an ethical infrastructure referring to a range of tools and processes for regulating or checking undesirable behaviour and providing incentives to encourage good conduct of public officials. OCED 8-point charter is as follows;
- Political commitment to ethical governance
- Creation of an Effective legal framework,
- Evolving an Efficient accountability mechanism,
- Need for evolving workable codes of conduct,
- Professional socialization mechanisms (including training),
- Creation of supportive public service conditions,
- Need for a central ethics coordinating body,
- Need for an energetic civil society able to act as a watchdog.
