Ethics Management in the Public Service ― A Sensory-based Strategy

New public management (NPM) reforms in the past thirty years have produced a steady stream of new developments and changes, most notably in many OECD countries. With this advance in businesslike methods and the introduction of quality management techniques comes the need to take the next step in improving ethics management in the public service. In order to provide public servants with an applied ethical approach, this book puts a sensory-based strategy forward for NPM-ethics identified with private sector strategies in the field of marketing.

Sensory Ethics of New Public Management examines the role of sense-making, which entails what is termed "somatic work", highlights how the five senses intersect with ethical discourse, thus compelling reflexive forms of somatic work by which public servants can manage "real-world" context for discussing ethical dilemmas, professional standards, and principles of codes of ethics that otherwise may take on momentary or abstract qualities.

The spontaneous act of reaching out and "touching" someone in a metaphorical sense embodies deep social significance. Therefore, the senses play a vital role in the way people interact and their attitude towards their surroundings. This is even more important when dealing with public administrators who are tasked with serving the public in the name of the democratic state.

Sensory Ethics of New Public Management seeks to present the senses as a moral skill or a political/professional one that can and should be developed and trained, in order to provide the public with an ameliorated and moral public service. It looks to bring a new impetus to NPM-ethics research and practice by sensory-based ethics management that raises ethical awareness and sensitivity to ethical infringements and cultivates their capacity for synesthesia in the face of the growing concern about the impact of NPM reforms on public servants' ethics.

Dr. Liza Ireni-Saban is the Assistant Dean of Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy and Strategy Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya, Israel