JOURNAL OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS EDUCATION - Naspaa

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Teaching Administrative Ethics in Nonprofit Managementthat students learn to recognize potential ethical problems and can chart anappropriate course of action. Other programs emphasize philosophical issues,“rather than operating as if ethics were a mere matter of technique” (Farmer,1998, p. 34).In the meantime, individual researchers have suggested various methods ofseeking ethical guidance. Thus, John Rohr has argued that public administratorsneed to understand “regime values” by considering decisions that arepromulgated by authoritative governmental entities, such as the courts (Rohr,1989). Terry L. Cooper has emphasized the need to develop an “operationalethic” through effective decision-making (Cooper 1990, p. 5). In The Ethics ofPublic Service, Kathryn G. Denhardt argued for “a better-developed theoreticalframework ... more grounded in philosophy, and ... ultimately more practicalin that it considers and accommodates the exigencies of the environment inwhich public administrators must practice — the modern public organization”(Denhardt, 1988, p. ix). Patrick J. Sheeran, in Ethics in Public Administration:A Philosophical Approach, rejected “legalistic” approaches, and contended that agrounding in philosophy would ensure that public servants gain a sense of notonly the values underlying decisions with public impact, but also, perhaps moreimportantly, the reasoning behind those values (Sheeran, 1993).Regardless of which approach was adopted, we questioned whether ethicswere taught as a stand-alone course, or as integrated into other courses. Eachapproach has strengths and weaknesses. Stand-alone courses enable studentsto examine ethical issues in-depth, while integrated courses place ethics into abroader framework that relates to substantive public administration issues.Research by Donald C. Menzel in the mid-1990s found that 40 percentof the schools of public administration and public affairs integrated ethicsacross their curricula, and that 60 percent offered some type of ethics course.According to Menzel, the top-five teaching techniques used in these programswere small-group discussions, case studies, decision-making scenarios, researchpapers, and lectures. Other methods included role-playing, self-assessment,videos/movies, guest speakers, simulations, fiction, biographies, field studies,and computer-generated multimedia material (Menzel, 1997b). As a follow-upto Menzel’s work, in this study we apply his criteria for understanding formalethics instruction in public administration to ethics education in nonprofitadministration.Surveying Nonprofit Ethics EducationResearch conducted since the 1970s has yielded much new information onthe state of ethics education in public administration. Much less is known aboutethics education in the nonprofit field, however (Chisholm & Young, 1988;O’Neil, 2001, pp. 623-624). In order to examine the state of teaching ethicsin nonprofit administration and management, we developed and administeredJournal of Public Affairs Education 185
Teaching Administrative Ethics in Nonprofit Managementa survey for institutions of higher learning that offer graduate programs innonprofit management education. We were interested in knowing to whatextent these programs covered ethics, as well as the breadth and diversity of thiscoverage. To yield more in-depth information, we also requested syllabi frominstitutions with courses in ethics for the nonprofit sector.The survey was designed to provide insight into a variety of course offeringsand pedagogical approaches to teaching ethics in nonprofit academic programs.Although we were unable to probe for correlation between the form/contentof ethics courses and proper conduct among the students taking them (such aresearch project was far beyond the scope of our efforts), we wanted to knowhow often students were exposed to ethics in the nonprofit curriculum, as well asin any applicable, predominant approaches.We developed a survey instrument designed for academic institutionswith degrees, certificates, or concentration programs in a nonprofit field (i.e.,nonprofit management, leadership, administration, and/or studies). A copyof the survey is in the Appendix. Because the U.S. has relatively few nonprofitdegrees, certificates, or concentration programs, we surveyed the population(rather than taking a sample) of institutions offering these programs. For thispurpose we used a comprehensive listing of nonprofit management degrees,certificates, and concentration programs that was developed and periodicallyupdated by Seton Hall University. The university hosts an authoritative Web siteon nonprofit academic programs (http://tltc.shu.edu/npo/index.php). 1Our survey sought to determine how many nonprofit management degrees,certificates and concentration programs also offered ethics education, eitheras a stand-alone course or as a component of another course. We believed itwas important to garner information on the characteristics of these degrees,certificates, or concentration programs. Accordingly, the survey began with basicquestions about the number of hours required to graduate from the program,and the number and percentage of students who completed an ethics course.We also asked for information on ethics instructors, and the number of timesper year an ethics course was offered in the program. This information wouldhave enabled us to examine similarities and differences among and between thevarious degrees, certificates and concentration programs. Unfortunately, becausefew responded to these questions, the missing data precluded analyses.The survey and results addressed three principal research questions:1. What percentage of nonprofit management degrees, certificates, or concentrationprograms offer ethics courses? Are they required or elective courses?2. How are those courses taught (i.e., with what breadth and diversity)?3. What are the approaches/materials (e.g., case method, Great Thinkers, etc.)?The first question was designed to elicit information on the extent of ethics186 Journal of Public Affairs Education
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