GovNet eJournal

Three aspects of computing ethics are explored, each to arrive at an imperative for the computing profession. The first argues that a distinction must be made between people and machinery and urges that the profession's vocabulary must be used to bring that distinction out into the public view. The second observes that digital technology has swiftly gone far beyond its early focus on computation and text processing and argues that the computing profession is in urgent need of reform. The third looks at the role of digital technology in our changing society and urges that the technology be used in early education to empower children to make their own rational choices about their culture.

The development and assessment of 'integrity systems', sometimes referred to as 'ethics regimes', has generally focused on whether the right institutions, policies and procedures exist to achieve a system with integrity. However, no matter how sound these structures are, or how strong the "pillars" of integrity may be, or even how effectively they are integrated and coordinated, without the right human capital operating within them, such structures can achieve very little. In practice, it is people, primarily leaders at all levels, who drive organisational direction, create and sustain an ethical climate and provide major incentives or disincentives for organisational and employee ethical behaviour.
The recently released Australian National Integrity System Assessment report highlighted the importance of organisational design and ethical climate by focussing on mapping effective ethics systems and analysing how elements of such a system interact. This paper attempts to extend this framework beyond a systems-focussed approach to more fully recognise the interplay of complex human relationships within organisations and across systems. Leadership is a critical dynamic. It influences the predictability of the behaviour of people in organisations. The development of leadership skills, underpinned by sound ethical decision making, is fundamental to creating organisations with people who "lead with integrity". Such an organisation is an invaluable asset to all stakeholders. This paper attempts to review the recent literature on ethical leadership. It aims to determine the key issues surrounding ethical leadership roles and how these might be better understood, assessed and enhanced - not just as valuable qualities in their own right, but as a key to organisational integrity. The paper also seeks to briefly examine some of the key areas and concepts dealt with in the general leadership literature which may contribute to this agenda.

The prevalent corruption in Korea threatens the democratic development of Korea. Although the government of Korea has struggled to prevent the corruption phenomena, for various reasons their efforts were not very successful. One of the major causes of corruption in Korea is the weakness of ethics among public officials. In addition, currently there is no lobbying disclosure or prevention act in Korea despite the fact that widespread lobbying is an important factor of prevalent corruption phenomena. In this paper, the author argues that we need to build the new paradigm by stipulating lobbying disclosure act because of its use in controlling dealings of corruption in private or public sectors. In addition, the author suggests the new paradigm focusing on how to strengthen public ethics in Korea and how to maximize the control-mechanism of lobbying by establishing new system in the country. In short, in this paper, the author focuses on the realities of corruption phenomena, causes of corruption, measures of anti-corruption, and suggests lobbying disclosure or prevention acts in Korea.

In today's changeable world ethical values are also changing. Values are mostly formed by the media, which stresses material values instead of ethical values. Ethical values and conduct are not recognisable and even not desirable. States in transition from totalitarian regime to democracy had to revise social values. The fact is that free elections do not indicate the enforcement of the democratic political system. Therefore, it is very important to establish independent institutions to care about the development, promotion and safeguarding of ethical behaviour in public sector. This paper is based on research "Ethics in Public Sector in Republic of Slovenia". It presents the point of view of public institutions, employees in public sector, and citizens, in regard to organising the coordinating bodies which will have responsibility in the field of ethics in public sector. It responds to the questions about the necessity of coordination in the field of ethics in public sector, about the way of organising the proper body and its competence, and to whom such bodies should be responsible and which tasks they should be engaged in. The article also deals with comparisons between Anti-corruption Law and the proposition of new laws about conflicts of interest which hinders the Commission from preventing corruption. In conclusion, the paper establishes that the view of public institutions is different to the view of employees in public sector and citizens in regard to establishing the coordinating bodies which would support ethical conduct in public sector. Obviously, citizens do expect ethical conduct in public sector, but there is the problem of political will or commitment, without which the establishment of coordinating body will not take place. In the future, detailed research is required. This study should show the necessity of establishing such institutions in the Slovenian public sector. It should also reveal the meaning of promotion and development of ethical conduct in public sector for the better organisational and cultural climate in public sector, as well as in private sector.

Improving governance requires both that incentives be improved and that the right people are selected to make decisions. The former has been analyzed extensively, but the latter has received much less attention among scholars of political economy. This talk will review some general arguments for the importance of selection. It will also discuss alternative means of selection and what makes democratic selection work better. Finally, it will discuss the emerging evidence on the importance of selection in improving government performance.