Chapter Three

Ethics and Civic Disposition

Civic dispositions, refers to the traits of private and public character essential to the
maintenance and improvement of constitutional democracy
It encompasses interpersonal values, virtues, and behaviors.
Civic dispositions, like civic skills, develop slowly over time and as a result of what one learns
and experiences in the home, school, community, and organizations of civil society. Those
experiences should engender understanding that democracy requires the responsible self
governance of each individual; one cannot exist without the other. Traits of private character
such as moral responsibility, self discipline, and respect for the worth and human dignity of
every individual are imperative. Traits of public character are no less consequential. Such traits
as public spiritedness, civility, respect for the rule of law, critical mindedness, and willingness to
listen, negotiate, and compromise are indispensable to democracy's success.
Civic dispositions that contribute to the political efficacy of the individual, the healthy
functioning of the political system, a sense of dignity and worth, and the common good were
identified in the National Standards for Civics and Government. In the interest of brevity, those
dispositions or traits of private and public character might be described as:

Becoming an independent member of society. This disposition encompasses adhering
voluntarily to self-imposed standards of behavior rather than requiring the imposition of
external controls, accepting responsibility for the consequences of one's actions and fulfilling
the moral and legal obligations of membership in a democratic society.

Assuming the personal, political, and economic responsibilities of a citizen. These
responsibilities include taking care of one's self, supporting one's family and caring for,
nurturing, and educating one's children. They also include being informed about public
issues, voting, paying taxes, serving on juries, performing public service, and serving in
leadership positions commensurate with one's talents.

Respecting individual worth and human dignity. Respecting others means listening to their
opinions, behaving in a civil manner, considering the rights and interests of fellow citizens,
and adhering to the principle of majority rule but recognizing the right of the minority to
dissent.

Participating in civic affairs in a thoughtful and effective manner. This disposition entails
becoming informed prior to voting or participating in public debate, engaging in civil and
reflective discourse, and assuming leadership when appropriate. It also entails evaluating
whether and when one's obligations as a citizen require that personal desires and interests
be subordinated to the public good and evaluating whether and when one's obligations or
constitutional principles obligate one to reject certain civic expectations.

Promoting the healthy functioning of constitutional democracy. This disposition encompasses
being informed and attentive to public affairs, learning about and deliberating on
constitutional values and principles, monitoring the adherence of political leaders and public
agencies to those values and principles and taking appropriate action if adherence is
lacking. This disposition also inclines the citizen to work through peaceful, legal means to
change laws that are thought to be unwise or unjust.

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Public services is a term usually used to mean services provided by government to its citizens,
either directly (through the public sector) or by financing private provision of services. The term
is associated with a social consensus (usually expressed through democratic elections) that
certain services should be available to all, regardless of income. Even where public services are
neither publicly provided nor publicly financed, for social and political reasons they are usually
subject to regulation going beyond that applying to most economic sectors. Public service is also
a course that can be studied at a college and/or university.
It is also an alternative term for civil service.
. Some specific obligations of public officials:
- Use impartial judgment in the service of all constituents.
- Avoid conflicts of interest that could undermine your objective judgment.
- Don’t show favoritism toward family and friends in hiring.
- Don’t solicit or accept bribes from people seeking to influence your official decisions.
- Don’t invest in property or companies that could be affected by your official decisions.
. work habit and professional ethics
Individuals develop uniquely personal methods to accomplish common tasks. Where possible,
accommodations should be made to allow such diversity in the workplace
What are good work habits?
Here is the list of good work habits you can develop:
1. Set up a goal or a mission and apply a strong work ethic to provide you that sense of
direction needed to accomplish quality tasks in the shortest time possible.
2. Think positive. Do not think of the complexities of your job instead, consider these
difficulties as a challenge. Deal with the problem, do not avoid them. You're going to have to
face the same problem eventually.
3. It is a good work habit to give importance to good attendance and punctuality. Doing so
can get you off to a good start and it can be a positive asset on your part.
4. Value your time, plan your activities and concentrate on one key task at a time. It is also
helpful to streamline your work and emphasize on important tasks. Accomplish tasks which
are top priorities before starting on the least important ones.
5. Apply neatness, orderliness and speed by cleaning up and getting organized. It allows
you to work faster since it's easy to find things when the workplace is clean and sorted out
properly.
6. Plan your day ahead of time. This is one of the most important among the good work
habits you should develop. List things that you should prioritize to work the next day. This
could guide you whenever you get side tracked and forget what your original purpose was.
7. Work smarter, not harder. Manage your time well; segregate activities into time wasters
or maximum use of time. Time wasters such as telephone calls and dealing emails can just be
kept short and on topic as well as keeping email accounts separate for personal and work
use. Focus on the list of priorities you make and set limits for each task.
8. Become self-employed psychologically. Think of yourself as your own boss. You would
want to make things happen in the business, do good quality output and receive bigger
income from it. Putting yourself on the situation can motivate you to do great results.
9. Play the inner game of work. Know your purpose at work and do it with your own best
innate desires and abilities. These will help you to acquire all the ideas, successful habits
and best practices you will need in accomplishing tasks.

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 10. Reduce procrastination by motivating yourself with rewards or punishments. Postponing
or delaying one's work can cause career sabotage so be aware of its consequences and try to
be more positive.
11. Give importance to rest and relaxation. Good working habits are not just about working.
Our body and mind also needs a breather from all the office tasks we are doing. When we do
relax and rest even for a few minutes in between, we allow ourselves to rejuvenate, think
more clearly and our bodies to function properly. Working at a steady pace also helps.
12. Use multitasking for routine tasks. Multitasking is also helpful in accomplishing more
tasks at the same time. Routine tasks are simple tasks which you are anticipating on doing all
the time. You can do some of these tasks all at the same time, as long as it doesn't require you
to be analyzing an important detail.
13. Bounce quickly from task to task. As you list down the tasks set up for the day, it is easier
to transfer from one accomplished task to the next on queue. The quicker the transition, the
more tasks are completed.
14. Prepare time log, set time limits for certain tasks and evaluate your use of time. These
help you assess if you have done either productive tasks or time wasting activities.
Do away with being a cyberloafer and prioritize in doing your work. Make good use of office
technology and avoid using them for personal purposes.
15. Keep track of important names, places and things to avoid unnecessary and time
consuming recalls and backtracks. It would be helpful to list or take note of them if you must.
15. Point out a problem but bring solutions. Problems you highlight to your superior without
your recommended solutions merely construes as complains. So before approaching them
with the problem, make sure you already thought of suggested solutions to solve it.
16. Be nice to people. This is not just a good work habit, but also applicable to your life
outside of work. It is already a common courtesy and by doing so can give you better chances
of people wanting you on their team, and they tend to go out of their way to help you in time
of need. You can start this off by greeting everyone with a smile.
17. Volunteer for assignments. This could label you as a keen learner who is unafraid of hard
work. But first assess on your own skills and knowledge before volunteering on an
assignment. It is best to be confident about yourself when completing a volunteered task.
18. Finish things by being decisive. Being decisive would mean having the ability to firmly
decide with speed and clarity. Decision-making is oftentimes crucial, so it is better to observe
and analyze all the information available and decide on the best course of action. Although
there are risks for decisions to have negative results, the important thing is to learn from it
and to avoid doing the same thing all over again.
Bad Work Habit
When you're considering goals for yourself, don't forget to examine your work life. What
changes could you make to become a more productive and pleasant colleague?
Experts offer this list of common bad habits at work -- and how to break them:
* Planning poorly.
Do you spend your first hour at work wondering what you should work on today? "So many
people, when they leave their office at 4 to 6 p.m., really have no clue what they're going to do
first thing the following morning," said Glenn Davis, president of the Next Step Group, which
recruits sales and sales management professionals for software and other companies. It's more
efficient to plan your next day before you leave work.
* Abusing work-from-home privileges.

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 Yes, you save time when you work from home by not commuting. But too many people are easily
sidetracked by their kids, a quick errand. "People like to say, 'I get so much more done'" working
from home, Davis said. And some do -- but not everyone. If you work from home, make sure
you're putting in a full day's work -- and that you're accessible to your colleagues during the
workday.
* Putting personal life before work.
Everyone has emergencies from time to time. But it's annoying to have to repeatedly fill in for
the colleague who is late every morning because he's checking on his home remodeling project,
or who misses an entire afternoon because she scheduled a routine dentist appointment for 1:30
p.m.
* Being late for meetings.
People who show up 5 or 10 minutes late for a meeting cause a "domino effect," Davis said.
Meetings later that day may be thrown off schedule because the earlier ones ran late. And people
who show up on time feel their time is being wasted.
* Using inappropriate humor. Your coworkers may not appreciate your sense of humor. Skip the
off-color or "racially targeted" jokes, Griffen said. And be careful about sensitive subjects such
as politics and religion.
* Not caring about your work.
People like coworkers who are enthusiastic about what they do. Show that you take pride in your
job by presenting yourself well, communicating clearly and doing your best work.
Steps Towards Better Work Ethics
1. Attendance
- Attendance and punctuality often have a large impact on
individual and team success. Tardiness or absenteeism can also
profoundly impact job performance and retention.
How You Can Maintain Good Attendance:
•Make work a high priority
•Know your schedule
•Make use of an ALARM clock
•Get enough sleep
•Arrange your transportation
•Inform your supervisor of an absence

2. Character –
An employer expects employees to work together toward
achieving the objectives of the company. The wise employee who is
interested in having a good relationship with an employer will try to
help the employer achieve success. Thus employer expects employees
to develop certain desirable traits that will help them to perform their
jobs well so that the company can succeed. Some of these traits
include the following:
Loyalty Honesty
Trustworthiness Dependability
Reliability Initiative
Self-discipline Self-responsibility
3. Teamwork –

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It is vital that employees work as a team. It is important
not only to their personal success and advancement, but also to that of
their co-workers and to the company. Sometimes working as a team
takes place in a classroom setting. Teamwork doesn’t necessarily mean
helping your classmate. Teamwork in the classroom might be working
Help Sheet
Center for Career Guidance
Quietly as not to disturb your classmates. Teamwork involves the
Following aspects:
• Respecting the rights of others
• Being cooperative
• Being assertive
• Displaying a customer service attitude
• Seeking opportunities for continuous learning
• Demonstrating mannerly behavior
• Respecting confidentiality
4. Appearance –
A person makes their first impression of someone in
three seconds. If you appear unkempt and wrinkled, someone is going
to think that you do sloppy work. If you dress as a professional, your
first impression will be excellent.
5. Attitude
- It is very important to demonstrate a positive attitude,
appear self confident, and have realistic expectations for self.
Developing and maintaining a positive attitude involves setting
realistic expectations for ourselves at school and at work. These goals
should be challenging, but obtainable.
6. Productivity
- In order to be a productive student and employee, a
Person must follow safety procedures, conserve materials, keep the
work area neat and clean and follow directions properly.
7. Organizational skills
- Employers consider effective time
Management and organizational skills as good work habits. To begin
managing wisely the time you spend at work, to prepare for
assignments at home, and to manage your life at home and work
simultaneously, you need to know and to put into practice some good
time management techniques.
Some Simple Techniques:
• Believe - As you enter into your new work place
believe that you are in control.
• Ask For Help - help comes in many forms so ask for it.
• Prioritize –whats most important?
• Set Timetables - list what you have achieved and what is
still pending.
• Spend Time Wisely

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8. Communication
- Is how we interact with each other. Communication
whether it is verbal or nonverbal must be clear, to the point,
empathetic, and one must keep in mind that we must always treat
others as we would like others to treat us.
9. Cooperation
- involves developing good working relationships,
following the chain of command, good at conflict management, and
being a good problem solver.
10. Respect
– it cannot be emphasized enough that every working
relationship from the top to the bottom of the chain of command is
based on respect. Respect your subordinates as you do your superiors

Development Ethics

Understanding the Concept of Development

The concept of development is one of the most slippery concepts to define. Despite theoretical
controversies the notion of development refers the measure of the economic development which
can in turn be understood in terms over all increment of the production of goods and services.
Material progress, measured in terms of GNP /GDP has been seen as out come of development.
As a matter of policy the notion of development has been widely used in the second half of
twentieth century. It has come to refer to mainly to process of change occurring in the newly
independent countries of the third world.

Modernization theorist, that emerged since 1950 & 60 argue that a wholesale change must
take place in underdeveloped countries in order to break the vicious circle of poverty, ignorance,
and low productivity. Not only the economy had to be transformed, but also the education
system, the way of thinking, acting and living. Economic development policy in the developing
world was patterned after developed countries policies, or development experience. It happens
therefore, that development thinking has its cultural home in the European enlightenment and got
expanded to the rest of the world.

Development can not be conceived of with out a notion of its opposite, whether it be
underdevelopment or non development—many development theories have strong view that the
opposite of development is non development or underdevelopment which is represented as
backwardness, stagnation and , above all, tradition. Tradition-culture in general had not been

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considered as some thing valuable manifestation of human civilization, rather it had been
portrayed as an obstacle or hindrance to human progress or economic development

Development ethics is concerned with the moral status of development. It is a normative and
rational investigation of development discourses and practices. One of the proponent of such
discipline , Denis Goulet has defined development ethics as the study of development on the
value questions as to what is the relation between having goods and being good in the pursuit of
the good life; what are the foundation of a just society; and what stand should society adopt
toward nature. Goulet strongly criticized the growth approach to development which gives
priority to the accumulation of wealth than distribution and betterment of human life. For him,
development was meant to bring happiness and good life to human beings. Yet development as
propounded by modernization theory and Marxists has failed to create a just society.

Another developmental Ethicst , Libert has given a normative meaning of development as

``human ascent in all sphere of life-economic, political, cultural, personal, and spiritual``.

Libert calls for solidarity among societies of the world to bring social ascent. He argued that
underdevelopment is a symptom of world wide crisis in human life and hence it is not the
problem of developing countries themselves. And the solution must be sought through solidarity.

Despite the various debates among scholars, developmental ethics as a new discipline attempt to
answer many questions related to means and ends of development related to`` third world``
countries development problems and issues as: poverty, justice, autonomy, solidarity and the
like. Particularly it address the following questions as: what should count as good development;
how should benefits and burdens of development distributed and who should be responsible to
bring development?

: what do you think is good development? Providing clear cut answer for the question is
difficult. You would say that development by itself is good, irrespective of its consequences. Of
course traditionally the term development used to describe the condition of economic
advancement measured in terms of total production of goods and services. So, in this regard
scoring better GNP/GDP Or per capita might be enough so to say good development. By the

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same token, economic recessions, stagnation or deterioration could be termed as bad. Such
judgment, however, is profoundly caught with fallacy. First and for most, such description
doesn’t tell us the beneficiaries, or otherwise, victims as result of recession or economic boom.

From this perspective, one can conclude that growth is considered as the end by itself. One can
also argue taking the human agency in to account. We can talk of development as good or bad
taking the positive or negative consequences of it.

Economic growth is necessary but insufficient for human development.

 And the quality of growth, not just its quantity, is crucial for human
well-being. Growth can be jobless, rather than job creating; ruthless,
rather than poverty reducing; voiceless, rather than participatory;
rootless, rather than culturally enshrined; and futureless, rather than
environmentally friendly. Growth that is jobless, ruthless, voiceless,
rootless and futureless is not conducive to human development.

What is Environmental Ethics?

Environmental ethics is the discipline in philosophy that studies the moral relationship of human
beings, and also the value and moral status of , the environment and its non human contents.
There are two contending views on environment. These are the anthropocentric view, and bio-
centric views.

The anthropocentric view focuses on the utility and function of the environment to human well-
being. Scholars in this category advised us to use natural resources properly to fulfill t the
existing and future needs and demands of human generation.

In this respect Aristotle maintains that << nature has made all things specifically for the sake of
man…>. The statement clearly indicates the instrumental value of environment to human beings.

The contemporary environmental Ethicists believe that current environmental crisis related to
climate change and its disastrous consequences are happening due to the mismanagement of
natural resources.

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The other contending view is said to be Biocentrism. This perspective endorses a view that all
living things are alike in having value in their own right independently of their usefulness to
others. Scholars in this tradition reject anthropocentrism in that the latter do not value all living
creatures.

In short, anthropocentrism cares for the environment as an instrument for the well-being of
human beings; while biocentrism cares for every living creature and assigned intrinsic values to
them The first view believed to have reflected the tradition of west philosophy where as the
second reflects East religious and philosophical foundation.

Principles of Environmental Ethics

Now a day the issue of environment is not the issues of a particular community only. As the
saying goes on <<When U.S America Sneezes, the world catches cough>>

The problem of climate change is the problem of the world. The ethical principles need to be
seen in light of addressing the global environmental problems. The basic ones are the following:

 Duty for future generation: every economic activity that is being taken in this generation
should not adversely affect the future generation. As you know renewable and non-
renewable resources are getting depleted due to the irresponsible acts of human beings.
It is the duty of human beings to save resources for the future generation. It is the moral
compulsion of the existing generation to care for the forth coming generation.

 The duty to limit over consumption: As the earth’s resources are finite, there should be a
limit in the production and consumption pattern of resources. The consumption style of
lives in industrialized countries and developing countries is not comparable. Data
indicates that the industrialized societies that constituted ¼ of the global population
consume ¾ of the natural resources of the planet earth.

 The right to livable environment: every human being has inherent right to live in an
environment which is free from pollution, subjugation, exploitation. In this regard, article
25 and 26 of the universal Declaration of Human Rights/UDHRs/ proclaims that every
one has the right to standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself

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 and his family. In the similar vain Article 44 of our constitution grants that all persons
have the right to clean and healthy environment.

 The polluter pays principles: This principle hold that those actors who affects the
environment need to pay the cost and value in proportion to the damage. With regard to
climate change regimes, The UN Framework Convention on climate change accepted the
principle of common and differentiated responsibilities. It has been recognized that the
largest share of historical and current global emissions of green house gases has
originated in developed countries. The Framework convention also accepted that the
share of global emissions originating in developing countries will grow to meet their
social and development needs.

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