Ethics and Human Interface, Attitude and Emotional Intelligence

Essence of ethics

• Ethics is the study of right and wrong conduct. Morality is a person's or society's set of beliefs about right and wrong. Law is the minimum ethics that the state enforces; ethics goes beyond law.
• Determinants of ethical behaviour: family, religion, culture, education, law, peer group, the media, and personal conscience.
• Consequences of ethical behaviour: trust, social harmony and good governance. Unethical behaviour leads to corruption, loss of legitimacy and inefficiency.
• Dimensions of ethics:
  • meta-ethics: what "good" means;
  • normative ethics: what we ought to do;
  • applied ethics: business, medical, environmental and public administration ethics.
• Private and public relationships: in public life, roles require impartiality. In private life, partiality to family is natural. Conflicts arise in nepotism and conflict-of-interest cases.

Major ethical theories

Theory	Key idea	Thinkers
Utilitarianism (consequentialism)	Greatest happiness of the greatest number	Bentham, J. S. Mill
Deontology	Duty and intention; categorical imperative	Kant
Virtue ethics	Character; the golden mean	Aristotle
Social contract	Morality from agreement	Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Rawls (veil of ignorance, difference principle)
Care ethics	Relationships and empathy	Carol Gilligan
Indian	Dharma, karma, ahimsa, nishkama karma	Gita, Buddha, Mahavira, Gandhi

Human values and their sources

• Core values: honesty, integrity, compassion, justice, responsibility, respect and courage.
• Where they come from:
  • Family: first socialisation, role models.
  • Society: norms, community and religion.
  • Educational institutions: value education, teachers and co-curricular activities.
• Lessons from leaders:
  • Gandhi: truth, non-violence, the talisman, trusteeship.
  • Ambedkar: social justice, constitutional morality.
  • Vivekananda: service of humanity.
  • Sardar Patel: integrity and the "steel frame".
  • Lal Bahadur Shastri: simplicity and accountability (resigned after a rail accident in 1956).
  • Administrators: T. N. Seshan (electoral reforms), E. Sreedharan (Delhi Metro), Armstrong Pame ("miracle man", built a 100 km road with people's help).
  • Bihar and Jharkhand examples: Jayaprakash Narayan (public integrity) and Birsa Munda (justice for tribals).

Attitude

• ABC model:
  • Affective: feeling;
  • Behavioural: action tendency;
  • Cognitive: belief.
• Functions: knowledge, utilitarian (adjustive), ego-defensive and value-expressive (Katz).
• Moral attitudes concern right and wrong. Political attitudes concern ideology and the role of the state.
• Attitude and behaviour: the link is not always strong. The theory of planned behaviour (Ajzen) adds social norms and perceived control.
• Social influence:
  • conformity (Asch);
  • obedience (Milgram);
  • compliance.
• Persuasion:
  • The source must be credible and attractive.
  • The message can be one-sided or two-sided.
  • The audience matters.
  • Examples: Swachh Bharat and Beti Bachao used celebrities and nudges.
• Cognitive dissonance (Festinger) explains why attitudes change.

Aptitude and foundational values for civil service

• Aptitude is the ability to learn and do a job well. Attitude is the disposition with which it is done. Civil servants need both.
• Foundational values:
  • integrity;
  • impartiality and non-partisanship;
  • objectivity;
  • dedication to public service;
  • empathy, tolerance and compassion towards the weaker sections.
• The Nolan Committee (UK, 1995) listed seven principles: selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty and leadership.

Emotional intelligence

• EI is the ability to perceive, understand and manage emotions in oneself and others. The idea comes from Salovey and Mayer (1990) and was popularised by Goleman (1995).
• Goleman's five components:
  1. self-awareness;
  2. self-regulation;
  3. motivation;
  4. empathy;
  5. social skills.
• Use in administration:
  • handling crowds and protests calmly;
  • leading teams;
  • negotiating with stakeholders;
  • avoiding burnout;
  • empathetic service delivery (for example, at disaster relief camps).

Moral thinkers

• Indian:
  • Buddha: the Middle Path and compassion.
  • Mahavira: ahimsa and anekantavada.
  • Kautilya: "in the happiness of his subjects lies the king's happiness"; also warned about corrupt officials.
  • Thiruvalluvar.
  • Gandhi: ends and means are inseparable; Sarvodaya; seven social sins.
  • Ambedkar: constitutional morality.
  • Tagore: universal humanism.
• Western:
  • Socrates: "the unexamined life is not worth living".
  • Plato: the philosopher-king, four virtues.
  • Aristotle: the golden mean.
  • Kant.
  • Mill.
  • Rawls: justice as fairness.
  • Machiavelli: realism.
  • Confucius: ren, harmony.

Exam tip: GS IV marks come from examples. For each concept, keep one real Indian example and one short quote ready. Case studies use the same ideas. See the next unit for probity and case-study method.