Etikos valdymas Lietuvos valstybės tarnyboje ; Ethics management in Lithuanian state service

Abstract

In order to induce state servants to follow the established standards of ethics, to guarantee their ethical behavior in professional activity, to prevent the emergence of ethical problems and their spread in state service, managerial perspective is necessary, i.e. ethics management, which helps to achieve higher standards of behavior, to raise the level of professionalism of civil servants, to increase public confidence in the government and its institutions, to form positive image of state service. The work elaborates on the problems of ethics management and its improvement opportunities in Lithuanian state service. The aim of the work is to analyze the spread of ethics management measures and their realization in Lithuanian state service. The following objectives were set to achieve the aim: to define the concept of ethics in the context of scientific discussions by revealing its significance in the state service; to list ethics management measures that contribute to the guarantee of observance of established ethical standards in the state service; to evaluate ethics management institutional and legitimate infrastructure in Lithuanian state service; to reveal ethics management improvement opportunities in Lithuanian state service. Methods used in the work are: analysis of scientific literature, legal acts and documents, qualitative research – semi-structured interview. The research revealed that ethics in Lithuanian state service is guaranteed by legal regulation, institutional supervision, and initial training of state servants. However, these are not sufficiently effective measures to guarantee the observance of ethical standards in the professional activity of state servants. In order to avoid possible ethical problems and to guarantee efficiently functioning state service, periodical, purposeful and expedient ethical training of state servants is necessary. Moreover, ethics infrastructure must be created and implemented not only at the level of the state, but also at the institutional level, regarding ethical issues that are relevant for a specific institution.