Your urban county government has nearly 10,000 employees who are responsible for streets, sewers, water, solid waste pickup and disposal, and an array of social services such as assisting homeless people and curbing drug abuse. As the head of the county's Division of Training, it is your job to provide a range of training exercises that fits the needs of a diverse workforce. Some training, for example, helps frontline employees deal with angry people. Other training involves following proper procedures when a citizen complains about an employee or a public service.

The county administrator, who recently attended an ethics program conducted by her professional association, returned with a great deal of enthusiasm for establishing a comprehensive ethics training program for all 10,000 county employees. Recognizing that the training division does not have trainers with this expertise but knowing that you have a strong background in this area, she asks you to put into place a "train the trainer" initiative.

You immediately call your staff of six trainers together to discuss the situation. The staff are somewhat uncertain and uneasy about taking on this responsibility. In fact, one of your trainers pipes up and says, "Adults can't be taught ethics. People learn ethics from their mother or father or church or wherever. It's a waste of county time and money to take this on. You should go back to the county administrator and respectfully tell her to forget it."

Discussion Questions

1. How would you respond to your staff member? Would you tell him he's totally off basethat acquiring ethics is a lifelong endeavor?

2. If you and the staff agree with the trainer who spoke up, how would you approach the county administrator? Would you say that the training staff feel strongly that a countywide ethics training program will not be successful? Or, would you tell her that the training staff do not feel that they can teach adults ethics, but will go through the motions anyway?

3. Would you say to the administrator that we could teach compliance with ethics ordinances and state law but nothing more? How would you defend this assertion?