When worlds collide : a case study of ethics, privatization, and performance in juvenile corrections
By: REINKE, Saundra
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ArticlePublisher: Armonk, NY : M.E.Sharpe, June 2006Subject(s): ethics | juvenile corrections | performance | privatizationPublic Performance & Management Review 29, 4, p. 497-509Abstract: Privatization is typically undertaken in an effort to improve public productivity. Lawther (2004) suggests that public managers face unique ethical challenges in privatization situations. Specifically, he claims that practical considerations and ethical considerations often collide. Effectiveness and efficiency may be the ultimate objectives, but Cooper (1998) advises that administrators are expected to make decisions and explain their behavior based on ethical principles such as "equity, freedom, truthfulness, beneficence, human dignity, privacy, and democracy" (p. 69). This paper is a case study that explores a privatization decision in which these principles collided. In this case, privatization was chosen as the way to improve the performance of the staff in a juvenile correctional facility. The situation pitted the needs of juvenile offenders against due process for employees, in the context of significant administrative discretion. In the end, casualties were extensive, with no winners. Consequently, the facility's inmates, juvenile offenders who have the most severe mental problems in the state, were dispersed to other facilities around the statefacilities that may not have been adequately prepared to handle their unique needs
Privatization is typically undertaken in an effort to improve public productivity. Lawther (2004) suggests that public managers face unique ethical challenges in privatization situations. Specifically, he claims that practical considerations and ethical considerations often collide. Effectiveness and efficiency may be the ultimate objectives, but Cooper (1998) advises that administrators are expected to make decisions and explain their behavior based on ethical principles such as "equity, freedom, truthfulness, beneficence, human dignity, privacy, and democracy" (p. 69). This paper is a case study that explores a privatization decision in which these principles collided. In this case, privatization was chosen as the way to improve the performance of the staff in a juvenile correctional facility. The situation pitted the needs of juvenile offenders against due process for employees, in the context of significant administrative discretion. In the end, casualties were extensive, with no winners. Consequently, the facility's inmates, juvenile offenders who have the most severe mental problems in the state, were dispersed to other facilities around the statefacilities that may not have been adequately prepared to handle their unique needs
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