International Review of

Administrative Sciences
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Accountability, values and the ethical principles of public service: the

views of Finnish legislators
Ari Salminen
International Review of Administrative Sciences 2006; 72; 171
DOI: 10.1177/0020852306064608
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International
Review of
Administrative
Sciences
Accountability, values and the ethical principles of public
service: the views of Finnish legislators
Ari Salminen
Abstract
The subject of this article is public service ethics. In the context of the Finnish
welfare model, the essence of the ethical administrator is analysed by three issues:
accountability, ethical values and ethical principles. In the article, these topics are
mainly discussed through the viewpoints of elected representatives. Finnish legislators were asked their opinions, attitudes and expectations towards these issues.
The empirical material of the study was gathered through a separate survey given
to all Members of Parliament. The article also tries to link the empirical findings to
the current debate of public service ethics research.
Points for practitioners
In the article the topics of public service ethics are discussed through the viewpoints of elected representatives. The material of the study was gathered through
a survey given to all Members of Parliament in the end of 2004.
First, the article is mainly an empirical contribution to the discussion of public
service ethics. The Finnish legislators were asked their opinions, attitudes and
expectations towards three main issues, which were accountability, ethical values
and ethical principles. The main findings are presented in the six tables of the
article. Second, the article is a contribution to the discussion of public administration development and reform. In the Finnish case, there exists the pressure of New
Public Management reforms on the Finnish historical administrative welfare
model. Analysing the essence of ethical administrator, the politicians express their
views on how they see bureaucracy and public servants and what they consider
important in an ethical sense.
Third, more empirical comparisons are needed from the different relationships
between politicians and administrators in Finland and in other countries.
Ari Salminen is Professor in Public Administration, University of Vaasa, Finland.
Copyright 2006 IIAS, SAGE Publications (London, Thousand Oaks, CA and New Delhi)
Vol 72(2):171185 [DOI:10.1177/0020852306064608]

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172 International Review of Administrative Sciences 72(2)

Introduction
In all western countries public sector reforms have increased concerns about the state
of public service values. Traditional public sector values are being reconciled with new
values from the private sector. A stronger focus on economically driven values and
business management methods in the public sector has generated fresh discussion
about the ethical norms in public service. As Hood (1991: 1116) discusses, there
are possible conflicts between administrative values and the limits of New Public
Management. The doctrine should be tested in terms of administrative values (see
also Kernaghan, 2000: 91; Johnson Bagby and Franke, 2001: 623, 6268; Davis,
2003: 214).
Background
Administrative ethics is connected to the nations history. Under the Swedish
regime and the Russian empire for several hundred years, the Finnish administrative
procedures and values were shaped. Finlands administrative system was created
and the foundations for a Finnish public service were laid at the end of the 19th
century.
A constitutionally governed democratic state was created, including a legal tradition and a sense of neutrality and incorruptibility in bureaucracy and strong centralized government. The era of Russian rule can be characterized by a stable and
extensive autocratic bureaucracy, but also by immaturity and corruption.
Finland gained its independence in 1917. During the first decades of the countrys
independence, the legalistic tradition gradually won space in the Finnish political
and administrative system. The relations between society and state were more
carefully defined. At that time the legal profession was strong in the central administration of Finland, and the majority of public service was occupied by lawyers.
When the number of public personnel increased, the proportional share of lawyers
decreased.
The wartime and postwar reconstruction was also a time of extensive administrative effort in Finland. Elements of the values of solidarity and the feelings of togetherness were moved to the value basis of the emerging welfare state of the next few
decades.
Since the late 1950s, the Finnish welfare state has been constructed according
to the ideas of other Nordic countries. Finland became a country with large welfare
sectors, including such values as public interest, equality and reliability. The welfare
programmes were very ambitious. The values of public services were emphasized,
such as collective social security, comprehensiveness and equality in distribution of
income.
The growth and dysfunctions of traditional bureaucracy began to threaten the
welfare state in the 1980s. The administrative culture had partly prevailed using an
administrative-legalistic model. The threat of financial and legitimation crises forced
profound administrative changes and reforms to the welfare model. Gradually, strong
confidence in the model of big government disappeared in Finland.
Since the end of the 1980s, Finland has gone through large efficiency-based
administrative reforms, including managerial reforms, privatization and deregulation.
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Salminen Accountability, values and ethical principles 173

New Public Management has resulted in changes in the public sector. I agree with
Christensen (2003: 175) who states that the tensions in the public sector are now
more obvious.
Although Finland has been one of the least corrupt nations in the corruption
perceptions index of Transparency International for several years, Finnish public
organizations are facing ethical challenges of a different sort. Historically, integrity,
impartiality and loyalty were considered to be the main values. For example, top
public servants are relatively independent but politically loyal in ministries. New values
and principles have arisen since the 1990s, such as customer-orientation, flexibility,
profitability and accountability for results (Glor, 2001: 525. See also Salminen, 1991,
2001; Temmes and Salminen, 1994; Ahonen and Salminen, 1997; Temmes, 1998).
Research problem
This article discusses the picture of the ideal ethical administrator through the
opinions, attitudes and expectations of the Finnish legislators. What are the main
motives for this type of approach?
First, less frequently discussed are such questions as how political decision-makers
see administrative ethics. Rather little empirical research could be found on this topic.
In the context of Colorado state (US), Goss (1996) has studied the importance of
12 public administration values among bureaucrats, elected officials and voters.
Analysing administrative ethics from the legislators points of view, Goss (2003)
reported on the ethical attributes and other normative expectations of Colorado state
legislators and of career civil servants in state government agencies. Ehn et al. (2003:
4401) analysed the different role concepts of public servants. The study, conducted
in the 1970s and again in the 1990s, dealt with the attitudes of members of the
Swedish Parliament.
Second, it is common in the literature on public sector ethics that public servants
themselves tell us about the qualities of an ethical administrator. The empirical findings of this study can be assumed to express a different approach to administrative
ethics. Apart from the fact that more than one-third of Finnish legislators have their
professional background in public sector service, the views of politicians are external,
not internal.
Third, the analysis also reminds us of the formal position of the Parliament. The
legal grounds for public sector ethics are decided by Parliament. The Parliament
supervises the activities of the government and its agencies and exercises legal and
political control over the bureaucracy and public servants.
According to the above mentioned factors, the discussion of this article is limited
to three main ethical themes through the views of elected representatives. These
topics, which also are central issues in administrative ethics, are:

accountability

ethical values and

ethical principles.

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174 International Review of Administrative Sciences 72(2)

Method and data

The empirical material of the study is based on a questionnaire to the members of
the Finnish Parliament. The sample of the survey was 200 persons. A six-page
questionnaire was sent to all members of the Finnish Parliament in September 2004,
and re-sent in October 2004. The forms were carefully completed. The return percentage was satisfactory. Eighty-three complete questionnaires were returned (41.5
percent of respondents).
The questionnaire included both multiple-choice and open-ended questions. The
answers were recorded in a particular statistics program (SPSS). In order to describe
the characteristics of the sample, descriptives (mean, minimum and maximum) and
frequencies were run. The figures in the six tables are rounded to the nearest whole
number. Also, there were 25 responses to the open-ended questions. These unstructured responses were mostly opinions or supplementary notes to the basic patterns
of the questions. Fifteen of them are reported below.
Fifty-one respondents were male, 27 female and five preferred not to express
their gender. The largest age group was those between 40 and 59 (67 percent). The
Parliament consists of 200 elected representatives, of which 124 are male and 76
female. Almost 70 percent of the Members of Parliament are over 45. Of the seven
political parties in the Finnish Parliament (Eduskunta), the centre party, social democrats and conservatives have the largest representation. The electoral period of the
Parliament is four years (20037).
For gathering opinions, attitudes and expectations in a particular situation, the
survey technique is a common tool in administrative ethics research. How valid are
the received answers and the explanations based on the questionnaire? As I see it,
the homogeneity of respondents leads to sufficient validity. However, questions
such as those included in Tables 3 and 4, which were more open to interpretation,
resulted in wider responses, and might lessen validity to some degree.
The survey technique has its limitations, too. Although the sample mirrors the
broader population, the statistical generalizability may be limited. The Finnish respondents represent the aspirations and the values of the people in a qualitative sense.
Those who are elected clearly express the sets of values and also the inner contradictions of the people in miniature (Frederickson and Walling, 2001: 401, 54;
Virtanen, 2001: 86; Pole and Lampard, 2002: 67).
The legislators are not statistically the average of the people. The collected
responses represent the views of the present Finnish Parliament. As far as the
position of power between the leading political parties is concerned, the composition
of Parliament has been relatively stable. Consequently, the survey does not remain a
mere snapshot in time.
One should note that two separate surveys are reported in Table 3. The table is a
comparison of the core values as reported by the survey of Finnish Civil Service ethics
and the empirical results of the survey. The civil service survey was implemented
in 170 governmental agencies in 2000 (Ministry of Finance, 2002). Because public
servants are the respondents of the questionnaire, the findings are more or less
internal.

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Salminen Accountability, values and ethical principles 175

Accountability
The first issue of the study is accountability, which is a very ambiguous concept. By
asking about the sources of public service accountability and the contents of responsibility in the survey, the empirical analysis remains rather limited. However, a slight
difference between accountability and responsibility is made in Tables 1 and 2.
Drewry (2002: 437) underlines that accountability and responsibility include
matters that deal with the interrelationships between officials and politicians,
between executive and legislative bodies and between politicians and the electorate.
I agree with Gregory and Hicks (1999: 7) that accountability and responsibility are not
synonymous terms; rather, they are complementary ideas. As described later in the
article, different accountable agents have been separated from each other. By asking
the question: Accountable to what/whom? different criteria to which public servants
are accountable are being referred to (see Haque, 2000: 6009).
According to Pollitt (2003: 89, 934), public managers find themselves working in
partnerships or contractual relationships where different parties are accountable for
different aspects of a joint activity (multiple accountors). Political accountability is
accountability to elected representatives, clientele and other agencies. Thomas (2003:
552) listed some dichotomies. Top-down bureaucratic accountability refers to administrators answerability to politicians, bottom-up bureaucratic accountability refers to
answerability to citizens, and customer accountability refers to answerability to clients
and customers.
The accountability to citizens or customers is interesting in the light of administrative reforms. If customer accountability increases, political accountability may
decrease (Jensen, 1998: 63). Contracting out, the enterprise model, free choice in
public health care or schools, and the empowerment of individuals as users make the
customers role much stronger than before. Jrgensen et al. (1998: 514) revealed that
Danish public organizations seek to achieve legitimacy through the satisfaction of
the user. The state (political responsibility) shifts to a relatively humble position. As
shown below, the results of this study do not support this kind of pattern. As far as
legislators are concerned, citizenship seems to come first.
Accountable to whom?
In the survey, members of the Finnish Parliament were asked to express their opinions on the question of to what or to whom a public administrator should be
accountable.1 They were asked to choose the three most important sources of
accountability.
The questionnaire form covered eight sources of public service accountability. The
results as percentage shares are presented in Table 1. Since the alternatives were not
defined very carefully, the respondents gave the answers according to their own
interpretations. For instance, citizens and customers might be overlapping alternatives to some degree. In which sense business life was understood as an alternative,
remains a little bit unclear here. However, new contract-based governance and
publicprivate partnerships challenge the accountability of public organizations and
public servants meet more instruments for accountability from the private sector.
According to the survey, public servants should primarily be accountable to
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176 International Review of Administrative Sciences 72(2)

Table 1 Accountability: the views of Finnish legislators (N = 83)
Public servants should be
primarily accountable to
Citizens
Legislators
His/her own agency
State government
Customers
The judicial system
Business life
Other
Total

As % shares
23
23
21
13
11
8
0
1
100

citizens, legislators and to their own agency or institution. The next important
accountees were the state government and public sector clientele. The alternative
other yielded two replies: Conscience and Common sense. What is remarkable
about these findings is that of the eight choices, business life as an alternative was
excluded. It did not gain any support from the Members of Parliament.
There were no differences in responses between the respondents different age
groups. With regard to gender, some differences could be seen: male respondents
regarded citizens as the most important accountees, then legislators, their own
agency and customers. For female respondents, the most important accountee was
legislators or their own agency, then the government of the state, and citizens ranked
fourth.
Responsibility
As far as accountability is understood in terms of responsibility, it is a central duty for
officials. All individuals and organizations in society who exercise power over citizens
have a duty to account for the proper exercise of that power. Administrators should
carry out the orders of their superiors and the policies of their agencies and the
government they serve. The public servant is seen as a moral agent capable of
transcending particular interests in pursuit of the larger social good (Thompson,
1985: 80; Bowman, 2000: 6747; Kernaghan, 2000: 97).
Accountability also means the controllability or answerability of public officials,
whereas responsibility addresses their obligations and trustworthiness. The particular
duties of public servants are also emphasized. Particular duties are based on an ethics
of professional judgement and personal responsibility. Instead of just acting according to rules, more discretion and flexibility are needed in public service ethics (Gregory
and Hicks, 1999: 3; Bailey, 1964: 65; Brady, 2003: 5301).
Table 2 reports the Finnish respondents opinions about the ethical duties and
obligations of public servants according to 11 statements. Show respect towards
other persons and act as an advocate to citizens emphasize partially new and
particularly important elements of the characteristics of public servants. Evaluations of
the feature avoid conflicts of interest were mostly varied. Even though the majority
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Salminen Accountability, values and ethical principles 177

Table 2 Ethical duties of public servants: the views of the Finnish legislators (N = 83)
Majority fully agree

Majority agree to some extent

Be trustworthy
Show respect towards other
persons
Be autonomous
Be dutiful
Act as an advocate to citizens

Act independently
Show tolerance
Apply discretion
Act without delay
Be systematic
Avoid conflicts of interest

Note: The scale of answers in the questionnaire included fully agree (1), agree to some extent (2),
neither agree nor disagree (3), disagree to some extent (4) and fully disagree (5). The majority of
the answers were divided into two groups (majority fully agree and majority agree to some
extent).

agreed that public administrators should avoid conflicts of interest, one-fifth of the
respondents disagreed to some extent or fully with the statement.
In addition to the above, trust is also a crucial question in other public administration analyses. As a result of political changes in the governments of the Nordic
countries, public servants do not change automatically. This explains the mutual trust
and close relations which exist between political leaders and administrative leaders
(Christensen et al., 2002: 12). Citizens trust in different Finnish public organizations
was investigated by Harisalo and Stenvall (2001: 74). Among 14 institutions, the
highest figures were given to the police, armed forces and (electronic) mass media.
Among the 800 respondents, the least trust was shown to ministries, to big companies and to the European Union.

Ethical values
The second topic of the study, ethical values, is illustrated in the following tables.
Table 3 is a comparison of ethical values and in Table 4 the choice between values is
described.
Ethical values vary from the individual to society level and then to global values. At
the national level, frequently mentioned values are democracy and citizen participation, the service principle, change and innovation, openness and trust and responsibility. Considering the functioning of public administration, ethical codes are also
included in the administrative procedure acts.
Top values
The results of two separate surveys are presented in Table 3. The top values in the
hierarchy defined later are legality (compliance with laws and regulations),
expertise (competence, high-level knowledge, experience), service orientation
(being a public servant, respect for and helping of citizens), trustworthiness (reliable,
confident) and impartiality (independent, free from outside influence).
The lists of values differ from each other. Some differences are difficult to explain.
Service orientation is valued much higher among the public servants than in the eyes
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178 International Review of Administrative Sciences 72(2)

Table 3 Ethical values of Finnish public administration
A survey of Finnish civil service ethics
N = 647

A survey for Finnish legislators

N = 83

Legality
Service orientation
Expertise
Impartiality
Justice
Openness
Results orientation
Integrity

Expertise
Trustworthiness
Impartiality
Responsibility
Equality
Service orientation
Openness
Efficiency

of the legislators. Comparable results were found with the values of trustworthiness
and integrity. The similarities of the responses should be partly explained by the fact
that the professional background of many legislators is in the public sector.
Emphasizing the importance of the value expertise, two separate comments
were presented in the open-ended responses of the Parliament questionnaire:
Public servants should have actual knowledge of scientific research.
The need to improve him/herself with a continuous updating of know-how.

Impartiality and equality are ranked highly by the legislators. In a broader sense, the
problem is largely discussed by asking whether equality or impartiality lead to fairness
or to fair treatment. As Cooper (2004: 4023) states, societies have become increasingly diverse. Equality is not the only solution to fairness. The ethical problem is that
differentiated needs and preferences result in the need to treat citizens differently.
Of the value impartiality, the Finnish parliamentarians presented several comments in the survey, as shown below. These comments here represent more individual or even occasional expressions of opinion than exact considerations about the
ethical issue concerned.
In the separation of powers, problems exist between administrators and elected
officials.
Some public administrators see themselves in the role of politicians.
If only one of several alternatives is presented for decision-making, objectivity may be
endangered.
Political decisions are centred on power and ideology. These should be clearly
brought out as signs of good ethics.
In order to strive for an ethics of neutrality, one must ask whose neutrality it really is!

Choice between values

The members of the Finnish Parliament also compared values and principles with each
other to give their opinions on the importance of the values in Table 4. The value
groups were later defined and divided into mainly traditional bureaucratic and postbureaucratic values. Because post-bureaucratic values are influenced by private sector
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Salminen Accountability, values and ethical principles 179

Table 4 Choice between bureaucratic and post-bureaucratic values: the views of the
Finnish legislators (N = 83)
Favour bureaucratic
value, such as

Favour post-bureaucratic
value, such as

Status quo
17%
Predictability
9%
Objectivity
34%
Independent action
4%
Impartiality
35%
Process orientation
31%

Change orientation
20%
Creativity
26%
Compassion
41%
Collective action
16%
Social consciousness
38%
Results orientation
39%

Favour both
values equally

Total

63%

100%

65%

100%

25%

100%

80%

100%

27%

100%

30%

100%

Note: In the questionnaire form the five statements to choose from were the following: 1 = A
public servant should act wholly according to the value/principle A; 2 = Value/principle A should
have more influence on the work than B; 3 = Both the values/principles should interact equally;
4 = Value/principle B should have more influence on the work than A; and 5 = A public servant
should act wholly according to value/principle B. Afterwards the A-values were defined to have
bureaucratic tendencies and B-values post-bureaucratic connotations.

thinking and practice, there are frequent tensions between old and new values.
Concerns have been expressed due to the ethical consequences of an increased
application of business values to the public sector (Kernaghan, 2000: 92, 968).
Briefly defined in this study, bureaucratic values include: (1) status quo orientation
(avoiding risks and mistakes); (2) predictability (constancy in decision-making);
(3) objectivity (lack of emotion, separation from own feelings); (4) independent action
(little consultation or cooperation); (5) impartiality (not favouring anybody) and
(6) process-orientation (accountability for process and procedures).
Post-bureaucratic values include: (1) change orientation (innovation, risk taking
and continuous improvement); (2) creativity (ability to innovate, go beyond rules and
procedures); (3) compassion (caring and feelings of sensitivity); (4) collective action
(consultation and coordination); (5) social consciousness (being aware of social
inequities) and (6) results orientation (accountability for results).
Table 4 clearly shows that there are some values which the legislators favour, such
as compassion, social consciousness and results orientation. However, attention
should be paid to what was obviously a difficult choice as very high figures for both
values were also chosen. The pairs of values which interact were status quo or
change orientation, predictability or creativity and independent action or collective
action.
In the survey, change orientation was among the ethical values often commented upon in the open-ended responses. Several reactions from the legislators are as
follows:
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180 International Review of Administrative Sciences 72(2)

If lawmaking is assumed to lead to unreasonable and inappropriate consequences,
administrators should be obliged to change the situation.
Resistance to change is preventing development.
Avoidance of mistakes and a fear of risks may lead to inability to react or to make
decisions.

The change from process orientation to results orientation is also considered an

issue of accountability in public administration. As shown in Table 4, 30 percent of the
respondents thought both principles should interact in a public administrators work,
31 percent preferred process orientation to results orientation and 39 percent were
of the opposite opinion. Nevertheless, Table 5 shows that the rule of law and due
process was supported very strongly as an ethical principle. It is much the same as
process orientation as a bureaucratic value.
Impartiality and social consciousness
In addition to the above, the difficulty of choosing between impartiality and social
consciousness was raised in the legislators open-ended responses. They expressed
their feelings in a few comments:
If cuts and savings are implemented, who is in charge: the government (public
interest) or ordinary people (individual interests)?
Administrators should judge single cases in a humane, but fair and equal way.
The social situation of people has been taken into consideration by good
administrators. Still, treatment should not be allowed against the law and regulations.

In Table 3, impartiality was ranked as the third most important value. On the contrary, in Table 5, protection of the vulnerable segments of society (which is near to
social consciousness) also received strong support from the Finnish respondents.
Impartiality and social consciousness are discussed in other contexts as well.
Contrary to the value of impartiality frequently emphasized in Finland and other
Nordic countries, Denhardt (1989: 190) suggests that administrators must work within the political system, using skills in political judgement, persuasion and compromise
to achieve democratic ideals and standards. Public administrators can be involved in
politics and they should be involved, because that is the only effective way to pursue
democratic ideals.
As a key to understanding the Scandinavian social consciousness, Hatton (2001:
2712) refers to two famous Danish philosophers (Grundtvig and Kierkegaard).
Grundtvig emphasized the importance of interaction between the actors when helping people in their development. According to Kierkegaard, helping others can only
succeed if it is based on dialogue, and on equality and respect for the experience
which the person who needs help has of the world. The promotion of social solidarity
as a means of tackling social inequality often means denying difference.

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Salminen Accountability, values and ethical principles 181

Ethical principles
As a final topic, ethical principles are described by the attributes of good governance
and the public servants work. Public servants act in different roles. As Ehn et al. (2003:
4389) describe, a judicial civil servant is impartial and neutral. Loyalty is directed
towards the legal system. For a political civil servant, public administration is principally
a tool to execute the needs and wishes of the public. Flexibility and activism are
important features. A market-oriented civil servant is guided by market standards.
Freedom of action is important and a central value is efficiency.
Attributes of good governance
The Finnish Members of Parliament were asked to choose the four most important
good governance attributes from a list. They estimated the significance of these
ethical principles. The legislators gave very strong support to the three ethical principles of public servants, namely integrity and honesty, respect for human dignity and
the rule of law and due process (Table 5).
Table 5 Ethical principles of public servants: the views of Finnish legislators (N = 83)
Very strong support

Strong support

Integrity and honesty

Respect for human dignity
The rule of law and due process
Defence of civil rights

Protection of the vulnerable

segments of society
Tolerance for diversity
Protection of nature

Note: Alternatives for responses were: 1 = very important, 2 = quite important, and 3 = less important. Corresponding codes (13) to the alternatives were given during the data recording phase. As
most of the respondents considered principles either very or quite important (answers differing
from 1.06 to 1.80), the answers were classified into two categories to clarify the situation.
Very strong support implies the average value of the responses of 1.001.40 and strong support
average values of 1.411.80.

Nonetheless, it can be seen that though softer values (for instance, tolerance
for diversity) are important, they are not regarded as the most relevant or guiding
principles of the public service. As far as role differentiation by Ehn et al. is concerned,
the rule of law and due process and legality in Table 3 refer clearly to the role of the
judicial public servant; whereas respect for human dignity, service orientation and
results orientation in Tables 3 and 4 mainly suggest other roles.
Work values and principles
The Members of Parliament also estimated the significance of some of the essential
values of public servants work. Cooper (2004: 398) underlines that without the
courage of convictions, all moral and ethical considerations of situations, principles
and obligations will probably fail. Ethical principles and talk have no meaning without
the strength of character to put them into practice and behave according to accepted
values. For the professional work of Finnish civil servants, the crucial values are traditional democratic values, new public service values, human rights values and values

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182 International Review of Administrative Sciences 72(2)

Table 6 The work of public servants: the views of Finnish legislators (N = 83)
Strong support

Moderate support

Less support

Professional skills
Keeping promises
Autonomy of
decision-making
Ability to cooperate

Competency
Consistency of action
Respecting others
opinions

Communicativeness
Activeness
Initiative

Note: The options of the questionnaire were: 1 = very important, 2 = quite important, and 3 = less
important. Because the majority of the respondents considered all the values/characters very important, to see the differences between the importance of the values, the answers were divided into
three groups: strong support or very important (7795% of the answers), moderate support
(5676% of the answers) and less support (3555% of the answers).

of the environment (Tiihonen, 2004: 248). Virtanen (2000: 333, 336) emphasizes that
without ethical competence public managers do not use their political, professional
or task competence in the right ways.
Therefore, the results in Table 6 are not unexpected. The clear message is that
legislators expect that public servants have the necessary professional skills to do
their work. Public servants are also expected to keep their promises. As independent
decision-makers and collaborators, they are highly valued in the eyes of legislators. It
is surprising that such values recently gaining appreciation in working life, such as
communicativeness, activeness and initiative, did not gain any more support
from the legislators. Although the values are very close to each other, autonomy of
decision-making was supported much more than initiative.
It is to be noted that some inconsistencies exist in the previous replies of the
Members of Parliament. The variation in responses is explained by the original setting
of questions in the survey.
In Table 6 the respondents gave only moderate support for the statement
respecting others opinions, whereas in Table 2 the majority fully agreed with show
respect towards other persons as an ethical feature. Correspondingly, in Table 6
ability to cooperate received strong support (77.2 percent in precise figures). The
statement act independently was agreed upon to some extent (53.8 percent in
precise figures) in Table 2. But, by choosing between the values independent action
or collective action in Table 4, the Members of Parliament very much favoured both
values (80 percent in precise figures). In Table 2 the ethical issue show tolerance was
agreed upon only to some extent, but as an ethical principle tolerance for diversity
was given strong support in Table 5.

Conclusion
The subject of this study was public service ethics. Accountability and ethical duties,
priority and choice of values, ethical principles and work of public servants have
been described empirically in the article. The ethical views were gathered from the
members of the Finnish Parliament.

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Salminen Accountability, values and ethical principles 183

On the one hand, the discussion proves that Finnish legislators do not have any
unexpected or exceptional expectations towards public service ethics. Some of the
qualities of the traditional administrative model were tested with the respective
features of New Public Management doctrine particularly in Tables 1, 3 and 4. In
general, both the traditional and the new public service values belong to the qualities
of the ideal ethical administrator. On the other hand, something new and fresh is
emerging in the picture of the Finnish ethical administrator.
It seems that one is not in a position to claim that the traditional view of administrative ethics has come to an end in Finland. However, there are signs that so-called
democratic and commercial expectations towards public servants are gradually
changing the situation. One may easily predict that new managerial reforms will
change the traditional administrative structures in Finnish public administration. At the
same time, politicians look for stronger political control over the public administration,
and citizens have their own expectations and changing values, such as the quality
and flexibility of public services. In special cases, this might endanger the equal and
fair treatment of citizens.
In the eyes of the legislators, an ethical administrator should be accountable to
three constituencies: to citizens, to legislators and to his/her own agency (Table 1). At
a broad level, accountability to citizens will face some changes in the future. Bottomup accountability is challenging top-down accountability. Cut-back management and
contracting out of public services and policies for well-paid customers will all gradually change the value missions of public organizations and public service practices. As
compared to public agencies, public enterprises and public companies are expected
to follow different ethical value paths.
The results of the survey support a kind of value mix for an ethical administrator.
Expertise, trustworthiness and impartiality are among the most important ethical
values. They belong to the traditional public service values and they are typical examples of the democratic values in the public sector. All include commitment to rules
and duties, too (Table 3). Incorruptible behaviour and avoiding abuse of public trust
belong to integrity and trustworthiness. Public servants are not simply professionals
because of their expertise, but also because of adherence to high moral standards.
On the contrary, results orientation and service orientation are typically New
Public Management values. They include expectations about the quality of the action,
performance measurement and goal achievement. It emphasizes values as possible
guiding principles instead of rules and directives (Bowman, 2000: 6767; Kernaghan,
2000: 95). In addition to these, integrity and honesty, respect for human dignity, the
rule of law and due process and defence of civil rights belong to the core principles
in public service ethics (Table 5).
In the search for the ideal ethical administrator, a couple of other elements might
be taken into consideration. First, the Finnish parliamentarians slightly favoured such
values as compassion, social consciousness and results orientation (Table 4). It is
worth noticing that even though impartiality was strongly supported as a common
public service value, in confrontation with the antithetical value of social consciousness, the results were not so clear. Secondly, compassion is a typical value for Finland
as a Nordic welfare state. Compassion can be understood as a deep awareness of
the suffering of others coupled with the wish to relieve it. Close to compassion are
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184 International Review of Administrative Sciences 72(2)

such values as empathy, kindness and care, particularly care of vulnerable groups
(cf. Lynch and Lynch, 2002: 475; Svensson and Wood, 2004: 188). Finally, if attributes
of good governance are considered (Table 5), the legislators expectations seemed to
be almost idealistic; the supported ethical principles are extensive and demanding for
public servants.

Note
1 Regarding the patterns of questions about accountability and value choices in the survey, I am
much indebted to Robert P. Goss (2003: 98, 10312). His original idea is followed in the
Finnish survey.

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