What is my public service motivation?
As a current administrator within at West Virginia University Andrew thinks about this question often.
“I think that if were I being honest I would tell you that my motivation comes from both the interested and disinterested sides of the isle. Looking at my job within Adventure WV, I have an obligation to the students, staff, and faculty of West Virginia University first and foremost. Secondly, as a land grant institution I have an obligation to create opportunities that hopefully make my community and the state of West Virginia a better place to live, work, raise a family, and recreate. All these things drive my daily activities as a public administrator within West Virginia University. However, this does not mean that I am not also interested in being useful to my department, making sure that I am meeting expectations, working to create beneficial relationships to help accomplish overall goals for the university, and to help favorably position myself within administrative circles to not only keep my authority but to maintain and promote stability for me and my family. When I think about what that last sentence means to me with regards to my ethical approach to administrative practices, I sometimes feel confused by the current state of our country’s political climate. When Madison wrote Federalist 51, I wonder if he envisioned a system where the legislature was promoting self-interest on a national scale by trying to curry political favor with the executive branch. Or to have political parties that spend more time preserving their own party interests over the interests of their constituents back home. I feel as though it is ethical to have both an interested and disinterested approach to public service because we are all human and we seek to obtain basic needs that go deep beneath life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. At the end of the day I want to make sure that I am making a difference in people’s lives and leaving the world a better place and that I can create and uphold ethical virtues for my coworkers and student staff.”
In this section we will see several research articles that deal directly with Andrew’s depth and understanding of the complex ethical structures and systems that come with operating within a public and non-profit organization.