Blending Formal Rules with Value Based Approaches toward Building Ethical Culture in Tanzania

Abstract

Over the years, Tanzania government has strived towards establishing ethical culture in the public service. One of the methods used by the government since the attainment of its independence is the establishment of proper ethics infrastructure such as formal rules, policies, regulations and structures to guide the behavior of leaders and officials involved in service delivery. These rules guide the officials to refrain from unethical behavior through instruction and specification of what is allowed or not allowed to be done. Nevertheless, the endorsement of formal rules and policies has not adequately changed the behavior of public leaders and public servants. Unethical behavior and corruption is still widespread in the public service particularly in the local government authorities. Overall, the civil servants consider service delivery as a favor and not a duty and that they should get something in return. Building on insights from conventional literature on ethics management, this article argues that the use of formal rules alone can not be a panacea to unethical behavior of civil servants. Instead, the formal rules must be complemented with value based techniques such as ethical training through behavioral modeling on ethical attitudes and behavior.