MODERN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

The Concept of Ethical Obligation

7/28/2013

The Concept of Ethical Obligations
In the CIA it requires its employee’s to take random and unannounced polygraph tests to make sure that they have not committed any crimes recently. In doing so this is one way that the CIA ensures honesty within its agency. In 1992, George Tenet combined Bill Clinton as a director for intelligence issues. By 1995, he moved up to the CIA and became deputy to DCI John Deuth. In 1997, George Tenet was sworn in as the Director of Central Intelligence. In this paper, I will discuss: Four cross-coded ethical dilemmas facing former CIA George Tenet, analyze four ways in which Tenet addressed the prioritization of ethical concerns, identify and explain four strategies used in competing ethical obligations to the many intergovernmental organizations that overlapped his office, and elaborate on four relevant notions for designing ethical maps for defining and prioritizing ethical obligations.
Cross-Coded Ethical Dilemmas Facing Former CIA George Tenet
George Tenet knew and understood the he had a huge responsibility. He was going in to manage a large, complex government bureaucracy which would not only be different, but would be challenging enough even to the most talented and energetic leader (Stillman, 2010). Tenet had no idea that he would play a major role in the elimination of the DCI and the end of the CIA as the worlds most powerful and respected intelligence agency (Stillman, 2010). “A strong case can be made that the three roles in which I served were too much for any one person”, stated Tenet (Stillman, 2010). On May 5th, 1998, Tenet gave a speech to Agency employees who had gathered in the headquarters auditorium. He noted that the Agency had suffered inconsistent leadership since the Soviet Union. At that time, the CIA had just passed its 50th Anniversary, with him being the 5th DCI in seven years, the agency would be lucky to make it to see its 60th year ( Powell, 2003). “He took over an agency whose morale sagged badly” stated White Jr. It had lost over 20 percent of its employees since the year 1991, some being the agency’s best people including experienced case officers (Stillman, 2010). When Tenet took over, he faced an agency whose morale was at the lowest, the budget was a mess because of the lack of control and central accounting of funds spent (White, 2008). Tenet was also undertook issues of technology at the time which was crucial for the agency to have. That same technology, which was utilized to compete and triumph during the Cold War, had lost its edge. The issue then was that the agency had not kept up with any of the break-through in the private industry in communications technology, supercomputing and satellite surveillance (White, 2008). To make matters worse, recruiting was at a stall. He had to focus on the recruiting, better training, increase in funding, as well as come up with a better execution of intelligence collection and analysis (White, 2008).
Four Ways in Which Tenet Addressed the Prioritization of Ethical Concerns
George Tenet was pronounced by many who knew him as a workaholic, effective and an efficient worker. No matter what position he was given, he took very serious and achieved his job to the best of his ability. When he was first sworn in, and recognized what a mess the CIA was, he looked at it with optimistic views. Right away he started thinking of ways to fix what had been left to go under for years. Tenet had never run for political office, managed a large organization, worked as an intelligence officer, earned academic credentials or served in the military (Stillman, 2010). Nevertheless, he was well liked by for his hard work and Congress confirmed his position. In the CIA website, there is an article that talks about how important ethics and integrity is for employees to poses; Tenet was a person that many felt had the