Administrative Courage

01/02/2023

The practice of courage is an important trait for public servants worldwide and a quality and attribute necessary for ethical behaviour in most institutional settings.

In the literature, courage is described as a virtue, with managerial courage being depicted as a leadership attribute that encourages others to take the morally right course of action, given the standards of the various public sector professions.

It is also depicted as one of the ways the managerialists can appeal to and motivate the professions, who often have different ethics and ethical standards to the manager: by way of example, how a generalist manager who has only ever done policy work ensures social workers, teachers, surgeons, practice nurses or intelligence officials don’t compromise the standards of their profession.

The literature also depicts courage as an essential competency of public service leaders. This research notes that most leaders must determine what it means to demonstrate their virtues in action. In this respect the literature on guerrilla government is useful.

This literature speaks to how some institutions are better than others at moderating courageous behaviour so that a lack of courage does not boil over into disengagement and active resistance. The case studies in this literature are illustrative. While they are primarily global north, we see an increasingly tense space between the managerialists and the professions, where baby boomers and Gen X cannot lead and manage the millennials and Gen Z.

Over the next few years, it will be interesting to see how the literature on administrative courage, guerilla government and public service motivation come together via the new Public Service Act. I rather think there will be some unintended consequences.