This study posed a question regarding present day agreement with the constructs of two dominant ethical frameworks found within public administration literature. With an ever increasing number of theories and factors that impact ethical decisions, do students’ opinions still reflect the utilitarian and deontological frameworks found within public administration literature? After defining the Bentham and Kantian schools of thought, an original survey instrument was used to evaluate responses to those ethical frameworks. This exploratory research collected primary data through an original 20 item survey instrument that sought to evaluate opinions regarding preference to the Bentham and Kantian schools of ethical thought. Survey questions were developed in order to investigate relationships between dependent variables relating to demographic characteristics and the independent variables of utilitarian and deontological frameworks.
After expert review, as well as feedback from researchers and a pilot group, a convenience sample of participants enrolled in master’s level courses in the Department of Public Administration and Urban Studies at The University of Akron during the 2009 spring semester yielded 61 complete surveys. Hypothesis testing was used to address differences in group means. While the statements within the instrument provided valid, reliable, statistically significant results, all inferential statistics were inconclusive. A descriptive Pearson’s Correlation (.479) was found to be statistically significant at the .00 level. This implies that higher preferences for deontological scores related to higher preferences for utilitarian scores.
Limitations of the study included a small and cohesive convenience sample of participants. Implications of this sample include in weak statistical power, as well as homogenous responses. Future research would benefit from exploring the preferences of the utilitarian and deontological frameworks with a larger more representative sample.
Whether the public prefers a symbiotic relationship between the utilitarian and deontological frameworks, or procedural issues had an impact on the results, this study’s findings suggest interesting implications for the study of public administration ethics. Regardless of the reasons, replication is needed to determine the validity of the findings.