SOURCE:

Faculty: Social Sciences
Department: Political Science

CONTRIBUTORS:

Davies, E.O.
Egboh, E. A.

ABSTRACT:

A thorough observation of ethics and its compliance by workers in some public organizations, particularly the Civil Service in the Nigerian society, in the past decades reveals a Civil Service bedeviled with several unethical conduct and behavior which has affected its level of efficiency and productivity. These unethical standards manifest in poor attitude to work, organizational irresponsibility, corruption, inefficiency, and low level of productivity. The collapse of ethical and professional standards in the Civil Service has led to crisis in governance, especially in the area of implementation of government policies and programmes. The focus of this study is on the examination of ethics and the adherence by workers in the Nigerian Civil Service organization with interest on Rivers State. Ethical standards have been ranked as one of the cardinal instruments of success of any organization. One of the major objectives of this study is to examine the character of administrative ethics in Rivers State and ultimately come up with useful suggestions on how to ensure compliance with ethical standards so as to improve performance of Civil Servants in River State. Keke’s Pluralist theory, among other theories looked at, was used to couch this study. The study adopted the Taro Yamane’s formula to determine the sample size. The opinions of 300 respondents randomly selected spread across the various Ministries in Rivers State were gathered and it was discovered that there are actually ethical standards- rules and regulations put in place to check the conduct and behaviour of Civil Servants but the problem is with the non- compliance with the Civil Service ethics by Civil Servants. Three (3) hypotheses were tested using the Chi-square Test statistical tool. Finally, this study recommends that every Civil Servant in Rivers State should study the Code of Ethics and abide by them and the prescribed sanctions be meted out for non-compliance and unethical behaviour by organizational members; that work ethics -established rules and regulations of the Civil Service, be properly implemented and enforced by all means, particularly by the Civil Service Commission and other relevant bodies in the State. The Study also recommends that Civil Servants in Rivers State should possess the minimum standard of education at the time of employment.