Glossary of Ethics Related Terms Part-III

Compassion involves not only understanding but also a desire to help alleviate the suffering of other persons. The emphasis here is on the action. Having compassion for others requires one to put the other person first, imagine what the person is going through and then consider waves that can help people feel better. Compassion is an even better predictor of behaviour. Eg – Compassion is what made Mother Teresa leave her motherland and serve selflessly in Kolkata. (Calling ambulance and admitting victim of road accident in Hospital)

Tolerance refers to a permissive attitude towards those whose opinions practices, race, religion, nationality etc differ from one’s own. In simple words, tolerance is an act or capacity to endure the diversity of views and practices in our environment.

Integrity is adopting similar principles or standards in similar situations across time and concerned parties.  It means unity, coherence, a state of undividedness, non-selectiveness and a non-negotiable state of values.

Dedication to public service is the highest form of commitment. Dedication is a commitment with passion, love and perseverance.  Commitment sometimes suggests that one is bound or obligated because he/she has made a pledge or a promise through a formal agreement.

Impartiality is unbiased behaviour. Decisions are taken on objective criteria rather than any bias or prejudice

Biasness is the inclination of some at the cost of others.

Partiality is the result of bias attitude. Partiality is behaviour and biases are attitudes.

Prejudice is being pre-judgemental.

Non-Partisanship: Not taking any active participation in the politics of the day. There might be changes in political leadership, but the civil servant will be unfailingly offering technical advice to the political master keeping himself aloof from the politics of the day. Political partiality is passive in nature while political partisanship is active in nature. Partiality does not automatically lead to partisan behaviour.

Civil Services Neutrality: Neutrality means that a civil servant will remain politically impartial and non-partisan throughout his career. Neutrality means a kind of political sterilization i.e, bureaucracy remains unaffected by the changes in the flow of politics.

Accountability means making public officials answerable for their behaviour and responses to the entity from which they derive their authority. Holders of public office are accountable for their decisions and actions and must submit themselves to the scrutiny necessary to ensure this. Accountability also means establishing criteria to measure the performance of public officials, as well as oversight mechanisms to ensure that standards are met.

Answerability: It means one is legally bound to give answers concerning his commissions, and omissions.

Enforceability: It means the respective civil servant is liable to be punished according to the law if he is found to be guilty of discharging his official duties.

Grievance redressal: It means the aggrieved person should have a sufficient institutional mechanism to be heard and resolve his grievances.

Responsibility: It means accountability to oneself, i.e. when the accountability turns inward. It is a moral concept, where a person feels answerable to oneself for all his actions, even if it is not covered by any law. It is more enduring than accountability, because it is based on ethical reasoning, and the person would always do the right thing, even if nobody is there to watch his action, as he holds himself answerable to himself. Here the person takes ownership of one’s actions and decisions.

Feeling: It denotes a partly mental, partly physical response marked by pleasure, pain, attraction, or repulsion; it may suggest the mere existence of a response but imply nothing about its nature or intensity of it. Feelings are influenced by our perception of the situation, which is why the same emotion can trigger different feelings among people experiencing it.

Mood: A mood can be described as a temporary emotional state. Sometimes moods are caused by clear reasons—you might feel everything is going your way this week, so you’re in a happy mood. But in many cases, it can be difficult to identify the specific cause of a mood. For example, you might find yourself feeling gloomy for several days without any clear, identifiable reason.

Affection: This applies to feelings that are also inclinations or likings. a memoir of a childhood filled with affection for her family. Love affections.

Sentiment: Often implies an emotion inspired by an idea. feminist sentiments, sentiments of conservatives.

Passion: Suggests a very powerful or controlling emotion. Passion of aspirants.

Intelligence is defined as the capacity of an individual to think rationally, act purposefully and deal effectively with his environment.

Emotional intelligence refers to ‘the ability to identify, understand, and manage emotions of oneself and that of others.