Recalibrating Public Service: Valuing Engagement, Empathy, Social Equity, and Ethics in Public Administration

Abstract

Public administrators are not neutral actors. Their work occurs in the context of historical and contemporary systemic oppression. Yet, the traditional values that guide the field, efficiency, effectiveness, and economy, are not responsive to this context. This article proposes a recalibrated set of values to support the process and outcomes of public administration to address systemic oppression more sufficiently. Drawing on interviews conducted with American Sign Language interpreters, findings explore the role of engagement, empathy, equity, and ethics in the delivery of public services to the Deaf community. This work includes a call to action for more research on the recalibrated “4Es” and the establishment of a code of professional conduct for the field of public administration.

Keywords:

• Engagement
• social equity
• empathy
• ethics
• Deaf

Acknowledgements

We want to thank the American Sign Language Interpreters who supported this work, including developing our ideas, participating in interviews, and reviewing early drafts. We are grateful for your continued service to the Deaf Community.

Notes

1 Culturally Deaf people, or people who communicate in ASL and primarily socialize with others who use ASL, frequently label themselves as Deaf with a capital D to indicate their sense of community. We use the term Deaf to include all deaf and hard of hearing people, including culturally Deaf people who use ASL, disabled deaf who may not, hard of hearing, late deafened, and DeafBlind individuals. We recognize this a broad and diverse group of individuals who experience a range of physiological experiences and cultural identities connected to their D/deafness. The citation by Taylor (2018) uses data from the American Community Survey (ACS) conducted by the U.S. Census which measures the number of people who indicated they are “deaf or had serious difficulty hearing” (p. 7). This is not intended to be a reflection of our definition of being Deaf.