Now, we briefly summarize the aspects which reflect goodness of character. The first aspect is to move one’s mental focus away from self-interest, self-absorption and the pull towards one’s own thought. Care and concern for others require that one should in the first instance think of others than of oneself. Another aspect of good character is concern and care for the welfare of others. The cultivation of the habit of thinking about others and the natural world, by shifting attention from oneself, promotes good character. One may care about others and nature in a detached way or with personal commitment. Either way this is helpful though personal exertions are expected of public servants in many situations.
Social skills in the sense of effective interpersonal interactions are not sufficient for public servants. Their essence consists in empathy and love. They signify acts which voluntarily and intentionally helpothers. Empathy is a qualitywhich underlies altruisticsocial qualities.Empathy is the abilityto psychologically and cognitively place oneself in another person’s position. It enables us to see the situation as that person sees it. This creates sensitivity to the problems and predicaments of others. Thereby, public servants are led to proactively assist the people in trouble. This is an important expectation from public servants. Those who fail to show this quality are generally accused of callousness and apathy towards the problems of people.
Universal benevolence or simply love for mankind, as we saw earlier, is an important component of good character. Good character requires an integration of emotions and reason. It is what makes publicservantstake a sympathetic attitude in their dealings withthepublic,especiallythe weak and the vulnerable.
We now turn to the question–why is it necessary for public servants to have a high moral character? Although the answer may appear fairly obvious, we need to elaborate it briefly. Public service is about pursuing common good. Any such enterprise naturally presupposes a genuine feeling and concern for others. As we have seen, this is a main ingredient of good character. The decisions which public functionaries take often affect common people. Hence, it is not enough for government servants to possess intellectual and analytical skills. They have to be sensitive to the ways in which their decisions affect the welfare of ordinary people.
Public servants at senior levels should have a sense of connectedness to others who are affected by public policy decisions. They need empathy and the ability to see things from multiple perspectives. They have to imagine how the others think and feel in a situation or how they view the world in
general. This ability to enter psychologically into the minds of others is another aspect of good character.
Goodcharacterincludesintegritywhich is necessaryfor generating publictrust.Integritycanbe defined as consistent action arising from a well ordered set of commitments and beliefs, and is the foundation for public trust. Trust is the tendency to depend on and show confidence in the actions of others. As so much of public action involves cooperation and collaboration, trust is a necessary part of public service. And since character is an integral part of self, it is often hard to separate the public persona and the private persona of a government servant. Of course, the modern practice is to separate an individual’s personal life from his official life.