Here is a set of 21 probable questions forward by Mitra’s IAS – Leading coaching academy for Philosophy and Ethics.

For those appearing for IAS Mains 2015, give this a last minute look. For those preparing at leisure, see if these concepts strike as common sense to you.

Attempt the following

1. Today , building trust in government is a worldwide concern.
2. Develop your own set of core values. Would these provide you with guidance or be a straightjacket on decisions you have to make ? Why ?

3. What is the difference between responsibility and obligation ? Give example where you have experienced the tension between the two ?

4. What is difference between obedience and loyalty ? Are both always virtues ?

5. The “many hands” problem in public offices often makes it difficult to pin point responsibility.

6. Draw on your experience or otherwise of how organizational culture shapes individual behavior.

7. People often argue that it is wrong to use immoral means to serve moral ends. Describe a situation that you experienced or imagine in which immoral means are used to achieve a moral purpose.

8. Free rider issues often confront public managers. Discuss two examples of free rider problems.

9. Why does corruption captures the headlines when it is often the same old story with different actors?

10. Why is leadership so important to developing and maintaining an ethical organizational culture ?

11. “History of mankind is actually history of values.” Critically examine with suitable illustrations.

12. Define by giving suitable examples
I. Ethical competency
II. Ethical illiteracy
III. Work is worship
IV. Inculcation of values
V. Dignity
VI. Intellectual Integrity

13.Knowledge without character is a deadly sin.

14. Is it ethical for a public employee to market the job knowledge and skills he has acquired while on a public payroll?

15. It takes many good deeds to build a good reputation, and only one bad one to lose it .

16. When employees own the culture of their workplace – when they feel responsible for “how things work around here” – they won’t permit wrongdoing.

17. As we practice resolving ethical dilemmas we find ethics to be less than a goal than a pathway , less a destination than a trip , less an inoculation than a process.

18. How emotional competency and attitude helps in taking ethical decision?

19. Narrate one incident in your life when you had displayed leadership quality but you were sufferer and at the same time severely condemned . Also enumerate lessons learnt.

20. Suggest certain measures to encourage ethical behavior at your workplace. What could be challenges and how you would tackle them?

21. Is there any difference between practical solution and ethical solution ? Substantiate with suitable examples .