Why, one might ask, does administrative ethics focus so much on the decision processes of the individual administrator at the expense of collective outcomes? Why is the individual conscience primarily responsible for ethical behavior, when it is political and managerial authority that are responsible for public policy and organizations? The answer is that operationally (theory in use), the central value is the primacy of legitimated authority. This is buttressed by the focus on the utility-maximizing individual as the locus of ethical decision making. In short, the ethical problem is construed as one of individual conformance to legitimate authority as a function of self-interest. The fact-value distinction (Simon, 1976) further separates the individual administrator from substantive judgments by limiting the field of ethical behavior to questions of efficiency and proper or innovative implementation of policy as determined by those who deal in the realm of values (policymakers). In effect, the ethical purview validated by technical rationality relieves, and even prohibits, individual administrators from making substantive value judgments