Bureaucratic ethics is very similar to organizational and leadership ethics.  It is the ability of management to operate in a moral manner concerning their decisions affecting the populace they serve.

Frederick Taylor, one of the first management consultants in the early 1900's, outlined ethical constraints managers should demonstrate.  He argued managers handled control of the organization, had a duty to create scientific measures of output, train employees, cooperate with employees and divide work among everyone with some equality.  The rules do not by themselves offer enough ethical guidelines for bureaucrats, but are useful in creating a basic understanding of their ethical duties.

Bureaucracy is the business of official duties and shares some ethical guidelines for managers as postured by Taylor.  These include cooperating with citizens and dividing resources equitably.  However, due to the power of bureaucratic being derived from the people some of the ethical responsibility is reversed.  Bureaucrats must follow a standard of responding to citizen concerns.  Rather than train citizens, bureaucrats must communicate decisions that impact the community.

These ethical constraints are not exclusive of the general ethical requirements of the citizen.  There must be a commitment to serve the greater good, be truthful and accept responsibility for their actions.