onflicts of interest, and most include ethical standards governing the dynamics of human relationships.
These are structural codes. A loose definition of a structural code is a set of rules or laws which purport to be obligations and that must be observed by officeholders and public employees under specific jurisdictions. In addition, the connotation also includes the systems of guidance, training, and disclosure which implement these codes. Ethics codes at the federal, state and local governmental levels have become increasingly common primarily because of the "reinventing government" movement. Reinvention, reengineering, right-sizing are all terms that bring hope in some sections of the public administration community while producing fear in others.
Two tangible results of this process are flattening organizations and increasing the span of control for supervision. Generally, these initiatives aspire to strip out midlevel management and empower employees. The previous tendency was to "thicken" government--creating bureaucratic pigeonholes with limited authority and accompanying intense oversight over individuals. Although at first it might appear irrelevant, looking at the historical source of this bureaucratic density provides a mu
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