Integrating Values into Public Service: The Values Statement as Centerpiece

Abstract

The public administration community needs to focus more attention on how values can be integrated into the structures, processes, and systems of public organizations. In particular, greater emphasis should be placed on the values statement as the central component of a values regime. This article examines the content and format of values statements in four Westminster-style governments, initiatives to make values a pervasive influence in public-service operations, and learning points for other countries. Each government's values statement should capture the essence of public service. Leaders must serve as both exemplary models of values-based behavior and skillful practitioners of the art of values management. A values statement expressing values that are shared at all organizational levels-combined with the dispersal of leadership roles throughout the organization-provides an especially strong foundation for integrating values into public service.

Birds of a Feather? The Effect of Organizational Value Congruence on the Relationship Between Ministries and Quangos

“…There is a steadily growing body of empirical research on the ethics and values of public sector organizations and employees in the US and Canada (e.g., Bowman and Connolly Knox, Bowman and Knox, 2008;Goss, 2003;Kernaghan, 2003;Kim, 2001), as well as in different countries in Europe (e.g., Beck Jørgensen and Bozeman, 2007;van den Heuvel et al 2002;Vrangbaek, 2009). What has fueled the recent wave of publications on public values is the assumed influence of businesslike or managerial approaches to government, such as New Public Management (NPM; Hood 1991), and management by measurement (Noordegraaf and Abma, 2003) on traditional public sector values such as 'impartiality,' 'lawfulness,' and 'neutrality' (e.g., Eikenberry and Kluwer 2004;Frederickson, 2005;Kernaghan, 2000Kernaghan, , 2003Lane 2000).…”

“…What has fueled the recent wave of publications on public values is the assumed influence of businesslike or managerial approaches to government, such as New Public Management (NPM; Hood 1991), and management by measurement (Noordegraaf and Abma, 2003) on traditional public sector values such as 'impartiality,' 'lawfulness,' and 'neutrality' (e.g., Eikenberry and Kluwer 2004;Frederickson, 2005;Kernaghan, 2000Kernaghan, , 2003Lane 2000).…”

Differences in Work Values by Gender and Generation: Evidence from Egypt

“…This can be explained by their youth self-motivation incentives as younger junior generations working in the health public sector. They aimed to serve their society and their organizations and act as stewards of the public interest (Kernaghan, 2000(Kernaghan, , 2003Van Wart, 1998) in order to guarantee a better future for them and the coming generations.…”

Identification Of Public Value Dimensions In Pakistan’s Public Sector Organizations

“…Researchers provided different interpretation and operationalization of the concept of PV (Van Wart and Berman, 1999;Kernaghan, 2003;Rutgers, 2008;Steenhuisen, 2009;Nabatchi, 2012). Thus literature lack on common grounds to measure the concept.…”

“…Others conceptualize PVs in terms of "hard" and "soft" values (Steenhuisen, 2009);individual, professional, organizational, legal, and public-interest values (Van Wart, 1998); ethical, democratic, professional, and people values (Kernaghan, 2003); political, legal, organizational, and market values (Nabatchi, 2012).…”