Chapter 7: Embedding the APS Values and the Code of Conduct
The Values are set out in s.10(1) of the Act. Agency heads must uphold and promote the Values (s.12 of the Act). Their leadership is important in articulating the role of the Values and how they complement their agency’s overall corporate vision and organisational goals. Agency heads must have systems in place to ensure that employees understand and apply the Values. Section 35 of the Act makes it clear that it is part of the role of the SES to promote the Values through personal example.
Chapter 2 of the Commissioner’s Directions provides directions for agency heads and APS employees on each of the Values. The Directions set out the minimum requirements that an agency head must meet in upholding and promoting the Values. Similarly, APS employees are required by law to uphold the Values (s.13 of the Act).
The Values also provide an ethical framework that underpins an agency’s approach to managing risk and developing their own approaches to their business and management environment without centralised prescription. The effectiveness of this approach depends on the successful integration of the Values and the Code into an agency so that the Values are embodied in daily decision-making and behaviour. The Code is examined in more detail later in this chapter and in Chapter 6 ‘Personal Behaviour’.
In 2002–03, the Commission conducted an evaluation of how agencies were embedding the Values and the Code in their processes and practices. This resulted in a good practice guide, Embedding the APS Values.1 The guide identified three elements of importance in successfully integrating the Values into an agency and transforming the Values into daily decision-making and behaviour, namely:
The State of the Service Report 2003–04 examined progress that the APS had made on the matters identified in the good practice guide. This chapter provides an update of that analysis.
1 Australian Public Service Commission, Embedding the APS Values, August 2003, <http://www.apsc.gov.au/values/values.htm>
