United Nations Public Service Awards Case Studies

The Victorian Government wants its public sector to display the highest ethical standards. By this it means the values and principles that are enshrined in the Public Administration Act 2004 and underpin the relationship public sector employees have with Government, the public and each other. These values and principles include leadership, respect and human rights.

The State Services Authority conducts two surveys each year. One is the Agency Survey that asks public sector employers what they are doing to apply the values and principles in their organisation. The other is the People Matter Survey that asks public sector employees how well they think their employer is applying the values and principles in their organisation. The results of both surveys are presented to the employer and are a good basis on which to make decisions. They show which employment strategies are working and which are not working. They also show which values and principles are well applied and which are not.

The State Services Authority and the Public Sector Standards Commissioner in particular, has a role in promoting the values and principles in the public sector. The Commissioner’s problem was to make the values and principles meaningful to all public sector employees. That meant they had to be equally relevant to employees working in the public service and in public hospitals, higher education and water authorities. They had to be relevant to professional, trade and administrative employees. They had to be relevant to employees working in city and rural settings. The Victorian public sector is very diverse and geographically dispersed. It consists of over 1,000 employers and 250,000 employees. Organisations vary in size from fewer than ten to more than ten thousand employees.

The Commissioner wanted to develop an engaging set of learning and development materials that could be easily customised to different organisations to assist their application of the values and principles.

What is the initiative about? (the solution)
The Ethics Resource Kit has an implementation guide and brochure, facilitator’s guide and workshop materials, two development guides, interactive quiz and a set of posters covering each of the values and principles. All of the materials are on a CD and can be easily updated and customised to different organisations. They are also available in printed form and on the web. The implementation guide explains how to win support for the kit and how its materials can be used to complement other activities being undertaken in the organisation to promote the values and principles. The brochure has tips on how to make ethics an integral part of work. The workshop materials include background reading, a step by step guide to facilitating an ethics workshop, presentation slides and notes, decision making models, social and financial capital tokens and The Right Way. The Right Way follows a similar format to daily broadsheets. This allows us to cover ethics from a variety of interests: news stories, editorials, sports and entertainment. The Right Way also contains the scenarios that are to be discussed in the workshop. The scenarios are humorous but also cover typical ethical dilemmas public sector employees may face at work. The workshop participants are divided into three groups and asked to take on the view of one of the characters in the scenario and to justify their actions to the rest of the participants. This helps them to realise that people can have a different view about the same events and can also find themselves either acting unethically or perceived to be acting unethically. Facilitators may select from any of the 40 scenarios in the kit or use the scenario collection as a basis for developing their own. The development guides take managers and employees through each of the values and principles and asks them to think about what they mean to their organisation and to themselves. The guides can be used to reinforce the messages from the ethics workshops. The publications in the kit have titles like ‘leading the way’, ‘taking the high road’ and ‘the right way’ to emphasize that we each have a choice but also a responsibility to act ethically. The kit has been taken up by organisations throughout the Victorian public sector and also by federal, state and local government organisations and by the private sector. These organisations have been interviewed to find out how useful the kit was to them. The response has been very positive with the kit being described as a valuable resource for making the values and principles meaningful. The results from the People Matter Survey have improved since the release of the kit showing a greater level of employee satisfaction with the application of the values and principles.

Who proposed the solution, who implemented it and who were the stakeholders?
The Public Sector Standards Commissioner, Greg Vines, worked with Dr Attracta Lagan (formerly of KPMG and now Principal of her own company, Managing Values), and ten public sector organisations to develop, test and implement the Ethics Resource Kit. The ten partners were selected as being representative of their sector. They included six public service organisations (Department for Victorian Communities, Department of Human Services, Department of Primary Industries, Department of Sustainability and Environment, Environment Protection Authority, State Library of Victoria), two higher education organisations (Gordon Institute of TAFE and Victoria University), one water authority (Goulburn-Murray Rural Water Authority) and one hospital (West Gippsland Healthcare Group). Fifty-two staff from 27 public sector organisations attended focus group discussions throughout Victoria at the commencement of the project. Two hundred and sixteen staff from 44 public sector organisations attended the 15 preview workshops. Some of these workshops were hosted by professional networks including the Vic Water Training Network, the Victorian Public Health Learning and Development Network, the Victorian Public Service Learning and Development Network and the Victorian TAFE Association Human Resource Network. One of the workshops was held for regulatory bodies with particular expertise in ethics including the Equal Opportunity Commission, Legal Ombudsman, Ombudsman, Privacy Commissioner, Law Reform Commission and the WorkCover Authority. Victoria Police and Southern Rural Water contributed decision making models to the Facilitator’s Guide. The qubeGroup, a private company, developed the interactive quiz and CD ROM for the State Services Authority. One hundred and twenty-seven people from 73 organisations attended the kit’s launch and heard comedian, Bryan Dawe, in the humorous guise of Sir Murray Rivers explain the importance of ethics. His speech complemented those made by Greg Vines, Dr Attracta Lagan and Anne Brooking, a private facilitator using the kit.

Describe how and when the initiative was implemented by answering these questions
a. What were the strategies used to implement the initiative? In no more than 500 words, provide a summary of the main objectives and strategies of the initiative, how they were established and by whom.
The Ethics Resource Kit was based upon three main ideas. Values and principles are only meaningful to us if we can relate them to our every day lives. Our behaviour sets the culture of an organisation more powerfully than any written standards, values or principles. We may sometimes find ourselves in situations where there is no clear answer so we need the skills to assess the available choices and make a decision. We cannot rely upon a book of rules. Stories about typical ethical dilemmas that managers and employees may face at work in different types of organisation were collected from a number of sources including interviews, focus group discussions, complaints and surveys. These became the basis for scenarios in the workshops, development guides and quiz. If the scenarios sounded plausible then employees could relate to them. The workshops are experiential. By taking on the role of decision maker, subject or bystander in a scenario the participants are thinking about the actions and decisions from that character’s perspective. By listening to the other two characters’ perspective they learn that their own actions and decisions may not be viewed the same way. Different people can have a different view of the same events. Participants are encouraged to use a decision making model and to think about which of the values and principles are at risk in a particular scenario. In this way they learn that their behaviour can have a big impact on the culture of their organisation. Everyone has a responsibility to act ethically and to seek guidance when they are unsure of what action to take.

b. What were the key development and implementation steps and the chronology? No more than 500 words
The Ethics Resource Kit has been in development and implementation for over three years. The Commissioner wrote to ten public sector employers inviting them to be involved in developing and implementing the Ethics Resource Kit. The ten employers together represented city and rural organisations in the public service and in the provision of health, education and water services to the Victorian community. They would be our champions in their sector. The Commissioner and KPMG met with each of the ten employers separately and also facilitated a number of focus group discussions. They used the OECD model for describing different ethics regimes to discover a Victorian public sector preference for an integrity and managerial approach to encouraging ethical behaviour. This means that they preferred to give people the skills to make the right decisions rather than make them comply with a set of rules. They also identified the types of ethical risk Victorian public sector managers and employees would be likely to encounter at work and so would be suitable for inclusion in the kit’s scenarios. KPMG researched the best approaches being taken in Australia and internationally to promote ethical behaviour. They also drew upon their work with public sector organisations and findings from the People Matter Survey. The materials were written and professionally presented but not published. The Commissioner and KPMG finetuned the draft materials after conducting a series of preview workshops at which feedback was given. The kit was then published and launched at a special event. The Commissioner personally presented a kit and certificate of appreciation to each of the ten partners. He also spoke about the kit at a number of staff conferences. After the launch the Commissioner gave seed funding to assist public sector employers to implement the kit within their organisation. The assistance included briefings for the senior management team, planning workshops, facilitators’ workshops and ethics workshops. The kit is now an integral part of the Victorian Public Service Graduate Recruitment Scheme induction program. These graduates are competitively selected to the scheme as future public sector leaders. Following the initial release of the kit, it has been enhanced twice. First was to increase the initial 18 scenarios to 40 to give users of the kit greater choice. The second was to include the new human rights value and principle in the workshop, development and quiz scenarios. The kit is published on the State Services Authority website and is also available from the Information Victoria Bookstore. A community of practice has been established to share good implementation ideas. The kit was reviewed 12 months after its initial launch. Response to the kit was very positive.

c. What were the main obstacles encountered? How were they overcome? No more than 500 words
The first obstacle was getting buy-in. This was achieved through partnering with ten Victorian public sector employers. They championed the Ethics Resource Kit amongst their peers and encouraged their staff to be actively involved in its design and implementation. Ethics, values and principles can sometimes seem too conceptual and therefore too far removed from every day life. The kit was written in a practical, engaging and humorous style. The workshops, development guides, brochure and quiz have lots of activities and practical tips to engage staff and make the values and principles meaningful to them. The kit’s design is visually pleasing. Each of the values and principles has an associated playful image and tagline. These are used in the posters, presentation and development guides to reinforce their meaning. During development of the kit there was a change of legislation and sponsoring organisation and personnel. The kit’s flexible design and rigorous market testing could accommodate these changes. The kit was closely aligned with the Government’s expectations of the Victorian public sector. New scenarios were written for the new values and principles introduced in the new legislation. The changes made the kit even more robust. The final obstacle was getting public sector organisations to use the kit rather than just place it on their bookshelves. The Commissioner established a panel of seven experienced facilitators who were available to assist organisations implement the kit by briefing their senior management team or conducting planning, facilitators or ethics workshops. The Commissioner provided seed funding for these activities.

d. What resources were used for the initiative and what were its key benefits? In no more than 500 words, specify what were the financial, technical and human resources’ costs associated with this initiative. Describe how resources were mobilized
The State Services Authority managed the project and provided staff, funds and access to Victorian public sector employers and professional networks. It contracted some of the work to KPMG and the qubeGroup because of their particular expertise in ethics learning and development programs, and CD ROM development respectively. The State Services Authority received a total of $50,000 in contributions from the ten participating public sector employers. The Commissioner has granted more than $20,000 to Victorian public sector organisations to assist them to implement the kit. This includes a lunch ‘n’ learn seminar, executive briefings, conferences, and staff, facilitator and planning workshops.

Is the initiative sustainable and transferable?
Although the Ethics Resource Kit was developed for the Victorian public sector it has been taken up by a much wider audience including federal, state and local government organisations and the private sector. Some or all components have been used in induction sessions, staff meetings and ethics workshops. The kit has also been used to benchmark existing programs and as the basis for developing new programs. The Commissioner and Executive Director Standards and Equity have briefed a number of Victorian public sector forums on the kit. The ethics community of practice is being used to share good implementation ideas. Information about the kit is also being spread by word of mouth. The Commissioner provides seed funding for briefings and workshops.

What are the impact of your initiative and the lessons learned?
The Ethics Resource Kit has been a success because it was developed collaboratively with its target audience, the Victorian public sector. The project team consulted with a very broad range of stakeholders at every stage of its development, testing and implementation to make sure that the language, ethical dilemmas and approach would resonate with Victorian public sector employees. The kit’s design is visually appealing and each of its components can be easily updated or customised to suit different organisations.


Institution Name:		State Services Authority
Institution Type:		Government Agency
Contact Person:		Greg Vines
Title:		Public Sector Standards Commissioner
Telephone/ Fax:		61396515700
Institution's / Project's Website:		61396510747
E-mail:		luise.raeder@ssa.vic.gov.au
Address:		3 Treasury Place
Postal Code:		3002
City:		Melbourne
State/Province:		Victoria
Country:		Australia

The Problem

Solution and Key Benefits

Actors and Stakeholders

(a) Strategies

(b) Implementation

(c) Overcoming Obstacles

(d) Use of Resources

Sustainability and Transferability

Lessons Learned

Contact Information