TIPOS DE SEÑALES

Maluleke in Mafunisa (2000:53) refers to values as ideals, attitudes and beliefs that are held by individuals and which underlie political, social and personal relationships. The word ethics refers to the actual application of values to individual behaviour and action.

Chapman (1993:2) argues that ethical behaviour among the authorities would enhance the democratic process by ensuring that "representatives and officials would respect the rights of citizens and uphold those values which have been agreed as essential to a particular democracy".

Values are general standards by which people live, views about what is desirable. Values refer to ethical standards, and entail deep emotional dedication to certain cognitive views of the value of objects normally relating to human activity (Hilliard and Ferreira 2001:93).

According to Chapter 10 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa 1996 (hereafter referred to as "the Constitution"), public administration is governed by certain democratic principles and values such as the following:

• a high standard of professional ethics must be maintained; • the best use of resources must be promoted;

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• public administration must be development-orientated and attention must be paid to people's needs;

• services must be provided fairly, impartially, equitably and without bias; • public administration must be accountable and transparent;

• the potential of people must be developed through efficient management; and

• public administration must be broadly representative of the population, taking into account ability, objectivity, capacity and the need to redress imbalances.

The above values as stipulated in the Constitution should form the basis of, for example, the decision-making process of public officials. A high standard of professional ethics must be maintained at all times. Values, for a public official, are the basis of preferences and decisions, provide the standards by which the public official lives, and may even give direction and meaning to everything that the public official believes in and undertakes (Hanekom 1989:120).

The word values refers to a human being's idea of what is acceptable or unacceptable (Athos and Coffey in Mbatha 2005:35), virtuous or without virtue. Values therefore indicate the importance allocated by the individual to activities experienced and provide the individual with a guideline for personal conduct. It should, however, be borne in mind that values represent personal judgements on qualities, experiences or phenomena and are, therefore, both subjective and objective. Furthermore, human beings distinguish not only between positive and negative aspects, but also between themselves and other individuals in that they may think, feel and react differently from others (Hanekom 1977:10 and Mbatha 2005:35).

In South Africa, there is a tendency to try and regulate all types of behaviour and reach ideals through laws, policies and regulations. Such an approach is doomed to failure if it is not accompanied and supported by vital consensus on the types

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of values and norms that are prevalent in our society. According to Estherhuyse (1991:10-11), it is "meaningless to talk about responsibility and accountability" without a "moral consensus on the normal norms and values in which a society … and the individual members of that society have an interest".

Values, as a part of ethics, determine how people will react to others, and are also responsible for how one experience, accepts, defends or changes ideals. It is part of human nature to perceive people who have different ideals as a threat. As a result, different opposing groups with different ideals are formed, whose interactions can only be interpreted in terms of conflict, victory or defeat. Thus, according to Lategan in (Hanekom 1989:16), "all our actions and attitudes are … value-laden and no social system is neutral from a moral perspective – it can only be more or less justifiable or legitimate in terms of a specific set of norms". Furthermore, public officials also in some cases have to make certain individual judgements about whether the emerging social values are right and acceptable; this responsibility cannot be underestimated. Specific values to which public officials should pay attention are equity, freedom, justice, fairness and various individual rights (Denhardt 1988:126). These individual rights can be found in the Bill of Rights as contained in Chapter 2 of the Constitution.

Every group of individuals develops norms and values pertaining to ethical conduct which enable the other members of the group to predict each other's behaviour. Norms and values aid more effective communication and also facilitate co-operation. Norms and values are a collective agreement about what is necessary to survive, what works and what needs to be done to ensure co- operation (Moeller 1988:120). It is also important to establish how a public official interprets the role which ethical behaviour should play in the execution of his or her duties.

Although opinions differ on what constitutes ethical behaviour, the term ethical behaviour usually refers to behaviour that conforms to generally accepted social

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norms and values. Such norms and values could include (Van Niekerk, Van der Waldt and Jonker 2001:116 and Mbatha 2005:25):

• humaneness; • honesty; • justice; • reasonableness; • freedom; • truth; • decency; • integrity; • order; • fairness; and • openness.

The South African population is characterised by a heterogeneous society in which people differ according to their norms, values and cultures. The task of public sector managers is more complicated due to this diversity, since the demands put on them differ from society to society and from culture to culture (Hanekom, Rowland and Bain 1987:162). It should be kept in mind that whistle blowing takes place because an employee becomes aware of irregular and illegal conduct and then, by using a value judgement, decides to blow the whistle. Ethics in the public sector are found in the ethical and moral behaviour of public officials and also include values that are integral within a democracy.