ETHICS OF MANAGERS IN SLOVENIAN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

1. INTRODUCTIONOrganizations in public administration constantly strive to improve their work and behavior through efficient use of limited public funds and the application of appropriate ethics of public administration (Bossaert & Demmke, 2005; Grimm, 2011; Menzel & White, 2011). Public organizations shape the ethics of their work and behavior by means of observing the theoretical requirements of public administration, adherence to legal regulations, and respect for recommendations of corresponding international organizations (Rabin et al., 2006; Bowman & Knox, 2008; Stensota, 2010; Witesman & Walters, 2014). The extent of ethical orientation of organizations in public administration is determined by several internal and external factors, among which management and public administration authors emphasize the important role of employees' behavior /in shaping organizational ethics (Bossaert & Demmke, 2005; Stackman et al., 2006; Menzel & White, 2011; Ralston et al., 2014). Up to the present, less attention has been devoted to the broader research of factors which shape managers' ethics in public administration organizations. Research which examine the influence of selected key behavioral drivers - such as the influence of personal values on ethical goals of an organization, are rare (Witesman & Walters, 2014). The main purpose of this study is to examine how managers' personal values and managers' attitudes toward natural and social environment are shaping the ethics of managers in Slovenian public administration. The paper considers the state of managers' values in public administration organizations, examines managers' attitudes towards natural and social environments, and clarifies the influence of managers' personal values on their perceived ethics.A research model was developed to examine relations between managers' values, managers' attitudes toward natural and social environments, and managers' ethics in public administration. This model was empirically tested using the Schwartz value dimensions (Schwartz, 1992) and a validated questionnaire for the purpose of measuring different aspects of ethics (Furrer et al., 2010; Ralston et al., 2011) on a sample of 212 managers from public administration organizations in Slovenia. From the entire array of public administration organizations in Slovenia we selected those administrative units forming the basic framework that coordinates activities of administrative units in the areas of personnel, finance and organization (MOPA, 2014). Our focus on administrative units reflects recent aims of governmental policies regarding the improvement of efficiency and sustainability of public administration, since a majority of the latest actions in public administration are - besides focusing on improvement of administrative units work, - also targeted on increasing awareness of more sustainable behavior by employees in public administration - especially in administrative units (Demmke & Moilanen, 2011; Kovac, 2013). The paper introduces and validates a conceptual framework that integrates and extends the existing discussions about the factors that importantly influence the ethics of managers in public administration organizations (Van Der Wal et al., 2008). With this paper, we complement copious literature, since our study integrates previous partial cognitions about managers' personal values, influences of personal values on managers' attitudes towards natural and social environments, and influences of personal values and attitudes on development of ethical working style and behavior of managers in public administration organizations. The paper first complements and links dispersed insights into managers' personal values, attitudes towards the environment and the managers' ethics, and, following that, it sheds light on these relations by studying a sample of managers from public administration units, and by empirically testing some proposed hypothetical relations. …