Consequences of corruption: determinants of public servants' job satisfaction and performance
Consequences of corruption: determinants of public servants' job satisfaction and performance
Little research has focused on the consequences of corruption on civil servants’ performance outside OECD countries. Yet, corruption is endemic in many countries, and it is unclear how it affects performance and how can organizations use HRM practices to tackle the issue. While most research remains at the national level, we explored corruption’s impact at the individual level of performance. To test these issues, we obtained a unique data set from 1,344 civil servants in Bhutan via a random sampling of the entire civil servants’ population. We contribute to the theory of planned-action/behavior by testing empirically a model linking corruption, job-satisfaction, selected HRM practices and performance. The findings support the ‘sand in the wheel’ theoretical perspective of corruption. The results of SEM analysis reveal that job-satisfaction mediates the relationship between corruption and individual performance. Corruption exhibits an indirect negative one performance via job-satisfaction. Moreover, autonomy, performance-management and promotion opportunities improve job-satisfaction. The lack of linkage between some HRM practices and performance calls into question the contextual application of HRM practices. We offer practical insights into how civil servants’ job-satisfaction and performance can be improved by promoting ethical, anti-corruption policies along with contextualized HRM policies to enhance job-satisfaction.
Corruption, civil service, performance
3825-3856
Venard, Bertrand
7d55e570-b5e0-4fdd-92fe-6a8b9a94e6c7
Baruch, Yehuda
25b89777-def4-4958-afdc-0ceab43efe8a
Cloarec, Julien
7eeab6af-ebaa-455f-8de8-35dbbe52fac7
2023
Venard, Bertrand
7d55e570-b5e0-4fdd-92fe-6a8b9a94e6c7
Baruch, Yehuda
25b89777-def4-4958-afdc-0ceab43efe8a
Cloarec, Julien
7eeab6af-ebaa-455f-8de8-35dbbe52fac7
Venard, Bertrand, Baruch, Yehuda and Cloarec, Julien
(2023)
Consequences of corruption: determinants of public servants' job satisfaction and performance.
The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 34 (20), .
(doi:10.1080/09585192.2022.2161323).
Abstract
Little research has focused on the consequences of corruption on civil servants’ performance outside OECD countries. Yet, corruption is endemic in many countries, and it is unclear how it affects performance and how can organizations use HRM practices to tackle the issue. While most research remains at the national level, we explored corruption’s impact at the individual level of performance. To test these issues, we obtained a unique data set from 1,344 civil servants in Bhutan via a random sampling of the entire civil servants’ population. We contribute to the theory of planned-action/behavior by testing empirically a model linking corruption, job-satisfaction, selected HRM practices and performance. The findings support the ‘sand in the wheel’ theoretical perspective of corruption. The results of SEM analysis reveal that job-satisfaction mediates the relationship between corruption and individual performance. Corruption exhibits an indirect negative one performance via job-satisfaction. Moreover, autonomy, performance-management and promotion opportunities improve job-satisfaction. The lack of linkage between some HRM practices and performance calls into question the contextual application of HRM practices. We offer practical insights into how civil servants’ job-satisfaction and performance can be improved by promoting ethical, anti-corruption policies along with contextualized HRM policies to enhance job-satisfaction.
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Venard et al Bhutan Corruption IJHRM As accepted
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Consequences of corruption determinants of public servants job satisfaction and performance
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Accepted/In Press date: 7 December 2022
e-pub ahead of print date: 17 January 2023
Published date: 2023
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Funding Information:
This article is based on research supported by a grant from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), under the supervision of the Anti-Corruption Commission of Bhutan and in collaboration with the Royal Institute of Management (Bhutan) and Audencia Business School (France). The authors thank Professor Andy Crane and Professor Stephen Gates for their comments on earlier versions of this article. Only the authors are responsible for all interpretations and conclusions as well as for all remaining errors and omissions.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
Keywords:
Corruption, civil service, performance
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Local EPrints ID: 473780
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/473780
ISSN: 0958-5192
PURE UUID: 27abc2ac-6ff0-4b61-bd45-b0234f8edf3b
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Date deposited: 31 Jan 2023 17:47
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 03:32
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Author:
Bertrand Venard
Author:
Julien Cloarec
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