Towards a Public Administration Theory on Public Sector Ethics. A Comparative Study.

Abstract

Most Western countries have recently seen important changes in their public sectors (e.g. increased competition, contracting-out, performance orientation), commonly referred to as “New Public Management” (NPM). Meanwhile, and partly out of concern for the potentially negative impact of these reforms on the ethics of public servants, many governments have introduced instruments of ethics management, such as ethics codes, ethics training, whistleblower protection, etc. There is a general, but largely untested, assumption in the public sector ethics literature that these innovations (both NPM and ethics management) have a significant impact on the ethics of public servants. This doctoral project intended to empirically assess the actual impact of these reforms and of organisational factors (“interaction patterns”) more generally on the ethics of public servants.

The study started from a theory with a conceptual framework at its core. This framework and the operationalisation of each of its variables drew on organisation theory and on the business ethics literature. The four central variables are “organisational interaction patterns,” “ethical climate,” “ethical decision making” and “unethical behaviour.” Each of these is operationalised by means of a typology. From the public administration literature, a set of propositions (a theory) was developed concerning the relationship between these four central variables.

This theory was tested empirically through a comparative study in three inspectorates in the Flemish regional and the Belgian federal government. Data-gathering was done in a three-part investigation within each of the three organisations. First, the independent variable “interaction patterns” was described in each organisation by means of document analysis and a limited number of interviews (mainly with management). The second part was quantitative and measured “ethical climate,” “ethical decision making” and “unethical behaviour,” by means of a survey that was distributed among all the inspectors in the three inspectorates. The third part was qualitative and measured all variables by means of semi-structured interviews with inspectors in two field offices of each of the three inspectorates. This qualitative research mainly intended to describe the standards that were applied by the inspectors and to account for this application.

The study guided to four general conclusions. First, it appeared that the typologies offer a useful framework to simplify both the many organisational factors and the many ethical considerations of the inspectors into a comprehensible description. Second, a significant part of the actual hypotheses was confirmed. Others were falsified and subsequently adapted. These confirmed and adapted hypotheses were merged into an adapted “public administration theory on public servants’ ethics.” This theory will help to predict what the impact of changes in the organisation will be on the ethics of the public servants within that organisation. Third, the study confirmed the general principle that each measure, however good the intentions on which it is based, inevitably carries with it the risk of a number of undesirable effects. Rules and procedures, for example, can engender inspectors to deal too rigidly with ethical dilemmas. Conversely, when the inspectors’ discretion is too broad, this will increase the chance of arbitrary and partial behaviour towards inspectees. Thus, in order to avoid such excesses, both measures should be combined: sufficient rules and procedures, while at the same time maintaining a minimal degree of discretion. A similar reasoning could be followed for all other kinds of organisational aspects and the overall aim should thus be to strive for an adapted mix of organisational measures. The proposed theory could help to determine which form this mix should take in a concrete organisation. Finally, a new intermediary variable was observed between the interaction patterns on the one hand and ethical decision making on the other. This was dubbed “Civil Service Motivation” (CSM) and contains four motives: professional pride, professional duty, compassion and public interest motivation. Sometimes CSM reduces the effect of interaction patterns on ethical decision making, e.g. when professional duty prevents the integrity of public servants from being negatively affected by demotivating interaction patterns. Yet, more often CSM reinforces the effect of interaction patterns. This for example occurs when existing hierarchical interaction patterns are reinforced by the professional duty of the public servant.