Consequences of corruption: determinants of public servants’ job satisfaction and performance

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.