Harnessing Innovation to Combat Corruption: Effective Assessment of an Official’s Propensity for Corruption

Abstract

One of the most important tasks in managing the activities of public authorities is to prevent corruption among employees and ensure integrity in the performance of their organisational, managerial or administrative duties. The study of the behavioural patterns of officials who make decisions to commit corrupt acts in their professional duties is central to combating corruption. The systematisation of literature sources and approaches to the study of motives for corruption has shown that the main driving forces of corrupt behaviour are the intentions of individual and collective features, namely, the desire to obtain financial gain, job dissatisfaction, a corrupt environment within an organisation, and impunity for corruption offences. A subject-oriented approach to assessing an official’s propensity to engage in corrupt practices is investigated in this article. The peculiarity of the investigated methodology is to determine the behavioural and personal features of an official in professional activity and consider the synergistic effect that arises in the case of a simultaneous positive answer from the respondent to the control questions. The author’s methodology for assessing the propensity of an official to engage in corrupt practices includes 16 key questions in the questionnaire. An important element of the proposed methodology is the formation of an “ideal matrix”, which contains combinations of factors that increase officials’ intentions to engage in corruption. The “ideal matrix” was approved following a brainstorming process with experts. Fifty officials aged 27 to 65 years from institutions and organisations in Sumy (Ukraine) were the subject of the study. According to the assessment, one-third of respondents had a high or medium propensity to engage in corrupt practices. Empirical findings have shown that men are more tolerant of corruption than women are, and people aged 51-65 years have the highest propensity for corruption. This methodology allows for the latent quantification of officials’ propensity for corruption and, accordingly, the introduction of measures for preventing criminal corruption early in public administration.