ABSTRACT

Although notoriously hierarchical, rigid and impersonal, bureaucracy has recently become the unsung hero in the fight against corruption. Recent studies suggest that countries whose public service reflects characteristics of a Weberian bureaucracy – particularly, permanent careers and merit recruitment – exhibit lower levels of corruption. Uncertainty exists, however, over which qualities are most important, as well as how these lower corruption. This article advances research by examining the relationship that various human resource management practices have with a central mechanism of thwarting corruption: whistleblowing. Using survey data from Australia, the results from various regression models show that bureaucrats’ belief that recruitment within their agency prioritises merit as well as their belief in opportunities for promotion have a positive relationship with whistleblowing. Meanwhile, reporting corruption does not seem to be affected by bureaucrats’ belief in the permanency of their job, satisfaction with remuneration, turnover intention or organisational commitment. The external validity of the findings is considered by comparing the nature of bureaucracy in Australia with some Asia Pacific and Anglo-American countries.

摘要

尽管官僚主义以等级森严、死板和冷漠而臭名昭著，但最近已成为反腐败斗争中的无名英雄。最近的研究表明，公共服务反映了韦伯式官僚机构特征的国家——特别是长期职业和择优录用——的腐败程度较低。然而，存在不确定性，哪些品质最重要，以及如何这些较低的腐败。本文通过研究各种人力资源管理实践与阻止腐败的核心机制：举报之间的关系来推进研究。使用来自澳大利亚的调查数据，各种回归模型的结果表明，官僚认为其机构内的招聘优先考虑优点以及他们对晋升机会的信念与举报具有正相关关系。同时，报告腐败似乎不受官僚对其工作永久性、薪酬满意度、离职意愿或组织承诺的影响。通过将澳大利亚的官僚主义性质与一些亚太地区和英美国家进行比较来考虑研究结果的外部有效性。