Public service entry examinations ward off unethical behaviour

The study also indicates that using private contacts is far more common across the countries in the study than the use of political contacts:

“It is very interesting, because a lot of the discussion in this field has been about the need to keep politics out of the recruitment processes. I agree with that. But, we can see in the numbers that it is far more common to be recruited via private networks. Getting a job through private contacts can be a bigger problem because it is more frequent,” says Kim Sass Mikkelsen.
 

An entrance examination can promote ethical behaviour

The results are particularly relevant in the countries where there are major issues with corruption and the unethical behaviour of employees in the state administration. This is typically in poor countries such as Uganda and Bangladesh, and the results cannot easily be transferred to a Danish context, Kim Sass Mikkelsen explains. However, when it comes to research into developing countries, Kim Sass Mikkelsen points out that there is an ongoing discussion about whether it makes sense for organisations such as the World Bank and the OECD to develop uniform initiatives aimed at tackling corruption and unethical behaviour across countries. Often, the argument is that the countries are too different to allow for the same initiatives to make sense in all of the countries. However, Kim Sass Mikkelsen’s study adds some nuance to that point:

“The argument is that the one-size-fits-all way of thinking is wrong. However, one of the most interesting things we found in our study was that this is not always the case. We were able to demonstrate that there are pretty consistent positive effects from, for example, using written entrance examinations in terms of how connected employees feel with their workplace and the responsibility they feel towards it,” Kim Sass Mikkelsen says.

“You can therefore conclude that it does actually make sense, at least in some areas, for, for example, the World Bank to prepare best practices in their development work - because some things are in fact consistent across countries,” Mikkel Sass Mikkelsen points out.

One of the initiatives that seems to work consistently is written entrance examinations for positions in the state administration. From an anti-corruption point of view, such initiatives have the advantage of being concrete solutions that are relatively easy to implement, according to Kim Sass Mikkelsen:

“If we think we know that poor countries are more corrupt than others, then should we try to make Nigeria richer in order to reduce corruption? We should try to make Nigeria richer, but probably not to reduce corruption,” says Kim Sass Mikkelsen and elaborates:

“If the Danish healthcare sector is performing badly, after all, we don’t look at whether we should be changing our entire political system. We don’t know that much for certain about what the connection is between wealth in a society and the absence of corruption, so it can be difficult to design a policy that would actually work. If, on the other hand, policymakers introduce written entrance examinations, then this puts the focus on qualifications and motivation rather than contacts and this is a simple way of making a difference,” the researcher explains.
 

An ethical code of conduct is not enough on its own

While working on the new study, Kim Sass Mikkelsen has also looked at the effect of wide-spread codes of ethics, which state administration civil servants are often subject to, also in poor countries. A code of ethics outlining the norms and values that employees are expected to adhere to can be issued to employees during onboarding, and could theoretically help contain corruption.. But the researchers wanted to study whether such tools worked in developing countries and the answer was no, not on their own:

“Are you more likely to behave ethically after having been presented with such a code of ethics? No, unfortunately. It does not seem to have a great impact,” Kim Sass Mikkelsen notes.

However, Kim Sass Mikkelsen’s research indicates that it does have an impact if it is combined with other initiatives:

“A code of ethics is not enough on its own. You have to back it up with well-functioning disciplinary systems. It’s not enough to encourage the best in people. It does, however, seem to have an impact if combined with other initiatives.”

If we think we know that poor countries are more corrupt than others, then should we try to make Nigeria richer in order to reduce corruption? We should try to make Nigeria richer, but probably not to reduce corruption

It might be that at some point in the future one can create an ethics management framework with a greater impact. The next step for Kim Sass Mikkelsen is to prepare and be part of implementing a new ethics training in Bangladesh and Nepal in collaboration with the DFID (the U.K. government’s Department for International Development) and the American organisation, Global Integrity:

“Ethics training is an attractive tool if one can get it to work. If you can get results from it, it can potentially be pretty cost-effective, as fighting corruption only through monitoring and punishment can require a lot of resources. Effective preventive solutions that can be implemented successfully - that’s what we hope to see,” says Kim Sass Mikkelsen.

Published in Rubrik #15, 2019