.Researching Ethics For Public Service Org

Researching Ethics for Public Service Organizations
The View from Europe

ALAN LAWTON AND ALAN DOIG Abstract
This article reviews and assesses the state of research on public sector ethics and corruption in Europe as published primarily in journal articles in the past five years. The themes examined include the public service ethos, the regulation of conduct, trust, individual behavior, the role of professionals, and corruption. The article concludes by calling for more comparative research, a better mix of theory and practice, and the development of a coherent body of knowledge for European scholars. This article is a first attempt to map the terrain of research on public service ethics as defined and conducted by scholars researching ethical issues in public service organizations in Europe. The study may be seen as a companion piece to the mapping exercise carried out by Menzel (2003). It draws on the same four questions utilized by Menzel in framing the review and assessment: 1. What has been the primary focus of empirical research on ethics in public administration and governance? What research questions are being asked? 2. How well does empirical research inform ethics theory? How well does ethics theory inform empirical research? 3. Are the research findings cumulative? Has progress been made toward building a body of knowledge? 4. Are there new avenues of research? Are there neglected areas of study? The article reviews leading European political science and public administration journals, exploring the extent to which there is a common European perspective on public sector ethics. In doing so, it seeks to identify research by European scholars on the study of ethics. This initial mapping exercise comes with the caveat that the work will have to be refined in the future to ensure the Europeanness of the perspective, because not all European-based scholars write solely on
Public Integrity, Winter 20056, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 1133. 2006 ASPA. All rights reserved. ISSN 1099-9922/2006 $9.50 + 0.00.
Alan Lawton and Alan Doig
ethics in a European context, and not all articles on ethics in a European context are written by Europeans (see Garcia-Zamor 2002; Stewart, Sprinthall, and Kem 2002). The focus is divided between research on public sector ethics in general and research on fraud and corruption in particular. The two research areas overlap, but each encompasses different research traditions, scholars, and focus. This division has made it possible to do two things. First, ethics is a broad discipline, and it is important to identify and explore what appear to be the currently predominant themes in the literature. One noticeable feature, as will be discussed below, is the preponderance of definitional and conceptual material, and the significant absence of empirical work. Fraud and corruption have been taken as a particular theme where prior knowledge advises that the literature here is less concerned with the focus that ethics as a broad discipline pursues than with more empirical or applied research. This provides an opportunity to compare and contrast the general with the specific, and thus, second, to see what further lessons may be learned. The discussion is, therefore, presented in two parts. The first part examines public service ethics in general, and the second examines corruption. Both subjects were investigated primarily through an examination of journal articles published in the English language over a five-year period (19992003). These journals included Public Administration, Political Studies, Parliamentary Affairs, Crime, Law and Social Change, Public Money and Management, and Public Management Review. The search revealed the first point of difference between the present findings and Menzels. He references some 110 articles from nearly twenty different journals. What is noticeable, however, is that two journals in particular dominate the list, with forty-four references to articles published in Public Integrity and twenty-three articles published in Public Administration Review. There is no equivalent concentration of research outputs in Europe. Indeed, the eclectic nature that characterizes the publication of such articles reflects the nature of the research itself. This may hinder the development of a body of knowledge or community of scholars sharing the same reference points. Indeed, the reference points for European scholars are just as likely to be the work of scholars across the Atlantic as other European scholars. The works of Menzel, Denhardt, Cooper, Stewart, Dobel, Rohr, and Kernaghan, among others, are well referenced among the articles examined here.
Part 1: Public Service Ethics

Public ethics or public service ethics is a broad area of study with a continuing focus on theoretical, conceptual, and definitional issues. While not yet reflecting a significant amount of evidence-based research, it is developing themes through which such research could be pursued. The discussion here seeks to identify and explore several of the themes found in the literature.
Theme 1: The Public Service Ethos

The existence, and content, of a public service ethos has long been taken for granted, particularly in the United Kingdom. That such an ethos is a good thing in some sense has also been assumed, and its ethical character is not questioned (see De Vries 2002). An alternative view is presented by Lawton (1998b), who argues that
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an ethos is a way of life, a set of values, or a culture that may or may not be ethical. However, a public service ethos is said to be one of the key distinctions between the public and private sectors, and those who work in the public sector are imbued with the ethos. However, there is very little evidence to support the existence of such an ethos. Its existence has been questioned and its character examined (Lawton 1998b; Pratchett and Wingfield 1996). More recently, scholars have begun to call for a reconceptualized public service ethos, not least because of perceived challenges to that ethos from increased engagement with the private sector. Doig and Wilson (1999) are just two of the scholars who point to the possible adverse impacts upon a public sector ethos from too close a relationship with the private sector. Lawton (1998a) explores the impact of business practices upon a public service ethos. The distinction between the public realm and the private realm is not always clear, however, and the distinction has been explored both conceptually and practically. Steinberg (1999) argues that formulating clear boundaries between public and private is very complexit is not a boundary problem but is about different manners of acting. Public acts take on the character of procedural and legalistic, whereas private acts take on warmth, intimacy, and affection. They are thus distinct manners of acting but not necessarily different spheres of action. Notwithstanding such conceptual clarification, the distinction has practical relevance for those who seek political office in the hope of furthering their own private interests. Brereton and Temple (1999) argue that the concept of a public service ethos has changed over time. As a result of the increasing interaction between public and private sector organizations where the concept of the public is no longer clear, they argue, we should reconceptualize the public service ethos and focus on the service element. They promote a synthesis of values that recognizes the new environment of working with and through the private sector. This will involve a move from treating the public as clients/supplicants to one of treating them as consumers/purchasers. The historical character of the public service ethos provides a background for much of the research in this area. Plant (2003) focuses on the perceived dilution of the public service ethos, tracing its roots to the nineteenth century. He describes the characteristics of the public service ethos as: motivation toward a common good; professionalism expressed as a vocation; trust between citizens, between government and citizens, between government and the public sector, between those who work in the public sector, between public sector and possible future partners; impartiality; and judgment. The analysis is discursive in character, with no empirical evidence offered to support the analysis. At the same time, there has been little in the way of longitudinal research that tracks changes in the characteristics of the public service ethos over time. One exception to the rule is the empirical work of Hebson, Grimshaw, Marchington, and Cooke (2002).They examine two publicprivate partnerships in health and local authority services in England and argue that the contractual relaPUBLIC INTEGRITY WINTER 20056
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tions of the partnerships have led to a clear weakening of the public sector ethos among managers. Their analysis is based upon in-depth case studies involving 60 staff working in the National Health Service carried out between late 1999 and mid2001. In the local authority they interviewed forty managers and employees. Hebson et al. found that accountability is still at the centre of the new public management; but the collegiate procedural way of making decisions has been replaced by an emphasis on personal accountability (2002, 14). Hebson et al. (2002) utilized a framework proposed by Pratchett and Wingfield (1996) to analyze the variables that might constitute a public service ethos. These include accountability, bureaucratic behavior, public interest, motivation, and loyalty. Bureaucratic behavior is that which demonstrates the qualities of honesty, integrity, impartiality, and objectivity. The key findings of Hebson et al. are as follows): (2002, 23) Over the issues of performance, public sector managers question the honesty and impartiality of their private sector counterparts. There is a continued commitment to patients or clients despite the performance targets that threaten it. Although loyalties to the public sector employer may have eroded loyalties to the public sector, service and the delivery of this to the community has not. They, too, comment on the remarkably few empirically based studies of the impact of new public management on the employment relationship and the public sector ethos. (2002, 7) Indeed a feature of much of the writings on public sector ethos is its polemical nature. Thus, for example, Aldridge and Stoker, as proponents of a new public service ethos, argue: We need a new public service culture that is more entrepreneurial and outcomes focused (2002, 9). Lord Nolan, perhaps the best-known figure in connection with standards in public life, has revisited the Nolan Principles and argues that openness, honesty, and leadership are the most important of the seven principles of public life (Nolan 1998, 453). He articulates a framework for understanding the measures that the Nolan Committee tried to implement: Conviction. There must be conviction on what is right and agreement on the broad principles of proper behavior. Commitment. There must be a strong, public commitment at all levels to the highest standards of public life and to the principles laid down for both public life in general and for the organization in particular. Clarity. It is essential that there be no doubt as to what is expected of organizational members. To some extent, debates over a public service ethos are particular to the United Kingdom, given resonance by the UKs moving further down the road of engagement with the private sector than other European countries. However, Didier (1997,
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565) discusses the extent to which the French public service retains its overall integrity despite some weakening not least because of the declining prestige of collective values. He sees the loss of influence of ideological and religious authorities as another factor. This analysis points to the importance of locating public Accompanying the changes in the service ethics within the wider context of public service ethos has been a changing societal norms (for example, postmovement away from an ethos modern fragmentation). Accompanying the changes in the pub- sustained by individual integrity and lic service ethos has been a movement away peer review to one sustained by the from an ethos sustained by individual integ- external regulation of conduct. rity and peer review to one sustained by the external regulation of conduct.
Theme 2: The Regulation of Conduct

Despite the rhetoric of devolved responsibilities and decentralized government, we live in an increasingly regulated state (Hood, James, and Scott 2000). Hood et al. argue that from the late 1990s onward, regulation, as a style of government, has come to characterize the UK. There has been a growth in the extent and type of regulation and an increase in the number and size of regulatory bodies. The Standards Board for England and the Committee on Standards in Public Life (the original Nolan Committee) were created to oversee ethical conduct in central and local government. Such developments reflect, in part, the shift from self-regulation to a compliance culture in the UK. Similar trends can be found elsewhere. Didier (1997, 578) argues that in France efforts to improve the moral standards of civil servants have been accompanied by the creation of special bodies. However, the multiplication of commissions, councils and other consultative bodies illustrates the tendency at each difficulty encountered in the field of public-service ethics to create a new institution supposed to remedy or provide solutions for them (ibid.). At present, there is a lack of research that examines the effectiveness of such bodies. At the same time, Central and East European countries are seeking, increasingly, to regulate the activities of public officials through codes of conduct (see Palidauskaite and Lawton 2004). Gay (2003) analyzes the arguments concerning the right of members of parliament to police their own affairs and describes the different practices engaged in. Her focus is thus on self-regulation and its alternatives. She argues that standards of conduct in the English House of Commons have improved in the last ten years but recognizes the dangers of subjecting members to policing for all aspects of their behavior. She raises, but does not resolve, the question of balance between infringements upon the private lives of individuals and their public duties. The regulation of conduct is not confined to public sector organizations. Davies (2001) looks at the ethical issues facing regulators in different industries and contrasts self-regulation with principles of good practice in industry. He argues that a principle-based regime must be backed up by a considerable corpus of rules, regulations and guidance (2001, 282). He offers a practical way forward in prescribing a set of common steps toward the creation of an ethical culture:
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establish an ethical framework; provide guidance and support; provide education/training; and lead by example. Comparisons of regulatory regimes in different sectors can be found. Kirkbride and Letza (2003), in an essentially descriptive article, examine the different corporate governance regimes in public and private sector organizations. They focus on the different requirements of monitoring officers in English local authorities and argue that the requirements for those on public sector boards and committees are much stricter than those for their private sector counterparts. Future research might explore the skills, motivations, and attitudes of the independent members of such boards and committees and assess their impact. The discussion concerning regulatory regimes needs to be located within a wider context. For example, Behnke (2002) argues that the likelihood of Germanys adopting soft ethics measures as defined by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), such as measures that promote internal motivation through guidance or socialization, depends upon the demand for, and supply of, them. She discusses various scandals that have taken place in Germany, such as the large-scale money-laundering involving the German conservative party (Christian Democratic UnionCDU), and contrasts the German approach to regulation with the Anglo-Saxon approachthe tradition of Roman law in the former versus the common law or case law approach in the latter. The German and British ethics infrastructures are compared, and Behnke suggests that the German ethics infrastructure is deeply influenced by a hierarchical system of laws and rules derived from the Roman law tradition which is positively stated, hierarchically organized, and aims at regulating situations in a logical manner. Recognizing the importance of context, Verpeet, Meulenbergs, and Gastmans (2003) examine the status of codes of ethics for nurses in Belgium and suggest that one explanation for the lack of a code of conduct for nurses is the strong influence of legal regulations in which ethical values and norms are implied. It is clear that one size does not fit all in seeking to regulate the conduct of public officials. Further research is needed to explore the variables that affect the success, or otherwise, of the regulatory regimes in different countries.
Theme 3: Trust
Trust in public sector officials and trust within public institutions are enduring concerns in discussions of public sector ethics. The concept of trust provided the content of Professor ONeills BBC Reith lectures in 2002 (ONeill 2002). Trust has long been the subject of opinion poll surveys, from MORI in the UK to the Free Market Institute in Lithuania. Other than such opinion polls, little empirical work has underpinned the theorizing about trust. At the same time, the focus of the research is in different areas: trust between individuals; trust of professionals;
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trust within institutions; trust in institutions; trust between organizations; trust in politicians; and trust within the community. Most of the research on trust begins with a discussion of the classical definitions of trust in terms of expectations, risk, performance, and personal relationships. Much of the research oscillates between a focus on individuals and a focus on public sector institutions. Garsten and Grey (2001) explore the changing context within which trust takes place and examine the implications for the concept of trust arising from different institutional arrangements. They are concerned with trust in postbureaucratic organizations. The authors see the literature as focusing on calculative trust based on rational choice models derived from economics, normbased trust resulting from shared values, and cognitive trust based on individual actors cognitions and expectations about themselves and others. The latter two are seen as interdependent. For Garsten and Grey, trust within bureaucracy is enshrined in rules and is nonproblematic in that the rules provide predictability and discretion is minimized. Garsten and Grey suggest that from the 1980s onwards, advocates of the corporate-culture approach to organizational behavior have found trust enshrined in value consensus. They argue that in postbureaucratic organizations, corporate culture is not the solution to trust. The postbureaucratic organization is characterized by shortterm contracts and arms-length relationships which do not lend themselves to value consensus. It is noteworthy that as traditional civil service clubbability declines through the appointment of outsiders, this may have an adverse impact on trust. Garsten and Grey argue that predictability may come from an understanding of a common language, and they point to the increasing prevalence, and dominance, of management speak. Public service organizations rely more and more on formal contractual relations and less on the collegiality of professional relations. As a result, loyalty, motivation, expectations, and the commitment to make a difference characteristic of public officials may be undermined. The changing employment relations in public service organizations have been the focus of one area of research with a growing interest in breaches in the psychological contract (see Coyle-Shapiro 2002). Focusing upon relations between citizens and public officials, trust of public officials in Ukraine, Bulgaria, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic is explored by Grdeland, Koshechkina, and Miller (1998). They carried out in-depth interviews of citizens and found fairly high levels of distrust except in the Czech Republic. Their research points to the need for long-term changes in officials behavior. A striking feature of the trust literature on public service organizations is that people still trust in the institutions of democracy even if they mistrust individual politicians. The belief in democratic institutions is also evidenced in research in the transitional states. Muco (2001) explored the ability of the state in the transition countries of southeastern Europe to deliver governance in the form of health and
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social services, and to enforce the law. He was interested in the features that build up capacity and prevent corruption. Other researchers have explored trust against a background of structural changes for the delivery of public services. Newell and Swan (2000) identify two forms of trust particularly appropriate for networks. A striking feature of the trust literature The first is companion trust based on goodwill or personal friendships. One would exon public service organizations is that pect to find this type of trust in professional people still trust in the institutions of networks that cut across organizational democracy even if they mistrust boundaries and where the members of the individual politicians. network constitute a relatively small and closed community. The second is competence trust, which refers to belief in the competence of others to carry out their commitments. Newell and Swan argue that different types of trust interrelate in specific ways depending upon particular motives, and involve a third type of trust, commitment trust, holding participants together in the network. Delivering public services through networks or partnerships will only work if there is agreement on the goals to be achieved and a commitment on the part of all partners to achieving those goals. From a different perspective, Gregory (2003) explores how a public sector organization generates a trust relationship with its local community. She examines the engagement activities of a start-up National Health Service mental health trust. Engagement is concerned with how an organization relates to its external stakeholders. It is part of a wider brief toward a user-centered public sector. Gregory argues that the case demonstrates how an organization can engage with its stakeholders in an ethical way, developing a sense of vision, values, and goals that are founded upon respect and a sense of obligation to stakeholders. Sustained, mutually respectful relationships are the outcomes leading to the building of a genuine community. Continuing the same theme, Purdue (2001) explores the role of social capital consisting of trust relationships between a community and its leaders. The study examines nine case studies of community leaders in urban regeneration programs using different theoretical frameworks of trust. As a low level of trust in government initiatives is often the case, the research identifies the obstacles that community leaders have to overcome in engaging with a wide range of key stakeholders. Williams (2002) offers a comparative study of Britain and the United States on how legislators respond to apparent crises of trust in public life. He examines the arguments of politicians for self-regulation, observing that both Parliament and Congress reject the idea of external regulation. However, he recognizes that regulating the conduct of members of Parliament and Congress is important to restore public trust.
Theme 4: Individual Behavior

The key question is not whether individuals are moral or immoral or whether public officials are more likely than their private sector counterparts to pursue ethical behavior. Rather, the key question that has engaged researchers asks what are the institutional arrangements and performance regimes that encourage individuals to act in ways that are unethical. Such acts will range from corruption and fraud to manipulating statistics, cutting corners, and harassing colleagues. The alternative question of how
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best to reward those who conduct themselves ethically has received little attention. Roozen, De Pelsmacker, and Bostyn (2001) researched the ethical dimension of behavioral intentions of employees in different types of organizations. They measured ethical intention in a quantitative scenario-based method, exploring the interaction of personal values and organizational commitment with organizational goals and the roles of stakeholders. Public services and education constitute some 13.9 percent of their sample of 427, others being drawn from manufacturing, banking and insurance, service, and distribution and transport. Roozen et al. found that employees working for public services or education give the highest average score on the most ethical profile, which means that they have relatively high preferences for ethical aspects in the decision processes (2001, 94). The study by Roozen et al. was small-scale but might be worth enlarging. Another factor worth investigating is what they term the stage in the career of the employee. That is, Roozen et al. found that older people with higher incomes, much work experience, and many responsibilities have a less ethical attitude. One might expect such employees to be more pragmatic, more aware of the need to balance conflicting priorities, perhaps even more cynical. Certainly, such findings seem to contradict those of researchers like Kohlberg (1976), who have developed hierarchical models of ethical awareness and behavior. At the same time, one might wonder, in our increasingly fragmented and atomized world, where are the role models that encourage ethical behavior. Kakabadse, Korac-Kakabadse, and Kouzmin (2003) undertook a comparative study of public officials in the UK, Canada, and Australia from the perspective of ethical leadership. Drawing upon previous research on leadership, they locate ethics within an organizational context of regulation and culture, arguing that both are essential in building public sector ethics. While it is important to locate ethical behavior within wider understandings of history and culture, it is also important not to lose sight of the fact that individual judgment is the key. For example, the ethics of character is undergoing something of a renaissance. Mangini (2000) argues that ethics needs to be understood in terms of continuity and durability rather than just single acts. Character expresses itself over time: The ethical perspective offered here is meant to re-establish the importance of our way of being against values which are chosen and pursued by single acts (2000, 93). Macaulay and Lawton (2004) explore the distinction between virtue and technical competence in their research on the role of monitoring officers in English local authorities. Drawing upon virtue theory, their national survey of monitoring officers reveals the importance of ethical judgment, courage, and practical wisdom as part of the character of public officials whose background is primarily law and whose work is primarily legal. Indeed, the leading UK scholar, Richard Chapman, has long argued that individuals making discretionary decisions is the starting point for ethics, and this theme underpins many of the contributions to Chapmans Ethics in Public Service for the New Millennium (2000).
Theme 5: Professionals
It goes without saying that we have high expectations of those who work in the public sector, particularly its professions, including doctors and teachers. It is no
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surprise that despite the behavior of one or two individuals, the medical profession, for example, is still rated as trustworthy in most polls. However, research has examined the experiences of professionals under New Public Management (see Bach, Bordogna, Della Rocca, and Winchester 1999; Exworthy and Halford 1999; Farrell and Morris 2003). Key issues are the extent to which new forms of accountability have been introduced, relations between professionals and managers, and changes in the traditional power of the professions. One focus is on the extent to which professionals continue to demonstrate a professional ethos when their reputations are attacked by politicians and self-regulation is challenged. Thus, Allmendiger, Tewdwr-Jones, and Morphet (2003) focus upon changes in planning following from changes in the management of local government in the UK. They argue that the public service ethos has evolved rather than deteriorated. Their paper reviews the changes in the planning process and, through a longitudinal study of local authority ombudsmen, examines evidence of standards slipping. They summarize the pressures for change and explore the extent to which the constant pressure on performance could be seen to undermine a professional ethos. Allmendiger et al. argue that standards have not slipped, judging by the number of cases of councilors seeking to exert undue influence on the planning process (2003, 777). They write that there has . . . been an evolution of the public service ethic in urban planning towards more openness and scrutiny, more transparency and efficiency. The myth of the deterioration of a public service ethos, they argue, has been reinforced by an overt political concern at the national level with increases in public scrutiny of policy and decision making. The role of health professionals is explored by Dargie (1999), who makes a useful distinction between values of health-care management and values in health-care management. She is concerned about the way professionals are perceived and is critical of any suggestion that professionals, such as doctors, have values, whereas managers do not. Doctors also have adverse characteristics: arrogance, lack of understanding of patients and their circumstances, self-preservation, failure to listen to alternative perspectives, and an unwillingness to accept criticism or failure (1999, 130). Dargie warns us to be wary of making bold general statements concerning the unethical behavior of managers from the private sector. She suggests that any distinction of the form public sector professional good and private sector manager bad is too crude and simplistic. At the same time, there has been an increased interest in user involvement in service delivery, particularly in areas such as medicine, where the power of professionals was traditionally dominant (see Laing and Hogg 2002). A useful framework for a more sophisticated analysis is provided by Virtanen (2000). Drawing upon the competency literature, Virtanen explores the competences of public service managers and discusses how they have changed within the context of New Public Management. The competences are task competence, professional competence in a substantive policy field, professional competence in administration, political competence, and ethical competence.
Theme 6: Context
Public sector ethics do not exist in a vacuum but are defined by wider values within society. A number of studies have sought to locate public sector ethics within this
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wider context. However, research on ethical issues at the policy level is less in evidence than research at the individual or organizational level, particularly in the mainstream literature. There are some exceptions. Pujas and Rhodes (1999) explore the extent to which there exists a virtuous north Pubic sector ethics do not exist in a and a corrupt south in the ethics of West European countries. They examine the com- vacuum but are defined by wider values parative cultures of administration in Europe within society. in their respective national settings. Thus, they explore the extent to which what would be considered as nepotism or shameless patronage in Britain might be seen as fair practice or even a moral duty in other countries (1999, 690). They argue that the issue is complicated in four major areas: relations between parties and the state, focusing on patronage and patronclient relations; funding of political parties or individual politicians; effectiveness of political checks and balances; and extent of administrative regulations and control. Jorgensen (1999) adds an extra dimension in examining the relationship between the state, civil society, and the market in Denmark. He argues that reforms emphasizing market types of governance, contracting out, and privatization make it increasingly important to consider classic public values. Jorgensen considers that we need to be more creative in thinking of exactly what are the institutional arrangements that can accommodate change and values. The impact of the changing discourse on public values on a specific policy area is examined by Haworth and Manzi (1999), who look at housing practices in the UK. They argue that a changing discourse emphasizes duties over rights, and the balance of power has shifted from housing managers and tenants to producer interests. Standards of behavior are imposed upon tenants through tenants charters and tenants regulations. In an ambitious article, Maesschalck (2002) uses two frameworks to try and explain scandals in public life. The first is an agenda-setting framework which argues that the policy, problem, and politics streams need to be sufficiently developed before a focusing event like a scandal can push an issue onto a government agenda. The second, a grid-group framework drawn from cultural theory, explores changing values and worldviews in making sense of policy issues. One area of future research would be to explore the ethical dimensions of policymaking in general. Changes at the policy level are often considered in isolation, with little attention paid to the unintended consequences, often ethical in character, of public policy. The discussion in Part 1 identified key themes that have provided the focus for much of the recent research into public service ethics. These themes are enduring because individual, organizational, and societal values continue to rub against each other. Abstractions such as the public service ethos or the public interest will also
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continue to engage attention until research addresses how such concepts are given meaning in the everyday practices of public officials. In contrast, much of the research on the subset of corruption is empirically driven, and it is to this that we now turn.
Part 2: The Study of Corruption

As an area of study, and a particular theme within the study of public ethics, fraud and corruption lends itself to empirical work. This is in part because the definitional debates that took place up to the 1990s have largely exhausted themselves (not least because of the diminishing publications market for such material), in part because there is a wealth of easily accessible real-world material available and in part because there is a growing body of practitioner material to use for description and analysis.
Feature 1: Practitioner-Led
On first analysis, European academics are faced with a wealth of empirical and practitioner material. First, there is the whole area of European Union accession, which draws in states where corruption is a much more significant issue than in many (but not all) of the present EU member states. This raises research possibilities not only for comparative purposes but also for an examination of the continuing levels of fraud, misappropriation, and corruption within the European Commission itself (see White 1998). At the same time, there have been a number of major political scandalsthe current official inquiries into the Haughey era in Ireland, the circumstances behind the creation of the Committee on Standards in Public Life in the UK, and the Elf-Aquitaine party funding scandals in France, to cite but three. It is worth noting that in institutional or Web-based resource terms, there are a number of European academic institutions that express an interest in corruption (see Table 1). The practitioner materialfrom both transnational agencies and nongovernmental organizationsis significant and systematic. The European Commission, the Council of Europe, and the OECD have all produced a significant amount of practitioner material of relevance to the study of corruption. The sources include, for example: European Commission: accession-country-monitoring reports, including perspectives on corruption, illegal party funding (Council of Europe 2000), and money laundering (Gilmore 1999); OECD: report on trust in government (survey of ethics measures in twentynine OECD countries); survey on prevention measures relating to public sector corruption (survey of fifteen OECD countries); survey of anticorruption initiatives in Southeastern Europe (SPAI 2001); report on civil societys role in the process that led to the adoption of the Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions; survey of all members on steps taken to implement the Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions; Open Society Institute (OSI): country reports on corruption in ten accession countries (Open Society Institute 2002); and
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TABLE 1 Research and University Institutions with an Interest in Corruption

Anti-Corruption Gateway for Europe and Eurasia (Internet structure with information on the Central and East European countries) (www.nobribes.org) Centre de Recherches Sociologiques sur le Droit et les Institutions PnalesCESDIP (Paris, France) (www.cesdip.msh-paris.fr) European Centre for Crime Prevention (Universities of Mnster/Germany and Twente/ Netherlands) European Institute for Crime Prevention and ControlHEUNI (affiliated to the United Nations and based in Finland) (www.heuni.fi) Ghent UniversityCrime Research Group (Belgium) Institute of Business Ethics, London (www.ibe.org.uk) Institut des Hautes Etudes de la Scurit IntrieureIHESI (Ministry of Interior, France) (www.interieur.gouv.fr/rubriques/divers/anglais/ihesi/) Institute of Criminology, University of Cambridge (www.crim.cam.ac.uk) Mannheim Centre of Criminology and Criminal Justice, London School of Economics (www.lse.ac.uk/depts/mannheim/) Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law (Freiburg) (www .iuscrim.mpg.de/iuscrim_e.html) Research Centre on Transnational CrimeTRANSCRIME (University of Trento, Italy) Transparency International Secretariat, Berlin (www.transparency.org) U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre, CMI Bergen (www.u4.no/index2.cfm) United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research InstituteUNICRI (Rome) (www.unicri.it)
Transparency International: a series of country studies reviewing the National Integrity Systemthe interrelation of institutions and activities to combat corruptionin developed, transitional, and developing countries. One of the biggest producers of material is the Group of States against Corruption (GRECO), the Council of Europe peer review process, which had its origins in a 1994 conference of European ministers of justice. Their deliberations included a consideration that corruption was a serious threat to democracy, the rule of law, and human rights. The Multidisciplinary Group on Corruption (GMC) was set up by the Committee of Ministers with the responsibility of developing an action program and appropriate conventions. In 1998, it approved a draft agreement establishing the Group of States against CorruptionGRECO. The committee invited member states of the Council of Europe and nonmember states to participate in the adoption of the agreement establishing GRECO. The agreement means that GRECO visits the countries to carry out evaluation and compliance peer reviews. To date, thirty-three evaluation reports and twelve compliance reports have been undertaken, but the only academic publication drawing on this wealth of information will be a review by Freiburg University, Germany, commissioned by GRECO to evaluate report recommendations. GRECO, however, is only one aspect of Council of Europe initiatives, which currently include: Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime, the first ever international treaty on criminal offenses committed against or with the help of computer networks, such as the Internet;
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Program against Corruption and Organized Crime in Southeastern Europe (PACO), a technical cooperation program of the Council of Europe to support the countries of the region in the implementation of the Stability Pact AntiCorruption Initiative and the Stability Pact Initiative against Organized Crime; Programme Octopus, focusing on corruption and organized crime in Europe, and especially Central and Eastern Europe; Anti-money-laundering measures (MONEYVAL/PC-R-EV), a mutual evaluation and peer pressure system to review the laws and practices employed by Council of Europe member states that are not members of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF); Programme MOLI, two projects against money laundering launched in the Russian Federation and Ukraine; and Group of specialists on criminal law and criminological aspects of organized crimeannual reports on organized crime, analyzing the characteristics, activities, resources, methods, geographical coverage, influence, and trends of organized criminal groups operating in Europe. In summary, significant case material and primary material on corruption and a range of related issues is available to academics. The OSI report on corruption and anticorruption policy (Open Society Institute 2002) covers ten countries in more than 600 pages, while the current GRECO CD-ROM includes forty-six reports on more than thirty member countries from Iceland to Georgia.
Feature 2: The Breadth of Research

The geographic spread of practitioner material is reflected in the similar breadth covered by publications. From database searches using the keywords ethics and corruption, political corruption, and administrative corruption, seventy-two 1 articles were identified over a five-year period (see Table 2). The articles tend to fall into six distinct types: Those written for subject-specific journals that have published an article on that subject and corruption to add diversity and flavor to the journals coverage (e.g., health, local government). Articles addressing country-specific scandals or cases which also lend themselves to analysis or from which wider lessons (such as causes or reform initiatives) may be drawn (e.g., Ireland; see Sherriff, OBrien, and Punch 1998). Those looking at the transition process, for which corruption is a mainstream issue (e.g., Russia). Those written by country specialists, usually political scientists, whose attention turns to the phenomenon of corruption because scandals and cases are of such visibility or regularity that they cannot be dismissed as tangential to the countrys mainstream political activity (e.g., Spain, Ireland). Those where the subject matter, such as organized crime, smuggling, or
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TABLE 2 Publications by Type and Geography

European Dimension/Conceptual
2 1 1 1 5
Central & East Europe
Germany
Portugal
Ireland
2 2
Transition/ democratization Corruption Governance/ culture/ethics Local government Law Parties/ elections Business Customs/ smuggling Organized crime/money laundering Judiciary Police Planning Health OECD convention Whistleblowing Total
8 7 2 1 6 1
1 2 2 2
UK
Italy
2 2 1 1
3 5 1
2 1 1 29
1 1 1 1 11
1 2
1 1 8
2 11
money laundering, has associated links with political corruption (e.g., Italy, Southeastern Europe). The continuing audit and control scandals in the European Commission (see MacMullen 1999; Quirke 1999).
Feature 3: The Community of Scholars

The sources for the articles (and edited books)2 tend, however, to be ad hoc, a consequence of editorial balance or a ready outlet, such as Crime, Law and Social Change, which carries an eclectic mix of articles on corruption. In particular, the scandals that preceded the collapse in 1997 of the Conservative government in the UK triggered substantial attention that led to special editions of mainstream journals (Parliamentary Affairs, Journal of Law and Society, Political Studies) and several books on political corruption generally (Levi and Nelken 1996; Ridley and Doig 1996).
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Europe
France
Spain
Around the same time, a number of articles emerged from academic or practitioner conferences dedicated to either scandal or corruption. At least two such conferences have been held in the UK, and one in the Netherlands: the first, driven by the enthusiasm of two UK Europeanists (Bull and Newell 2003; Newell and Bull 1997), and the second developed from a European conference that was a follow-up from an initial U.S. conference (Fijnaut and Huberts 2002). The study of corruption is thus not a generally identifiable feature of research and academic study. French Africanists such as Medard and Bayart and development studies research institutes such as CMI in Norway and IDS in the UK routinely publish material on corruption in developing countries (e.g., Robinson 1998). There are also individual academics who have studied corruption in other countries (e.g., Williams 1998) and research projects on corruption in developing countries (e.g., Doig 1998; Doig and Theobald 1999; Williams 1999). As corruption emerges as an issue in a discipline area (e.g., development studies), scholars already working in the discipline area turn their attention to corruption issues. This is also noted in business studies/economics, criminology, and sociology, where corruption has become an issue within their specialism (Croall 2001; Hampton 1996). The maintenance of that interestand it is equally valid for political scientists who have written about corruptionhas been affected by career development, what is considered suitable for publication in mainstream discipline journals, 3 and the links between research, research funding, and teaching. The answer, therefore, as to why there is no organized and ongoing body of academics whose academic careers are significantly or substantively focused on corruption depends in part on the discipline and in part on its integral link with other, more established genres, such as organized crime, or emerging and potentially long-lasting and interdisciplinary themes, such as money laundering (which also draws in organized crime, crime, and terrorism), but less so in terms of politics and public administration. Thus, much of the research on corruption is subsumed into what are seen as more significant issues, and is often undertaken (and published in related publications) from the disciplines of criminology or (in the case of money laundering) law. Both disciplines are somewhat intellectually and empirically divergent from public administration and political science, and often more interested in legal and sociological responses than in general institutional and political perspectives. While this may seem to be a generalization, it is important in terms of journal publication (and the influence of editorial policy and peer review), in terms of interdisciplinary conferences and peer audiences, and in terms of the practitioner or policy groups with which the researchers interact. The current silo-study approach to corruption, and thus its absence from the mainstream research of public administration and political science academics, explains why the latter do not focus in any significant way on corruption, and why those who publish on corruption are often not part of the same academic network that studies the wider themes here identified in relation to public ethics.
Feature 4: The Research Focus

The absence of any significant core of scholars who regularly meet and publish on corruption over a period of time, or of any systematic focal point for such work,
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means that much of what is published is a case study or an analysis of specific scandals. While this may provide primary material for a more conceptual or comparative analysis, the use of that level of synthesized material within mainstream teaching may be limited (thus in the UK, for example, local government corruption scandals or party funding scandals are not seen as significant or relevant to the study of local government or to parties and political elections). On the other hand, there are a small number of academics who have published across a range of journals and conference proceedings, but only a few demonstrate the cumulative knowledge that informs wider academic discussion. Leo Huberts, who has published on corruption and ethics at the local and national levels in the Netherlands, has used such knowledge to promote a wider debate on reform (see Huberts and van den Heuval 1999). The main conceptual or analytical trend or theme pursued by academics, if it may be termed that, is the issue of democracy and democratization. One aspect looks at the problems facing established democracies, including party funding, abuse of of- The main conceptual or analytical fice for partisan ends, or country-specific trend or theme pursued by academics, issues (such as the activities of organized crime in Italy). Another concerns the issues if it may be termed that, is the issue of facing the accession countries (including the democracy and democratization. Baltic states, Poland, and Hungary), with a range of articles addressing the problems facing the transitional countries, from organized crime, to the integrity of banking systems, to the relations between citizens and officialdom. Some of the latter have been treated by academics in those countries, who provide a welcome addition to the pool of empirical-based, in-country researchers. A number of studies are also supported by research fund agencies where the combination of integration, public opinion/voter studies, and corruption combine areas of recognized academic study and are carried out by academics with established track records in both (see Miller, Grdeland, and Koshechkina 2001; Rose, Mishler, and Haerpfer 1998). In terms of conceptual and definitional themes, there are a number of publications where definitional questions are raised (see Heywood 1997). Nonetheless, much of the focus is on a continental variation of the agentprincipal or rent-seeking perspective, a crude econometric approach that identifies corruption as a market activity where work is undertaken to identify a number of relevant variables (for examples, see the articles in Newell and Bull 1997 and Della Porta and Mny 1997). The body of literature is diverse, often empirical and analytical, but rarely cumulative or providing the basis for conceptual or definitional frameworks. While a number of academics analyze or study the greater quantity of material on corruption that has emanated from a range of governmental and transnational organizations, they reflect a range of disciplines and backgrounds, and corruption is less a common ground for interdisciplinary, cross-disciplinary, and interactive research than a specific issue linked to a wider theme, such as organized crime or the politics of accession. Similarly, there is no significant or systematic crossover between the academicsor of their approaches and perspectiveswho deal in developmental corruption and those who deal with corruption in developed countries. The apparent paradox between the primary material available, the diversity of the material published, and the absence of a coherent and regular body of scholars as well as the
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apparently limited amount and diverse nature of the publications on corruption appears to lie, in part, in the nature of an academic career, the relative conservatism that exists in mainstream academic disciplines (both in terms of teaching and research), the perceptions of the relevance and significance of corruption in terms of, say, party politics or organized crime, and, finally, the normative and other barriers that dissuade the promotion of corruption studies as an area of academic study in its own right.
Conclusion
We are now in a position to revisit the original four questions posed in the introduction. 1. What has been the primary focus of empirical research on ethics in public administration and governance? What research questions are being asked? Much of the research on public sector ethics in general is in the form of concept clarification, mapping the terrain or the application of frameworks borrowed either from previous research in the field or from a related field. All of this is important. However, there appears to be little in the way of theory building or testing based upon empirical research (see Maesschalck 2004, for a welcome contribution). Much more is needed to develop the subject. Research questions are still being formulated. However, as a start the following might be considered: First, despite all the pressures toward a more fragmented society and the development of postmodern values, why do individuals continue to work in ways that help others, behaving with benevolence, charity, empathy, and concern? Second, what are the institutional arrangements for delivering public services that provide a fair reward for those who take risks in providing a more responsive public service while ensuring that social value is added and public good enhanced? In the specific field of corruption, we have seen a practitioner-led agenda with a focus on specific case studies. A key question has to be: What are the conditions under which corruption initiatives will be successful, and what are the implementation obstacles to be overcome? 2. How well does empirical research inform ethics theory? How well does ethics theory inform empirical research? In the general field, the relationship between theory and practice is in its infancy. There is little in the way of longitudinal studies, and case study research needs to be developed. Much of the research tends to take a snapshot. A feature of much of the writings is a curious mix of normative and descriptive. There is a place for such writings, but not at the expense of theory building based upon empirical evidence. In the field of corruption, there is an abundance of case study material and some theorizing, particularly by economists. However, there is no sense of systematic theory development within the field. Thus, those who study corruption do not draw on conceptual or analytic frameworks developed by those studying public ethics in its wider context, while the latter do not fully utilize available empirical data. 3. Are the research findings cumulative? Has progress been made toward building a body of knowledge? Previous research findings, both in general and in the particular area of corruption, are only slowly being built upon and are just as likely to be drawn from the
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specialist literature in education, health, housing, and so on, and from different disciplines, including political science, public administration, psychology, economics, and the law. The field has been developed, for the most part, by isolated individuals (e.g., Doig and Chapman in the UK, Huberts in the Netherlands) plowing a lonely furrow. There is evidence that this is now changing. However, there is as yet no sense of a body of scholars engaging with a discrete subject matter, sharing a common discourse, and bound by a tradition of knowledge. The notion of an intellectual tradition involves continuity, community and prescriptive authority (see Lockyer 1979, 202), and these features are lacking. 4. Are there new avenues of research? Are there neglected areas of study? Research has only just begun to scratch the surface of public service ethics. Not only that, but it needs to escape the straitjacket of responding to developments in the values and techniques of public service delivery characterized as New Public Management. While such developments have had an impact upon ethics in the public services, the focus might profitably shift to exploring values like justice or equity and then examine the implications for new forms of management rather than the other way round. What may be the common ground that will bring researchers together is the use of the case study and empirical material to develop conceptual and analytical frameworks to measure and address both political corruption and public service ethics in general. The time is ripe for the development of a more systematic building of a community of European scholars who are interested in all aspects of public service ethics. This is easier said than done and will involve research workshops, conferences, specific journals, academic exchanges, and so on. The ethics study group that met at the European Group of Public Administration (EGPA) conference in Portugal in September 2003 is a good start, and the presence of a dedicated Web site will facilitate continuing contact. The present paper was introduced with a reference to the work of Donald Menzel, who concludes: There has been an enormous outpouring of empirical research over the past decade. Moreover, there is every indication that the next decade will be even more promising in blending theory and observation, building a cumulative body of knowledge, opening new avenues of research, and attending to overlooked areas of study (2003, 31). Menzel identifies further research areas, including: more theoryobservation (empirical work) bridge building; much more catching up to do, in empirical research particularly with cognate fields such as business ethics; the need to build a cumulative body of knowledge; and more rigor, particularly in the use of rich case studies and longitudinal studies. We would suggest that, in a more limited way, the European perspective has seen a greater range of material on conceptual approaches and, apart from fraud and corruption, less on empirical work. We also endorse Menzels view of the value of blending theory and empirical work, although we are a little more sanguine about the every indication of a greater outpouring of research in the European arena. On
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the other hand, his area of further research provides a useful framework agenda, and one that may help shape research proposals and conference/workshop agendas. This in turn would add more recognition of comparative work not just between organizations but also between countries. Organizations like the OECD and the World Bank have ethics high on their agendas, and it is timely that scholars in Europe, the United States, and elsewhere should seek common ground and begin to develop common research agendas.
NOTES
1. Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Applied Social Sciences Index and Abstracts (ASSIA), International Bibliography of the Social Sciences (IBSS), British Library Public Catalogue (BLPC), Emerald, Transparency InternationalCorruption Online Research and Information System (TI-CORIS), WestLaw, Lexis Nexis. 2. There are only a few academic books on political corruption in European countries that are not edited collections (see Della Porta and Mny 1997; Ridley and Doig 1996). There are many more journalist or current affairs books dealing with specific scandals or country-specific corruption. 3. One of the authors was a member of a European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) research group in the early 1980s that had a number of meetings on corruption. Few of the members subsequently continued publishing on corruption, although they did so in relation to their mainstream disciplines.
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ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Alan Lawton is professor of organizational ethics at Teesside Business School, University of Teesside, UK. He received his B.A. in politics from the University of York in 1977, his M.A. in politics from the University of Durham in 1978, and his Ph.D. in political philosophy from the University of Leicester in 1988. He has coauthored six books on public services management, including Ethical Management for the Public Services (1998). His articles on organizational ethics, performance management, and strategic management for the public services have appeared in Local Government Studies, Public Money & Management, Futures, Philosophy and Management, and European Journal of Business Ethics. Alan Doig is professor of public services management and head of the Fraud Management Studies Unit at the Teesside Business School. His areas of teaching and research are public services management and fraud management. He was a member of the Group of Specialists on Public Ethics at the Local Level, the Steering Committee on Local and Regional Democracy, and the Council of Europe, and is a board member of the Standards Board for England.
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Researching Ethics for Public Service Organizations

The View from Europe

Alan Lawton and Alan Doig

Part 1: Public Service Ethics

Theme 1: The Public Service Ethos