Public Agents’ Empowerment and Rule-Breaking Behaviors: Evidence from Panel Analysis of U.S. Federal Agencies

Hyesong Ha, Hyunkang Hur

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

4 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Public agent (un)ethical behavior or ethical leadership has been a topic of interest as well as a hot debate in terms of “bounded ethicality” in complex organizations. This article extends the study of public agents’ (rule-breaking) unbureaucratic behaviors with three contributions:1) employee empowerment is used as an organizational factor affecting public agents’ rule-breaking behaviors; 2) an agency-level panel dataset comes from three different sources; 3) panel data analysis and structural equation model are applied. The results imply that policy makers and HR manager should recognize the possibility of negative unintended consequences of over-empowerment or excessive discretion practices in public organization.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)407-431
Number of pages25
JournalPublic Organization Review
Volume24
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Mar 2024

Keywords

  • Employee Empowerment
  • Panel Data Analysis
  • Rule-breaking Behavior
  • Structural Equation Model
  • Unbureaucratic Personality

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Business, Management and Accounting (miscellaneous)
  • Law

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Public Agents’ Empowerment and Rule-Breaking Behaviors: Evidence from Panel Analysis of U.S. Federal Agencies'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this