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The Effects of Bureaucrats’ Discretion on their Rule Bending Behaviors: Focusing on Moderating Effect of Administrative Controls

  • Korean Society and Public Administration
  • Abbr : KSPA
  • 2018, 28(4), pp.83-110
  • Publisher : Seoul Association For Public Administration
  • Research Area : Social Science > Public Administration

Kwon, Eun Joo 1 Kim, Soon Eun 1

1서울대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

Although there have been many studies on the discretion and the exercise of discretion of public employees, Few empirical studies have tested the relationship between discretion and exercise of discretion or moderating effects on the relationship. This study aimed to examine the hypothesis that more discretion a public employee has, the more exercise of discretion(rule bending) occurs and investigated moderating effects of administrative control affecting the relationship. For this purpose, we performed hierarchical regression analysis on survey data from 2,885 local public employees nationwide. The result support the hypothesis that public employees with the high degree of discretion are likely to bend the rules. In addition, when public employees are highly alienated from decision-making, they are more likely to bend the rules. This implies that decentralization of decision-making rather be more effective control than centralization. Also, it is particularly interesting that the relationship between discretion and rule bending would be stronger for individuals under high formalization. Although it is known that high formalization means low discretionary behaviors, considering moderating effects, this relationship is only valid when one’s discretion is low. These findings lend greater support to the need of multidimensional research design for studies of discretion.

Citation status

* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.

This paper was written with support from the National Research Foundation of Korea.