A Demands-Resources Model of Corruptibility: Empirical Evidence on How Moral Disengagement and Harm Awareness Regulate Civil Servants’ Moral Judgment

IF 4.2 3区管理学 Q1 PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

Review of Public Personnel Administration Pub Date : 2026-03-11 DOI:10.1177/0734371x261417649

Kristina S. Weißmüller, Adrian Ritz

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Abstract

Understanding the motivational mechanisms of administrative corruption is of paramount importance for public integrity. We propose and test a novel demands-resources model of civil servants’ corruptibility from a micro-level perspective, focusing on important personality and job-related demands and resources, that is, personality traits, motives, and states. Drawing on experimental evidence ( Obs . = 263) from Swiss public administration, this study reveals how public service motivation and social value orientation function as integrity-enhancing resources but through different psychological mechanisms. Furthermore, Machiavellianism and psychopathy—but not narcissism—significantly stimulate civil servants’ capacity to morally disengage and hence increase corruptibility, serving as integrity-draining demands, while job-related burnout has no effect. These novel insights contribute to the “bright side” discourse of PSM, advance the conceptual understanding of administrative corruption, and expand the state-versus-trait debate of public integrity, providing important insights for the effective design of anti-corruption strategies and public personnel selection for public integrity.

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腐败的需求-资源模型：道德脱离与伤害意识调控公务员道德判断的经验证据

了解行政腐败的动机机制对公共廉洁至关重要。本文从微观层面提出并检验了一个新的公务员腐败需求-资源模型，该模型关注重要的人格与工作相关需求和资源，即人格特质、动机和状态。利用实验证据（Obs）。[263]本研究揭示了公共服务动机和社会价值取向作为诚信提升资源是如何通过不同的心理机制发挥作用的。此外，马基雅维利主义和精神病——但不是自恋——显著地刺激了公务员道德脱离的能力，从而增加了腐败，成为耗尽诚信的需求，而与工作相关的倦怠没有影响。这些新颖的见解有助于PSM的“光明面”话语，推进了对行政腐败的概念理解，扩展了公共廉洁的国家与特质之争，为有效设计反腐败战略和公共廉洁人员的选择提供了重要的见解。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Review of Public Personnel Administration PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION-

CiteScore

9.70

自引率

7.70%

发文量

期刊介绍： The Review of Public Personnel Administration publishes articles that reflect the varied approaches and methodologies used in the study and practice of public human resources management and labor.