Design Considerations and Results of a Large Integrity Training Programme for Civil Servants in Hungary

Abstract

This article presents the design considerations for a training methodology for integrity education of civil servants in Hungary. During the design process I went beyond the widely used principal agent theory and the positivist approach to corruption prevention. I did it because I considered the principal agent concept in itself inadequate for understanding and preventing corruption in the given context where certain practices that clash with formal regulation and the principles of Western democratic integrity are widely tolerated and are spreading like memes. In such organizational contexts, prevalent in post-communist public sector organizations, the normative clash between formal regulation and informal culture can create a collective action problem situation. In order to solve the normative clash, besides the positivist anti-corruption instruments, an argumentative process for norm socialization is also necessary. Thus, my training method is built on a dual perspective: corruption analysis and integrity development are discussed both from a rational, positivist and a post-positivist, argumentative perspective. The positivist content is conveyed mainly through cognitive channels. The training method itself serves as a live model for the participants to grasp the argumentative process of norm and trust building still unfamiliar for most experts and civil servants in the region. The training workshops already implemented for more than 10,000 civil servants were also followed by an effectiveness assessment survey the results of which are also discussed in the paper.