Article abstract

Journal of Economics and International Business Management

Research Article | Published December 2021 | Volume 9, Issue 3 pp. 102-111.

doi: https://doi.org/10.33495/jeibm_v9i3.21.145

 

The “islands of integrity” as an anti-corruption strategy: A Tunisian case-study

 


 

 

Khaoula Ben Mansour1*

Karim Ben Kahla2

 

Email Author

 

1. Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences, LISEFE-FSEGT, Tunisia.


2. ESCT Business School, Tunisia.



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Citation: Mansour KB and Kahla KB (2021). The “islands of integrity” as an anti-corruption strategy: A Tunisian case-study. J. Econ. Int. Bus. Manage. 9(3): 102-111. doi: 10.33495/jeibm_v9i3.21.145.

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 Abstract 


The purpose of this study is to offer an academic and a practical background interpretation of the Tunisian anti-corruption strategy through Hirschman postures “Voice”, “Loyalty” and “Exit”. In addition, we discuss the design of an anticorruption mechanism to implement best practices and whistleblowing within the Tunisian public sector. Four public sectors were chosen to shed light on their goals as enhancing whistle-blowing managerial mechanisms for detecting fraud. We conducted 41 semi-structured interviews, through telephone or face-to-face in a mutually agreed setting, in the offices of Tunisian Anti-Corruption Agency, the Government services of the prime minister, and The United Nation Development Program « UNDP ». The research methodology adopted to collect secondary data includes peer-reviewed literature, books, grey literature such as working papers, reports published by the UNDP local representation in Tunisia, the Tunisian anti-corruption agency’s reports, and some media articles inquiry. The study found out that the concept of “Voice” can be considered as a whistleblowing organizational attitude, considering its capacity to denounce wrongdoings through the digital workflow of public compliance services, and the benefits from a more flexible stand which is in line with the strategies implemented by the organization. In this regard, “loyalty or exit" attitudes share mainstreamed in the “blue code of silence” or retaliation process against whistleblowers without succeeding in imposing them in the ethical practices of the organization. Our study provides a useful contribution to the anti-corruption strategies debate. It draws upon the capability to implement a change in public management through an impact of “voice” attitude and highlights the concept of resilience as the “whistleblowers” ability to fundamentally create a new improved system when ecological and social structures make the existing system belong to “Exit or Loyalty” management attitude.

Keywords  Whistleblowing   Tunisian institutional transition   “Loyalty, Voice and Exit”   Hirschman  

 island of integrity   digital public management   best practices   corruption   governance  

 

 

Copyright © 2021 Author(s) retain the copyright of this article.

This article is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0

 

 

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