Article Review on Public Sector Officials’ Commitment to Anti-Bribery Management

System Implementation: A Case Study in the Malaysian Context

INTRODUCTION
On October 27, 2017, Malaysian Anti-Corruption Malaysia (MACC) and the Department of
Standards Malaysia (Standards Malaysia) had begun to operate the Anti-bribery Management
System (ABMS) following the Malaysian Standards (MS) ISO 37001:2016. It presents
international anti-corruption practices to assist an organization in preventing, detecting, and
responding to bribery (Brescia, 2017).

The Malaysian government emphasized the use of ABMS in public sector among Malaysia
departments and agencies. Along with the National Anti-Corruption Plan (2019) which enforce
all Malaysia public sector to comply with the Anti-Bribery Management System (ABMS) MS
ISO 37001 within two years (January 2019 to December 2020). Successful implementation of
ABMS depends on public servant’s commitment. Employees that show a solid commitment to
antibribery policies and management systems will contribute to the ABMS implementation.
Therefore, public servant’s commitments are critical for ABMS successful deployment in the
public sector.

There are three primary components of commitment which is: affective, continuation, and
normative (Meyer & Allen, 1991). Affective Commitment refers to employees' emotional tie to
their organisations, and they will continue to work for their organisations because they want to.
(Meyer & Allen, 1991). Continuance Commitment deals with knowing the price of abandoning a
job (Meyer & Allen, 1991). Normative Commitment expresses the sense of being obligated to
keep working (Meyer & Allen, 1991). In another writing, Meyer and Herscovitch (2001) have
defined a more general Workplace Commitment which refer to commitment to organizations,
unions, occupations, teams and leadership, goals and personal careers (Herscovitch & Meyer,
2002).

In this study, employees with affective commitment are expected to accomplish things to the best
of their capacity (Herscovitch & Meyer, 2002). They may also feel obligated to their employees
and view their allocated task as their duty (Herscovitch & Meyer, 2002). ABMS is the
implementation commitment; it is defined as the extent of employees' emotional connection to
their organizations and their obligation to implement the system.

Previously no research has been done before on employees' commitment in fighting corruption.
The main goal of this study is to learn how individual factor influence public employees'
commitment to implementing the ABMS. This research also could contribute to the
advancement of ethical organizational practices.

DISCUSSION
Previous research has found, the older, the longer they've been employed, the less committed
they are (for example, Allen & Meyer, 1993). Despite specific findings that demonstrate that
age, gender, and tenure may influence employee engagement, public sector companies must
go further to remove corruption inside their organizations. This feature of integrity may affect
an individual's decision to commit. Employees in the public sector should be motivated to
provide services that benefit the community, capable of achieving the agency's goal, and
contribute to helping public service (Rainey & Steinbauer, 1999).
Rainey & Steinbauer, 1999 stated, to be an efficient government organization, the
organization should consider the following:
a) It should be supported by external stakeholders such as governmental authorities;
b) it has autonomy in refining and implementing its mission
c) It has enticing tasks; it has a solid mission-oriented culture;
d) And it has effective leadership behavior
Hence, this study aims to evaluate the relationship between age, gender, tenure, and the
implementation commitment of public employees and the ABMS. There are few
considerations to developing the hypothesis regarding Gender and Commitment to Implement
ABMS. In terms of one's own personal experience (material) benefit, women are less likely
to jeopardize the common good (Dollar, Fisman, & Gatti, 2001). According to Torgler and
Valev (2006), accepting a bribe is more likely for women than men. Previous studies found
that women are more inclined to follow anti-bribery rules than men (Torgler & Valev,
2010b). Studies have indicated that the bigger the number of women in parliament, the lower
the country's degree of corruption (Dollar et al., 2001). Previously, women have also been
found to be less involved in bribery, and less accepting of bribes (Swamy, Knack, Lee, &
Azfar, 2001; Torgler & Valev, 2006).
Thus, this research proposes the following hypothesis;
1. H1: ABMS implementation is more dedicated among female employees.
Age and intention to implement ABMS
Prior studies indicated that age was positively correlated with affective commitment
(Meyer & Allen, 1984). senior employees have more emotional responsibility (Meyer
& Allen, 1984). The Torgler and Valev (2006) study indicated that older adults are
more likely to pay taxes and less likely to engage in criminal acts. the lack of
involvement may be caused by exposure to corruption as Mocan (2008) revealed that
those aged between 20 and 54 are more likely to be approached for a bribe (younger
than 20).
Age and knowledge exposure are linked. Zipparo (1999) investigated the attitudes of
NSW public sector employees when reporting workplace misconduct in their state. A
higher percentage of respondents aged 55 to 64 years, on the other hand, hadn't heard
of the New South Wales Protected Disclosure Act. An earlier study indicated that
personnel working in public sector firms in Pakistan are willing to face the risk of
whistleblowing (Bashir, Khattak, Hanif, & Chohan, 2011). Seventy-seven percent of
the whistle-blowers were 30 or younger.
2. H2: Older staffs are more devoted to implementing ABMS.
ABMS implementation; Workgroup commitment
A previous study discovered that employee dedication leads to decreased levels of
bribery (Manurung, Suhartadi, & Saefudin, 2015). Nurisyal Muhamad and
Norhaninah A. Gani are dedicated to fighting bribery. Mayer and Shoorman (1992)
discovered that all hierarchical levels devote significant effort to their organizations.
Results demonstrate that workers with strong ethical principles are more dedicated to
their profession (Salahudin, Baharuddin, Abdullah, & Osman, 2016).
Management and lower-level employees are vulnerable to corruption (Jancsics, 2015,
Salleh et al., 2019). Pecuniary incentives for public service could lead public
employees to further their interests and legitimize bribes. According to their findings,
those with higher salaries are more tolerant of bribes. They might experience lowerlevel
corruption (Jancsics, 2015). where most of the people are honest, petty
corruption would appear (Dion, 2010). Examples of petty corruption are government
employees dealing with lower-level management with transactions such as filing tax
returns, paying duties, clearing regulations, or requesting rewards (Lambert-
Mogiliansky, Majumdar, & Radner, 2007). Corruption and direct exposure to the
public make us propose the following hypothesis:
3. H3: Highly devoted support staffs execute ABMS to a higher degree than
managers.
Tenure and implementation of ABMS
For a long time, public service is linked to a higher risk of corruption between
civilians and public servants. They so recommended the use of periodic rotation and
fines to disincentives corrupt behavior.
As previously stated, affective and normative commitment to be much higher in
longer tenure. Also, Brammer and Millington (2007) discovered that a long term with
a firm increases the commitment to corporate social responsibility. To sum up, here's
overall hypothesis can be concluded in the last hypothesis: employees who have been
with their companies for a more extended period are more devoted to implementing
ABMS than those with the company for a shorter time.
Furthermore, this research explores the significance of government employees' dedication to
implementing the Anti-Bribery Management System (ABMS) in Malaysia. This study
examines many factors, including age, gender, tenure, and group level. We found that female
employees have greater commitment to implementing ABMS than males. Previous research
indicated that women are more likely to follow the rules than men (Torgler & Valev, 2010a).
Women are less likely to tolerate corruption, and even women bosses are less implicated in
bribing (Swamy et al., 2001).
Implementing the ABMS requires significant employee commitment from both male and
female employees. Feminism culture in an organization needs to be improved. Enhancing the
quality of life for women would help further strengthen feminism culture (Tavanti,
Stachowicz-stanusch, Krause, & Teaching, 2013). Furthermore, an increase in the number of
female employees in all levels of the organization can help to prevent corruption (Chaudhuri,
2012).
Older staffs are more devoted to implementing ABMS. Additionally, elderly persons are less
likely to be involved in crime (Torgler & Valev, 2006). Older personnel remain dedicated as
they regard it as part of their responsibilities to organizational success (Allen & Meyer,
1993). Research demonstrated that religion and corporate culture are essential in enhancing
Generation Y (Gen Y) perceptions of corruption issues (Kirana, Fee, Johari, & Ain, 2015).
Corruption should be combated at the time when it rears its ugly head. Additionally, greater
length of employment in an organization increases the likelihood of corrupt public-citizen
relations. But, a punishment may be used to deal with corruption (Winardi et al., 2017). This
research discovered that senior employees are more dedicated than junior employees in the
company. This is most likely because individuals who have served longer have more
experience and understanding of the consequences and penalties.
Corruption occurs at the local level and tends to favors those on the bottom of the hierarchy
(Jávor & Jancsics, 2016). Meanwhile, intermediate management typically helps to cover up
upper management's illicit deals (Jávor & Jancsics, 2016). The study shows that support-level
personnel apply ABMS more often than managers. This latest discovery backs up the prior
study that managerial seniority results in poor thinking when making an ethical judgment
(Bigel, 2000). The complacency of long-tenured employees could be behind this (Bigel,
2000). Based on this finding, businesses should create a corruption-free corporate culture.
CONCLUSION
The study concludes by looking at employees' dedication to implementing the ABMS in
selected public sector organizations in Malaysia. Gender, age, tenure, and working group
level all affect implementation commitment. This may help establish rules and promote a
culture of fighting corruption in organizations. As well, the study's shortcomings may aid
future research. First, future studies should look at a more extensive population because the
sample, in this case, is only three organizations is selected. Additionally, future studies
should examine the role of other organizational elements, both internal and external, in
helping employees persist with their anti-bribery efforts.