High Court reveals every current judge is a member of Qantas' Chairman's Lounge

Seat0B said:
This sort of behaviour was the topic of my PhD but in the context of public sector procurement. Free memberships that are exclusive and not offered publicly to everyone are a major source of perceived, if not actual, conflicts of interest. It’s such an interesting topic. I could go on for … oh about 100,000 words 😆
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I must read it!

Hey @Seat0B maybe Vanessa H will offer you a job at QF - 🤔
CLEO - the Chairmans Lounge Ethics Officer and you even have a PhD to prove your credentials.!!
 
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CaptJCool said:
Can you summarise in 100 💯 words or less ?
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Yes! Abstract - but it’s not really helpful

what I did was review the transcripts of the public hearings in various NSW ICAC investigations into corruption in procurement processes to look at the motivation of public officials and suppliers/contractors to act corruptly in this context. there were four distinct contexts that i looked at
  1. a corrupt individual acting alone in an organisation not recently investigated
  2. a small number of corrupt individuals in different organisations that formed the local government sector
  3. a large number of corrupt individuals widely spread within an organisation that had previously been investigated several times
  4. a small number of corrupt individuals in different universities, some of which had been previously investigated and some which had not.

I used a bunch of well established theories to do thematic content analysis of the explanations given by corrupt public officials and corrupt suppliers to see which, if any, were present in those explanations. The theories were:
  • economic rational choice (often summarised as need or greed),
  • bad apple (‘the devil made me do it’ a person has an individual weakness such as personality, addiction etc that made them do it),
  • bad barrels/bad orchards (the organisation (especially organisational culture or ethical work climates) or system was so rotten that it just influenced anyone who worked there act corruptly)
  • clash of moral values (people being torn between competing obligations - classic conflict of interest such as public sector duties v self interest, gaining benefits for friends or family, directing contracts to friends or families etc)
The findings included that all theories were present in the explanations of corrupt behaviour across all four contexts, which were deliberately selected because it was thought likely that explanations would support particular theories . This surprised me as most of the literature stresses that corruption is usually context dependent.

The implication is that trying to blame corruption on greedy or bad individuals, and assuming that sacking these people will restore integrity to an organisation is seriously insufficient. Anti-corruption efforts need to focus more broadly to be effective.

Sorry I know that’s more than 100 words, but it covers the bases.
 
Seat0B said:
The theories were:
  • economic rational choice (often summarised as need or greed),
  • bad apple
  • bad barrels/bad orchards
  • clash of moral values
The implication is that trying to blame corruption on greedy or bad individuals, and assuming that sacking these people will restore integrity to an organisation is seriously insufficient. Anti-corruption efforts need to focus more broadly to be effective.
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thanks!

I contemplate potential corruption like this

Loyalty to Nation

Loyalty to the Cause (political party but we see it in sports barracking too)

Loyalty to a person who holds a position to which people need be "obedient" or who demands loyalty - "do my bidding" (President, Prime Minister, Premier, Team Coach, Leader of Cultural Group, even at the low level of Team Leader)

Loyalty to a relative
Loyalty to friends
Loyalty to a persuasive person (at your employment or outside contractor)

any or all of these can 'trip' up people in creating circumstances where 'corrupt' behaviour could be a result
 
CaptJCool said:
thanks!

I contemplate potential corruption like this

Loyalty to Nation

Loyalty to the Cause (political party but we see it in sports barracking too)

Loyalty to a person who holds a position to which people need be "obedient" or who demands loyalty - "do my bidding" (President, Prime Minister, Premier, Team Coach, Leader of Cultural Group, even at the low level of Team Leader)

Loyalty to a relative
Loyalty to friends
Loyalty to a persuasive person (at your employment or outside contractor)

any or all of these can 'trip' up people in creating circumstances where 'corrupt' behaviour could be a result
Click to expand...
Yes these are all classic examples of conflict of interest where the loyalties you feel to one institution of society such as those you name (the state, politics/religion/social causes, the family, authority figures etc) is in conflict with another duty such as a public official’s obligation to protect the public interest.

What I find fascinating is how these conflicts depend on the situation. It’s not wrong for a small business owner to give a contract to a friend or a job to a relative or buy and donate materials to a community club BUT these same actions ARE wrong for a public servant. It’s a very nuanced area.
 
Seat0B said:
Yes these are all classic examples of conflict of interest where the loyalties you feel to one institution of society such as those you name (the state, politics/religion/social causes, the family, authority figures etc) is in conflict with another duty such as a public official’s obligation to protect the public interest.

What I find fascinating is how these conflicts depend on the situation. It’s not wrong for a small business owner to give a contract to a friend or a job to a relative or buy and donate materials to a community club BUT these same actions ARE wrong for a public servant. It’s a very nuanced area.
Click to expand...
Is it nuanced though? Seems a clear distinction between public money vs your own money. The former requires best value.
 
burmans said:
Agree, doesn't seem nuanced to me. I can waste my own money but not the public purse, seems totally clear to me.
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I think the point @CLEO is making (correct me if I am wrong) is that those who see the world in black and white look at the act (the gift) and don't acknowledge or assess context makes a difference (or influence).
Yes - my money and I do what I want.
Your money/public money/shareholder money - its more complex
…
 
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