Ethical behavior within the public cadaster in Macedonia: Is there a “light” at the end of the “Tunnel”?

摘要

Every public sector reform must promote ethics in the eyes of the citizens. One of the most notorious examples of successful modernization of public sector institutions in Macedonia is the effective reform of the Agency for Real Estate Cadaster. Thus, the main objectives are concentrated around examining ethics as very important aspect in the overall results of the implemented reforms within the Agency. The scope of the research is to clarify these objectives and depends on the knowledge that already exists in the research literature on the Macedonian Agency for Real Estate Cadaster. Therefore, the research methodology relies on observation and content analysis of various governmental documents and research papers. The research results show that the successful implementation of the E-cadaster system enabled new sophisticated dimension in the delivery of e-services to the public (notaries, geodetic companies and municipalities), but most importantly, to the citizens. The accent was on ethical issues when communicating with citizens. The role of public managers has been of tremendous help in fostering ethical behavior within and outside the Agency. However, periodical citizen surveys showed mixed results about the work of different Agency’s units located in different municipalities. As in the past, there are still cases of unethical behavior of managers and employees in the Agency. The conclusions impose valuable implications for future academic and practitioner research in the field. It seems that there is no “perfect” public organization when it comes to ethics. Moreover, it seems that human nature can not always get in line with the Weberian organizational hierarchy.