Trust, good governance and unethical actions in Finnish public administration

摘要

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to present an empirical study and contribute to the discussionrnof administrative ethics and integrity by investigating three ethical issues, namely trust, goodrngovernance and unethical actions in the Finnish public administration.rnDesign/methodology/approach - The evidence of this research is based on empirical data from arnNational Citizen Survey implemented in 2008 by the University of Vaasa. The questionnaire was sentrnto 5,000 Finnish citizens and the response rate was 40.4 percent.rnFindings - The strength of the Finnish society concerning trust is that the citizens feel confident inrnpublic sector organizations and societal institutions. Even though serious corruption cases havernremained few in Finland, there is still work to do in order to keep the situation under control. Ignorantrnand bad treatment of citizens occurs mostly in individual service encounters, it does not reflect thernwhole of the ethics of administration.rnResearch limitations/implications - Further research is needed in order to investigate thernsocietal background factors that can explain the different findings from the research questions. Alsornfurther research is required for comparing the results of different countries.rnPractical implications - Strengths and weaknesses are identified as a tool for further research andrnfor the work for practitioners.rnOriginality/value - The core contribution of the paper is a contribution to knowledge concerningrncitizens' perceptions of trust, good governance and unethical actions in an egalitarian society.