Abstract

VALENCIA CASALLAS, Olga Lucía  and  BARRETO-GALEANO, María Idaly. Psychological and institutional factors that predispose to the appearance of corrupt behavior in public and private entities. Psychol. av. discip. [online]. 2023, vol.17, n.1, pp.25-42.  Epub Nov 02, 2023. ISSN 1900-2386.  https://doi.org/10.21500/19002386.6223.

The purpose of the article is to identify individual factors affecting and the factors of the institutions associated with the occurrence of corrupt conduct. Corruption has been studied in several disciplines; its causes vary from structural issues in the political and economic spheres to decline of individual morality and cultural differences (Julián & Bonavía, 2017). According to Bautista (2015), there have been attempts to fight corruption from outside the individual level. External controls, audits and monitoring systems have been created to this end. However, few initiatives aim to rectify the issue at the individual level of education, perceptions, beliefs and values. When ethical values are promoted, they enhance integrity and dignity in individual behavior, generating honest behavior, oriented toward fulfillment of duty. Conversely, when values are weakened or absent, anti-values and corrupt practices appear immediately. This is a qualitative study, and information was collected through interviews. It adopted a systematic design, characterized by open, axial, and selective coding. Eleven interviews were conducted with legal professionals specializing in the investigation of financial crimes, who have identified the factors involved in corruption and fraud. The information was analyzed using the ATLAS TI 6.5 software. The results showed that lack of control was the most important factor that led to corruption in entities, and in second place is the power of senior executives. On the other hand, ambition, greed, and acceptance of corrupt conduct were the most common factors in the individual sphere. Identifying the factors associated with corruption is relevant for proposing preventive measures.

Keywords : corruption; factors enabling corruption; individual factors; entity factors.

        · abstract in Spanish     · text in English     · English ( pdf )