Not Biting the Hand That Feeds You: How Perverted Accountability Affects the Ethical Leadership of Dutch Mayors

Abstract

Dutch mayors are in the curious position that, by law, they are required to act against any integrity violations by their fellow political executives and municipal councilors. At the same time, they are fully accountable to the local council, and increasingly dependent on the political support of those they oversee for remaining in office and for their capacity to govern. Data collected from four focus groups and nine interviews indicate that this dependence has produced a precarious situation of "perverted accountability" in which mayors, because they perceive social and career risks, are more likely to refrain from assertive action against integrity violations than the accountability and ethical leadership literature suggests. Here, it is argued that there is an institutional aspect to such reluctance to be an effective moral leader that goes beyond Dutch mayors simply having weak personalities. The current study finds support for the unfashionable argument that accountability can be bad for democracy. It contributes to the study of ethical leadership by identifying perceived personal and positional risks as real-life impediments to ethical leadership and by drawing attention to the complexities of ethical leadership in the realm of politics.

‘Moral Person’ or ‘Ethical Leader’? A Longitudinal Quantitative Analysis of Councilors’ Integrity Requirements for Dutch Mayors (2008–2019)

“…The latter emphasizes the context specificity of the integrity concept (see also Zhu et al, 2019). Also, the analysis of the ethical leadership requirements posed on the Dutch mayor provides a unique and valuable insight into what integrity and ethical leadership imply in the public domain (Heres et al, 2019;Karsten, 2019a).…”

“…Both aspects of ethical leadership can be expected to be of great importance to the Dutch mayoralty since mayors are strongly expected to behave with integrity and also find "being a moral person" of utmost relevance to being an officeholder themselves. In addition, mayors are confronted with strong moral manager expectations, not only by the law (Cohen, 2018;Karsten, 2019aKarsten, , 2019b.…”

“…underexplored in the public realm as the field continues to be dominated by the study of business ethics (Brown & Treviño, 2006;Heres, Lasthuizen, & Webb, 2019;Heres & Lasthuizen, 2012;Karsten, 2019a).…”

“…Consequently, to the extent that it is possible, it is often difficult to identify who is, or should be, the ethical leader in an organization and who carries responsibility for ethical management. Second, the ethical leadership function in the public sector is rarely formalized as a legal responsibility; the ethical leadership role often remains an informal one (Karsten, 2019a). In public administration, ethics committees and integrity officers may form an exception since they sometimes play an important formal role in integrity systems (Huberts et al, 2008).…”

“…It is punishable by law to divulge any information about the specifics of the selection process. This inaccessibility of further information is all the more reason why descriptions are a valuable source when analyzing the mayoralty because they offer a unique insight into what, if anything, is expected from officeholders in terms of ethical leadership (Den Hartog, Caley, & Dewe, 2007;Karsten, 2019aKarsten, , 2019b. And, research into vacancy texts has become an established research strategy in this field (Bee & Hie, 2015;Harper, 2012;Jørgensen & Rutgers, 2014;Tan & Laswad, 2018).…”