What is it about?
We model the relationship between corruption perceived by Romanian employees and their intention to leave the country. This research, based on a survey of 911 Romanian employees, connects migration with corruption. We construct a model that explains employees’ intention to migrate based on corruption that they perceive at the country level and multiple organizational variables, such as career satisfaction, observed organizational misconduct, turnover intention, and perceived organizational corruption. Tests of the model show that Romanian employees who perceive a high level of corruption in the country, have a low level of career satisfaction, and want to find another job are disposed toward migration rather than finding another job in Romania.
Featured Image
Why is it important?
Without denying the importance of economic conditions in emigration from Romania, in this article we consider another driver of emigration: workers’ perception of corruption at their places of employment and in their country. It is widely accepted that home-country corruption increases the number of people who choose to work abroad because working in a corrupt environment makes people feel less satisfied with their jobs and with life in general. In this article, we examine two channels through which corruption influences the decision to emigrate. The first channel is workers’ perception of the extent of corruption at their current job. We show that having a higher perception of corruption at workers’ place of employment reduces their job satisfaction and makes them more inclined to seek alternative places of employment, either in their home country or abroad. The second channel is workers’ perceptions of the level of corruption in their home country’s economy. This channel reflects the fact that if domestic levels of corruption are low, then workers can leave their current, corrupt employer and seek employment at a less corrupt domestic workplace. However, if they believe that the level of corruption at their current workplace is similar to that at other potential domestic employers, then they are more likely to emigrate to seek employment in a less corrupt environment elsewhere.
Perspectives
We verify the significance of these two channels using survey data gathered from 911 employed Romanian citizens. We show that a perception of high levels of organizational misconduct and corruption at their current workplace increases employees’ desire to seek employment elsewhere. Among people who wish to change employers because of a corrupt workplace environment, perceived country corruption strongly influences their desire to emigrate. Thus, among the 322 respondents in our sample who have a high probability of searching for another employer, an important factor that influences their decision to migrate is their perception of home-country corruption.
PhD Emil Crisan
Universitatea Babes-Bolyai
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: The Impact on Migration Intentions of Perceived Corruption at the Organizational and Country Level in Romania, Eastern European Economics, October 2018, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.1080/00128775.2018.1533410.
You can read the full text:
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
