Corruption exists in all societies, and often takes place behind closed doors. Corruption can take many different forms, such as when public employees demand or accept payment or favours in exchange for their services, when politicians misuse public funds or give public contracts or jobs to their friends, family, or sponsors, or when businesses bribe officials to secure advantageous agreements (Transparency, n.d). Transparency defines corruption as “the abuse of entrusted power for private gain” (Transparency, n.d).  In some societies corruption is a rare occurrence while in other countries it permeates the whole society. This study aims to see patterns in non-corrupt countries' anti-corruption strategies as well as patterns in corrupt countries' anti-corruption strategies.  Singapore and Denmark are two nations that consistently score highly on the Corruption Perception Index (CPI), a sign of a less corrupt culture. However, countries like Thailand and Iran consistently score poorly on the CPI, suggesting a larger corruption issue (Transparency, 2022). This paper aims to provide an overview in the form of a comparative desk study of the anti-corruption measures of the four countries and to draw comparisons between them, to determine whether less corrupt countries combat corruption in a different way than more corrupt countries. What this study has found is that strong institutions and anti-corruptions agencies given the right amount of tools and independence are more likely to be able to combat corruption in countries; rather than fragile institutions and anti-corruption agencies who are politicised and controlled by the government.

Jordan has strived to manage a large-scale anti-corruption initiative for the public sector since 2006. Despite the implementation of laws and bodies mandated to address corruption, public trust of government remains low and the country’s position on international corruption rankings has not improved. This study seeks to investigate how the implementation of a large-scale anti-corruption initiative impacts the organizational culture of the country’s public sector. It proposes that wasta, a unique Arab phenomenon that promotes the values of loyalty, represents the most significant barrier to penetrating what is essentially a normalized culture of corruption in the Government of Jordan. The organizational culture theory model was adopted as the theoretical framework because of its ability to account for differences in culture where promoted values do not necessarily correspond with employee actions. Because literature in this area is rare, a qualitative exploratory methodology was chosen. Based on data saturation, a total of 19 semi-structured interviews were conducted on-site in Jordan with mid-level managers identified using snowball sampling. The results prove the theoretical proposal to be accurate and show that wasta has evolved to the deepest level of organizational culture. The results are sub-divided into two major themes: culture and leadership. The results show that wasta is a deeply held and engrained part of organizational culture and that it is difficult for anti-corruption efforts to change this culture in the Jordanian public sector. The thesis also demonstrate how leadership can be both something negative or something positive in the fight against wasta depending on how it is used.. The findings carry implications for public administration, foreign policy, and society as a whole especially with regard to the development of more effective anti-corruption strategies in Jordan and abroad. The specific contribution to knowledge of this thesis is the examination of how organizational cultural reforms impact public-sector organizations in the Middle Eastern context given the influence of wasta, which is not discussed in the literature but remains important for the field. Future research should consider the views of a wider variety of stakeholders, as well as the impact of wasta on organizational characteristics including performance and delivery of public services.

The thesis investigates corruption and the anti-corruption strategies. Focusing on the case study of Ukraine, it is shown how corruption can affect society and what particular measures can be undertaken for tackling this phenomenon. It is illustrated that the current level of corruption in Ukraine is high in all fields of public management: the customs and taxation systems, law enforcement agencies, the judicial system, business, and so on. The analysis of the Ukrainian government's anti-corruption strategies reveals that they are based primarily on deregulation, demonopolization, the creation of a strong institutional environment, and digitalization. In recent years, Ukraine has been able to achieve institutional advancements through the creation of new anti-corruption bodies and has initiated digitalization as a new strategic direction against corruption. However, none of these activities have brought tangible results so far. The thesis analyzes why the government's anti-corruption strategies have been fruitless to date and how the situation might develop in the future. Keywords anti-corruption strategies, bribery, corruption, European Union, institutional reforms, public officials, Ukraine. Abstrakt Práce zkoumá korupci a protikorupční strategie se zaměřením na případovou studii Ukrajiny. Je...