Purpose - The purpose of this research is to describe and assess the legal requirements for transparency in appointments and promotions in the higher-education institutions of Sweden. Design/methodology/approach - The study uses both qualitative and quantitative approaches to explore legal documents, analyse data, and conduct interviews with leading executives in Swedish higher-education institutions and administrative bodies. Findings - Transparency is shown to exist at all stages of documentation and decision-making procedures. In particular, appeals to the Board of Appeal are rarely approved. Research limitations/implications - The findings might not be applicable to public sectors in other countries. There is potential for further research to explore transparency in similar procedures in other comparable countries. Practical implications - Quality assurance and quality control with respect to appointments and promotions in higher-education institutions might be enhanced by legal requirements for transparency of documentation and decision-making procedures. Originality/value - The study provides original research into the administration of part of the Swedish public service and suggests that this might be seen as a potential benchmark for quality assurance and quality control with respect to public access to documentation and decision-making procedures.

This article examines the results of a study conducted of the top 100 public sector units in Sweden. The aim of the study was to examine and describe the codes of ethics in these Swedish public sector units. Reports on the responses of 27 public sector units that possessed a code of ethics. The content analyses of these codes indicate that they have only recently become an interest in public Sweden. Many public sector units are in the early stages of development and assimilation of codes of ethics artefacts into overall ethics policies in the organization. A customized PUBSEC-scale was used to measure and evaluate the content of the codes. The code of ethics best practice in the Swedish public sector has been used to develop a public sector scale consisting of seven dimensions and 41 items. The PUBSEC-scale differs from the current private sector scales in literature, owing to the specific characteristics of the public sector. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the implementation, communication and benefits of codes of ethics in the public sector of Sweden. Design/methodology/approach: The research is based on a longitudinal approach. It examines the ethos of codes of ethics in the largest public sector organizations of Sweden in 2001-2002 and 2005-2006. Findings: Only a few of the largest public sector organizations in Sweden have indicated that they possess codes of ethics. This finding may be explained by the current judicial legislation that governs Swedish society. The public codes of ethics have been established both recently and, in part, years ago. Research limitations/implications: A suggestion for further research would be to examine the implementation, communication and perceived benefits of public sector codes of ethics in other countries. Another area of further research would be to replicate the reported surveys in the future to examine the existence of potential trends. Practical implications: When it comes to the perceived benefits of public sector codes of ethics there appears to be only minor acknowledgement of the code being used to resolve ethical problems in society. However, there is a strong conviction that the code of ethics positively influences the operations of public sector organizations. Originality/value: The paper examines the ethical implementation, communication and benefits put in place by private companies to embed codes of ethics into their organizations. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Purpose: The objective of this paper is to develop and describe a construct of the "ethos of the codes of ethics" (i.e. an ECE construct) in the private and public sectors of Sweden.

Design/methodology/approach: The paper takes a cross-sector approach to codes of ethics amongst the top private sector companies and the top public sector organisations. The paper then examines the measures put in place by the dual sample in order to describe the ethos of their codes of ethics.

Findings: The multivariate techniques used in the statistical analysis indicated that the ECE-construct consists of five dimensions: ethical bodies, ethical tools, ethical support procedures, internal ethics usage, and external ethics usage. Research limitations/implications - It should be noted that the ECE construct has been derived from large companies and organisations in private and public Sweden, which may indicate less applicability to smaller operations. Another limitation may be the validity and reliability across other cultural samples. The dual sample contains a variety of different types of operations, but it may not be transferable to other countries.

Practical implications: The outcome is based on data from private companies and public organisations that indicated they had corporate codes of ethics. Therefore, a suggestion for further research is to examine the ECE construct in other countries/cultures that differ from the ones in this research effort performed in the private and public sectors of Sweden.

Originality/value: The ECE construct introduced makes a contribution to theory and practice in the field as it is based upon a dual sample. It makes a contribution to theory as it outlines a construct for the benefit of other researchers working in both the private and the public sectors. The authors also believe that it may be of managerial interest as it provides a grounded framework of areas to be considered in the implementation of the codes of ethics in both private companies and public organisations.

© Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to test the measurement and structural properties in a model of organizational codes of ethics (OCE) in Sweden.

Design/methodology/approach – The measurement and structural properties of four OCE constructs (i.e. surveillance/training, internal communication, external communication, and guidance) were described and tested in a dual sample based upon private and public sectors of Sweden.

Findings – Results show that the measurement and structural models of OCE in part have a satisfactory fit, validity, and reliability.

Research limitations/implications – The paper makes a contribution to theory as it outlines a set of OCE constructs and it presents an empirical test of and OCE model in respect to measurement and structural properties. A number of research limitations are provided.

Practical implications – It provides a model to be considered in the implementation and monitoring of OCE. The present research provides opportunities for further research in refining, extending, and testing the proposed OCE model in other cultural and organizational settings.

Originality/value – The OCE model extends previous studies that have been predominately descriptive, by using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling.

This article examines the results of a study conducted of the top 100 public sector units in Sweden. These units are comprised of entities of government, municipalities, and county councils. The aim of the study was to examine and describe the commitment to codes of ethics in these Swedish public sector units. This article reports on the responses of those public sector units that possessed a code of ethics. The construct of commitment was measured by a consideration of the inputs, objectives and outputs of the code across six areas. The commitment to codes of ethics has an interest for those involved in the public sector in Sweden and society in general. Most public sector units are in the early stages of development and assimilation into overall ethics policies in code artefacts. On a specific level there are customized codes of ethics that are not always documented in a generic artefact. Theoretical and managerial implications are provided. Furthermore, suggestions for further research are proposed. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.