New development: Cultural impacts on unethical practices in public management—Are individualism and femininity a golden combination?

IMPACT: This study reveals that, in addition to directly addressing unethical practices through integrity codes and more specific measures, politicians and public managers should also consider the cultural factors underlying these practices. Public sector organizations are advised to integrate measures to ensure that employees show desirable moral behaviour in their human resources repertoire, including recruitment procedures and training programmes. ABSTRACT This article explores the impacts of country-specific cultural dimensions on unethical practices in public management. The focus is on four unethical practices: corruption, manipulation of accounting information, bullying behaviour by managers towards their subordinates, and the acceptance of gifts by public servants. Each of these practices is examined in relation to Hofstede's country-cultural dimensions. The study suggests that individualism and femininity may reduce the likelihood of corruption and the manipulation of accounting information, offering a theoretical proposition for future empirical research.