IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/woemps/v22y2008i1p149-166.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Corruption in the post-Soviet workplace: the experiences of recent graduates in contemporary Ukraine

Author

Listed:
  • John Round

    (University of Birmingham, UK, j.round@bham.ac.uk)

  • Colin C. Williams

    (University of Sheffield, UK, C.C.Williams@sheffield.ac.uk)

  • Peter Rodgers

    (University of Aston, UK, p.rodgers1@aston.ac.uk)

Abstract

While Ukraine was bestowed market economy status by the European Union in 2005 its labour market still endures many structural problems. By exploring the experiences of young graduate employees this article highlights the difficultly in obtaining work within Ukraine's labour market and the problems they face once they have secured employment. Rather than seeing the development of a transparent labour market the collapse of the command economy has seen a relatively closed system develop. The article demonstrates how many jobs are secured through the use of connections or the demanding, and payment, of bribes.The situation does not improve once graduates obtain long-term employment. Interviewees discuss the lack of job security, the informal payment of wages and the lack of legal protection from corrupt employer practices. The article has broader resonance outside of the Ukrainian case study as the discussion of workplace corruption highlights how the issue is concerned with much more than simply cash based transactions and how those that endure it are likely to turn to the informal economy for employment.

Suggested Citation

  • John Round & Colin C. Williams & Peter Rodgers, 2008. "Corruption in the post-Soviet workplace: the experiences of recent graduates in contemporary Ukraine," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 22(1), pages 149-166, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:22:y:2008:i:1:p:149-166
    DOI: 10.1177/0950017007087421
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0950017007087421
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0950017007087421?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. World Bank & International Finance Corporation, 2006. "Doing Business in 2006 : Creating Jobs," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 7421.
    2. Hans Zon, 2000. "The Political Economy of Independent Ukraine," Studies in Economic Transition, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-0-333-97802-3, June.
    3. World Bank, 2005. "Ukraine : Poverty Assessment, Poverty and Inequality in a Growing Economy," World Bank Publications - Reports 8803, The World Bank Group.
    4. Seabright,Paul (ed.), 2000. "The Vanishing Rouble," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521790376, September.
    5. Jack H. Knott & Gary J. Miller, 2006. "Social welfare, corruption and credibility," Public Management Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 8(2), pages 227-252, June.
    6. Luis A. Sosa, 2004. "Wages and Other Determinants of Corruption," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 8(4), pages 597-605, November.
    7. Blanchflower, David G., 2001. "Unemployment, Well-Being, and Wage Curves in Eastern and Central Europe," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 15(4), pages 364-402, December.
    8. Arvind K. Jain, 2001. "Corruption: A Review," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(1), pages 71-121, February.
    9. Simon Clarke, 2002. "Making Ends Meet in Contemporary Russia," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 1951.
    10. Colin C. Williams & John Round, 2007. "Re‐thinking the Nature of the Informal Economy: Some Lessons from Ukraine," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(2), pages 425-441, June.
    11. Seabright,Paul (ed.), 2000. "The Vanishing Rouble," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521795425, September.
    12. Christian von Hirschhausen & Volkhart Vincentz, 2000. "Energy Policy and Structural Reform," Eastern European Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(1), pages 51-70, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Gerando Bracho C. & Julio Lopez G., 2005. "The economic collapse of Russia," BNL Quarterly Review, Banca Nazionale del Lavoro, vol. 58(232), pages 53-89.
    2. Wladimir Andreff, 2004. "Would a Second Transition Stage Prolong the Initial Period of Post-socialist Economic Transformation into Market Capitalism?," European Journal of Comparative Economics, Cattaneo University (LIUC), vol. 1(1), pages 7-31, June.
    3. Marin, Dalia & Schnitzer, Monika, 2005. "Disorganization and financial collapse," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 49(2), pages 387-408, February.
    4. Canice Prendergast & Lars Stole, 2001. "Barter, Liquidity and Market Segmentation," CESifo Working Paper Series 586, CESifo.
    5. Jamil, Faisal & Ahmad, Eatzaz, 2019. "Policy considerations for limiting electricity theft in the developing countries," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 452-458.
    6. Gerando Bracho C. & Julio Lopez G., 2005. "The economic collapse of Russia," Banca Nazionale del Lavoro Quarterly Review, Banca Nazionale del Lavoro, vol. 58(232), pages 53-89.
    7. Jose Noguera, 2004. "The transmission mechanism to barter," CERGE-EI Working Papers wp243, The Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education - Economics Institute, Prague.
    8. An, Weihua & Kweon, Yesola, 2017. "Do higher government wages induce less corruption? Cross-country panel evidence," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 39(5), pages 809-826.
    9. Gibson, John & Stillman, Steven & Le, Trinh, 2008. "CPI bias and real living standards in Russia during the transition," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(1), pages 140-160, August.
    10. Richard B. Goud Jr., 2002. "Inter-Firm Non-Monetary Transactions in Russia: A Literature Review," Development and Comp Systems 0207001, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Vlad Ivanenko & Dmitry Mikheyev, 2002. "The Role of Non-monetary Trade in Russian Transition," Post-Communist Economies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(4), pages 405-419.
    12. Marin, Dalia & Huang, Haizhou & Xu, Chenggang, 2002. "Financial Crisis, Economic Recovery and Banking Development in Former Soviet Union Economies," Discussion Papers in Economics 27, University of Munich, Department of Economics.
    13. Isabel Pla Julián, 2003. "Cambios institucionales en la economía rusa: de las reformas de mercado a la consolidación monetaria," Revista de Economía Institucional, Universidad Externado de Colombia - Facultad de Economía, vol. 5(8), pages 66-91, January-J.
    14. Kim, Byung-Yeon & Pirttila, Jukka, 2004. "Money, barter, and inflation in Russia," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 297-314, June.
    15. Jesús Fernández‐Villaverde, 2018. "Cryptocurrencies: A Crash Course in Digital Monetary Economics," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 51(4), pages 514-526, December.
    16. Jos?? Noguera & Susan J. Linz, 2005. "Barter, Credit, and Welfare: A theoretical inquiry into the barter phenomenon in Russia," William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series wp757, William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan.
    17. Milena Bieniek, 2021. "Bartering: Price-Setting Newsvendor Problem with Barter Exchange," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(12), pages 1-22, June.
    18. Hua, Guowei & Zhang, Yi & Cheng, T.C.E. & Wang, Shouyang & Zhang, Juliang, 2020. "The newsvendor problem with barter exchange," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    19. Akbar Marvasti & David J. Smyth, 2011. "Barter and Business Cycles: Further Empirical Evidence," The American Economist, Sage Publications, vol. 56(2), pages 85-97, November.
    20. Vlad Ivanenko, 2003. "Non-monetary Trade and Differential Access to Credit in the Russian Transition," William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series 539, William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:22:y:2008:i:1:p:149-166. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.britsoc.co.uk/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.