Abstract
Employees’ ethical behavior is essential to government administration characterized by integrity, accountability, and public trust. However, the existence of formal regulations and control mechanisms does not necessarily ensure consistent ethical conduct. Previous studies on internal control, compliance, and management compensation have reported inconsistent findings and have predominantly examined non-governmental organizations, leaving limited evidence on how these factors jointly operate in local government bureaucracies. This study aims to examine the effects of internal control, compliance, and management compensation on employees’ ethical behavior at the Regional Secretariat of Indramayu Regency. A quantitative cross-sectional design was employed. Data were collected through questionnaires from 102 employees selected using proportionate stratified random sampling from a population of 137 employees, with proportional representation across organizational units. The data were analyzed using multiple linear regression. The results show that internal control (β = 0.200, p = 0.004), compliance (β = 0.185, p = 0.031), and management compensation (β = 0.551, p < 0.001) have positive and statistically significant effects on employees’ ethical behavior. The model is statistically significant (F = 64.158, p < 0.001) and explains 66.3% of the variance in ethical behavior (R² = 0.663). Management compensation is the strongest predictor, suggesting that perceived fairness, transparency, and alignment of rewards with responsibilities may play an important role in reinforcing ethical conduct beyond formal control mechanisms. Theoretically, these findings extend the understanding of ethical behavior by highlighting the complementary role of organizational reward systems alongside formal control and compliance mechanisms in the public-sector context.