Tri Hita Karana: Balinese local wisdom and its role in the triumph over corruption

Summary of “Tri Hita Karana: Balinese Local Wisdom and Its Role in Combating Corruption” (Ardiana et al., 2025, Journal of Accounting and Organizational Change)

1. Purpose and Focus of the Study

This paper investigates how Tri Hita Karana (THK)—the Balinese philosophy of maintaining harmony among God (Parahyangan), humans (Pawongan), and the natural environment (Palemahan)—can serve as an ethical foundation for fighting corruption in public institutions.

The study focuses on how embedding THK values into accounting practices and organisational change strengthens moral responsibility, collective accountability, and sustainable governance. Rather than viewing corruption merely as a legal or technical problem, the paper argues that it is also a moral and cultural issue that requires ethical transformation from within.

The central research question is:

How does integrating Tri Hita Karana principles influence accounting and organisational change to prevent corruption and promote integrity in Balinese government institutions?

 

2. Background and Context

Corruption continues to undermine accountability and trust in many developing countries, including Indonesia. It distorts financial reporting, weakens internal controls, and reduces public confidence. Despite various anti-corruption initiatives—such as the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), Government Internal Control System (SPIP), and digital budgeting systems (SIMDA)—the problem persists because most solutions focus on rules and enforcement, not on ethics and cultural behaviour.

Bali provides a unique case where corruption levels are relatively low compared with other Indonesian provinces. This success is widely attributed to the influence of Tri Hita Karana, a long-standing local philosophy that guides personal, organisational, and communal conduct. THK’s focus on harmony among the spiritual, human, and natural worlds aligns closely with modern governance principles of accountability, transparency, and sustainability.

By examining how these values shape public officials’ attitudes and accounting practices, this study contributes to understanding how local wisdom can complement institutional reforms to build more ethical public governance systems.

 

3. Theoretical Foundation

The paper is grounded in ethics and organisational change theories, arguing that culture provides the moral infrastructure needed to sustain accountability. It also engages with comparative ethical frameworks such as Ubuntu in Africa (emphasising community and solidarity) and Confucian ethics in East Asia (focusing on hierarchy and moral order).

What makes Tri Hita Karana distinct is its three-dimensional harmony:

1. Parahyangan – spiritual connection with God, which encourages honesty and moral integrity.
2. Pawongan – harmony among people, which promotes cooperation and collective responsibility.
3. Palemahan – harmony with nature, which nurtures sustainable and responsible use of resources.

Together, these principles produce a holistic ethical system that balances personal morality, social relations, and environmental care—transforming accounting and governance into moral acts of stewardship.

 

4. Research Method

The study adopts a qualitative approach based on 21 semi-structured interviews with Kepala Dinas (department heads) from eight regencies and one municipality across Bali. Interviews were conducted between July and November 2022, each lasting around 80 minutes.

Participants represented diverse departments (finance, environment, tourism, planning, and culture). Although all were Balinese Hindus, they managed teams with multi-religious staff, making the discussion of THK inclusive and pragmatic.

The data were analysed thematically, using the three THK dimensions as analytical lenses—Parahyangan, Pawongan, and Palemahan. This framework revealed how each principle operates as an anti-corruption mechanism through moral, social, and ecological accountability.

 

5. Key Findings

(a) Parahyangan – Spiritual Integrity and Moral Responsibility

This principle strengthens ethical accountability by linking professional duties to moral and spiritual values. Public officials described their work as not only accountable to auditors or superiors but also to a higher moral order.

Departments introduced reflective practices—informally described as “spiritual audits”—where staff paused before closing accounts or submitting reports to consider whether their actions were honest and just. Leaders who embodied humility and fairness inspired similar behaviour among subordinates.

“Our work is audited not only by the inspectorate but also by our conscience,” said one department head.

These practices reduced manipulation of data and misuse of funds, fostering internal moral restraint. Non-Hindu staff were encouraged to interpret Parahyangan as universal ethical accountability, ensuring inclusiveness and shared values.

 

(b) Pawongan – Collective Oversight and Social Harmony

Pawongan promotes mutual respect, cooperation, and participatory control. Departments adopted group-based financial reviews where several officers jointly checked expenditure, fostering a “many eyes” approach.

This reduced the power asymmetry that often enables corruption, replacing hierarchical inspection with horizontal peer monitoring. Inter-departmental meetings also became forums for learning and ethical dialogue rather than for blame.

“We invite colleagues and even local community representatives to review our budgets,” one participant explained, emphasising how inclusion strengthened trust.

Through Pawongan, financial management became a shared responsibility that built transparency and collective integrity.

 

(c) Palemahan – Environmental Accountability and Sustainable Governance

The third principle extends accountability beyond people to the environment. Departments began considering environmental consequences when allocating budgets or designing programmes. Some introduced sustainability metrics in financial evaluation, linking ethical governance to ecological preservation.

“Every project now has an environmental assessment, so we use funds more responsibly,” said another respondent.

Palemahan thus reframes public budgeting as a long-term stewardship process rather than a short-term financial transaction. It discourages corruption by reinforcing the idea that misusing public resources harms both society and nature.

 

6. Discussion: Integrating Culture into Governance

The findings show that Tri Hita Karana transforms anti-corruption efforts from external control to internal conviction. Instead of relying solely on sanctions, it embeds integrity through shared moral values and cultural consciousness.

This moral internalisation creates three layers of accountability:

1. Personal (moral conscience – Parahyangan)
2. Social (collective oversight – Pawongan)
3. Ecological (sustainable stewardship – Palemahan)

Compared with other cultural ethics, THK integrates spirituality and ecology into governance, offering a more comprehensive model of ethical public management. It turns accounting into a spiritual–social–ecological practice, linking professional responsibility with human and planetary well-being.

 

7. Implications, Contributions, Limitations and Future Research

Theoretical Contribution:
The study extends the literature on ethics and organisational change by showing how local wisdom can institutionalise moral accountability. It demonstrates that anti-corruption reform in developing contexts must go beyond regulations to include cultural and ethical transformation.

Practical Implications:

• Public institutions can embed THK-based practices such as moral reflection sessions, peer accountability meetings, and environmental impact assessments.
• Leaders should act as moral exemplars, guiding change through ethical behaviour rather than authority alone.

Policy Implications:
Policymakers should integrate cultural frameworks into governance reform, recognising that values rooted in local wisdom can enhance compliance, trust, and sustainability.

Social Implications:
THK promotes social cohesion by aligning governance with community ethics, enabling diverse religious and cultural groups to find common moral ground.

Research limitations:

1. Context-specific setting (Bali’s public sector):
   Findings are grounded in Bali’s cultural and administrative environment. The THK philosophy is widely understood and practiced locally, which may not hold elsewhere. This limits generalizability beyond Bali and beyond government agencies.
2. Single-method, qualitative design:
   Evidence comes from semi-structured interviews with department heads. While rich, this design is vulnerable to self-presentation bias, recall bias, and the absence of triangulation with behavioral or archival data (e.g., audit trails, procurement records).
3. Elite informant focus (Kepala Dinas):
   The study privileges senior perspectives. It captures tone at the top well but underrepresents front-line staff, internal auditors, civil society monitors, and vendors—actors who often face corruption pressures most directly.
4. No counterfactual or comparison group:
   Without a matched comparison (e.g., similar provinces with weaker THK salience), it’s hard to isolate the unique contribution of THK from other reforms (KPK initiatives, e-government, budget transparency rules).
5. Outcomes not directly measured:
   The study shows perceived improvements (e.g., reflective practice, peer review, environmental checks) but does not test causal impact on corruption outcomes (e.g., irregular expenditure rates, audit opinions, procurement red flags).
6. Potential inclusivity tension:
   Although THK was reframed as universal ethics, parts of Parahyangan (spiritual accountability) may be interpreted as religious by some non-Hindu staff—raising questions about scalability and inclusiveness in plural settings.

Future research directions:

1. Comparative and cross-cultural studies:
   • Across provinces in Indonesia (e.g., Bali vs. non-Bali) to test portability.
   • International comparisons with other cultural ethics (e.g., Ubuntu, Confucianism) to see when spiritual/communal frameworks translate into lower corruption risk and why.
2. Mixed-methods and causal designs:
   • Pair interviews with objective indicators: audit findings, procurement anomalies, hotline/whistleblowing data, complaint resolution times.
   • Use quasi-experimental setups (e.g., difference-in-differences when THK-based training or procedures are rolled out) to estimate causal effects on integrity outcomes.
3. Multi-level organisational perspectives:
   • Include frontline staff, internal auditors, procurement officers, civil society observers, and suppliers to map how THK travels from “tone at the top” to daily micro-practices.
   • Study psychological mechanisms (moral identity, moral elevation, peer norms) that link THK to behavior.
4. Private sector and hybrid organisations:
   • Test THK-aligned practices (reflection sessions, peer review, environmental checks) in SOEs, publicly listed firms, and PPP projects where commercial incentives and corruption risks differ.
5. Measurement development:
   • Build and validate THK-in-practice scales (Parahyangan, Pawongan, Palemahan) for organisations: items could assess frequency/quality of ethical reflection, peer-review intensity, and environmental stewardship in budgeting.
   • Create process metrics (e.g., percentage of projects with environmental impact screens; peer-review coverage rate; pre-close “reflection” sign-offs).
6. Digital governance and THK integration:
   • Evaluate how THK can be embedded in e-procurement, e-budgeting, and risk analytics (prompts for reflection before approvals; mandatory peer checks; automated environmental flags).
   • Test whether nudges rooted in THK (language, prompts, dashboards) reduce risky overrides.
7. Boundary conditions and unintended effects:
   • Examine where THK is less effective (e.g., high staff turnover, low ethical leadership, misaligned incentive schemes).
   • Monitor for ritualization (box-ticking of reflection meetings) and identify safeguards that keep practices substantive.
8. Longitudinal change and sustainability outcomes:
   • Track departments over time to see if THK-aligned practices persist and whether they correlate with improved audit quality, citizen trust, fiscal efficiency, and environmental performance.