Mainz, Germany

Dear Fraij,

I had to look us "wasta," since I had never seen the term. The following comes from Wikipedia:

Wasta or wasata (Arabic: وَاسِطة wāsiṭah) is an Arabic word that loosely translates into nepotism or 'clout' or 'who you know'. It refers to using one’s connections and/or influence to get things done, including government transactions such as the quick renewal of a passport, waiving of traffic fines, and getting hired for or promoted in a job.

In other words, it amounts to getting something through favoritism rather than merit, or what is informally spoken of in English as "pull" from connections (the opposite of "push"). The English word cronyism overlaps in meaning but is not precisely the same. Roughly equivalent words in other languages include sociolismo in Cuba; blat in Russia; guanxi in Chinese and Vetternwirtschaft in German, protektzia in Israeli slang, un pituto in Chilean Spanish, In Brazilian-Portuguese it is referred to as "pistolão", "QI" (Quem Indica, or Who Indicates), or in the slang "peixada", "Pidi Padu" in Malayalam.

---End quotation

Just in terms of understanding your question, is this the concept you have in mind?

Also, what exactly do you mean by "putting wasta in the "national box"? Can you say a bit more?

H.G. Callaway

Dear colleague H.G Callaway

Thank you for your prompt answer.

Wasta is an Arabic version like nepotism or favoritism , i have my conceptual ethical behaviour in the workplace model, but wasta is not included in the model , but after my interviews with participants, a new factor emerges which is wasta , and wasta is not ethical practice, so , could i add wasta to my model , and where i can put it , i mean  can i put wasta under national culture category in the model or other place?

Best

WALEED

Mainz, Germany

Dear Fraij,

"Wasta" seems to be the Arabic term for practices which have a much wider scope. So, I am somewhat doubtful of the idea of your treating it as something culturally specific. But I do not know exactly what the purpose of your model may be. Nor do I know of any specifics that may be involved.

Whether you treat wasta or nepotism and favoritism as "ethical" really depends on the purpose of your study. If you seek to describe patterns of behavior, then it may certainly belong to on-going patterns of various groups. In one important sense, the "ethos," is simply what people habitually and actually do. By excluding "wasta" from the ethical, you seem to be making an evaluation. There is nothing wrong with evaluation, but it may be beside the point if you aim for empirical description --even as a preliminary to evaluation. In general, evaluation presupposes description.

What is the purpose of your study? How do the purposes fit together with your methods? What do you aim to accomplish? How are the results to be used?

H.G. Callaway

Dear Professor

Thanks a lot for you.

The aim of this research is fill the gap in the area of business ethics in the Arab region and to differentiate a conceptual framework of ethical behaviour at the workplace applicable to the education system of Kuwait.

Objectives

1-      To identify the factors that affect ethical behaviour in schools in Kuwait.

2-      To determine the factors associated with an organization's ethical cultural and national culture that affect ethical behaviour in schools in Kuwait.

3-      To identify the extent of the influence of factors, such as ethical personal tendencies, on ethical behaviour in schools in Kuwait.

4-      To determine the relationship between individual characteristics (age, gender, nationality, educational level, work experience, and work sector) and the ethical behaviour in Kuwaiti schools.

5-      To develop a conceptual ethical behaviour framework at the workplace applicable to the education system of Kuwait.

Accordingly, i will use qualitative approach to explore phenomena followed by quantitative approach to validate results from qualitative stage.

Waata emerged after interviews, therefore i have to add it to my model, my question is ok to add it? because i am talking about ethics and wasta i think is not ethical practice, however, in case i have to add it , what the title or address of wasta that would be in my model.

I trust and i would appreciate if you could help me.

Kind regards

Waleed

Mainz, Germany

Dear Fraij,

Your presentation of your project is much clearer in your new note.

Many countries have laws against nepotism and various forms of favoritism, it might be useful to look into how this stands in the countries which concern you. From an ethical point of view, it might also be helpful to try to state the contrary, positively evaluated ideal, say fairness is hiring and promotion.

Good business practices likely differ as regards smaller, "family firms" and larger sorts of firms or government employment. It is one of the accomplishments of the modern world to have been able to consistently form dependable employees and co-workers from strangers. This is not always and everywhere so. In some circumstances the small family firm would not be able to trust people from outside the family. It took a development of conscience not to have to have such an employee continually under surveillance. 

I recall a style of retailing, once and again encountered, which helps make the point. It works like this: You go into a shop and pick something out. The employee at the location gives you a chit describing the item giving the price --which the customer is required to take to the cash register. At the register, you pay for the item and have your chit stamped, and then you take the chit back to the first employee to collect the item. This amounts to a kind of double book-keeping in which the customer helps keep both employees honest. It seems to express a wariness of the business owner. That this is a rare sort of system in my experience suggests that employees can mostly be trusted so as not to have to exercise control on each other. If people do the right thing, though no one is watching, then that is called "conscience."

Good business practices are adjusted to the availability of trusted employees and co-workers. Where nepotism and favoritism are prevalent, this requires a system of checks on such activities.

I hope this helps.

H.G. Callaway