Is wasta ( which is known also as favoritism or nepotism) a part of ethical culture? is there any questionnaire to test wasta?
Yes, it is part not only of ethical, but also of national culture. You 'd better investigate this issue via qualitative methods.
Thanks a lot,
I am already investigated wasta by qualitative methods using interviews but because my research design is sequential exploratory design , the second stage will be by using quantitative stage to validate findings of the qualitative results , therefore i am looking to find a suitable questionnaire.
Could i put wasta in my initial model in the box of national culture or in other box like group ethical tendencies?
Your answer is highly appreciated.
Best
Waleed
Decision depends upon your research questions. Besides, you will have to validate the internal reliability of the questionnaire,
Thanks a lot.
My research question is what factors affect ethical behaviour in the workplace?
Does that make sense?
Best
Waleed
I think you should treat "national culture" and "group ethical tendencies (organizational culture) as two different questionnaire items.
National culture is an outdated concept no longer considered valid. There may be some valid, observable patterns that fit most people in a national polity, but since nations are made up of subcultures, the concept is not useful. Whether or not "wasta" is ethical depends on what culture you are talking about. Nepotism is not culturally approved in the U.S. and is actually illegal. But in other cultures, for example, in the Middle East, it may not only be acceptable but expected. It seems a better overall research question is what is ethical behavior in the workplace - but then you still have to identify what culture you are studying, because the content of ethical behavior varies from culture to culture. You can then also ask something about what factors lead one to choose one behavior (ethical or nonethical) over another, for example, personal morality, religious precepts, peer pressure, etc. I don't think you will find a questionnaire to "test" wasta. The practice of wasta is a value and a behavioral pattern. One way to identify whether or not wasta is practiced is to study a list of employees and try to identify if and how many are related, and particularly if they are related to a person doing the hiring. Or else, design questions to get at the issue. For example; "If there are two candidates for a position and one of them is your cousin, which would you hire?" "Would you hire your cousin if the other person was more qualified?" And, design another question to check the first: "Put the following criteria for selecting a new employee in order from most important to least important - a. training, b. education, c. wasta, d. experience...."
Dear Barbara
Thank you for your response and your time.
Actually, wasta is a part of Arab tribal traditions , clan control appears in the Arab groups
they use their social and tribal connection to influence others to get benefits for them or for other party. Accordingly, i think we can say that tribal traditions/clan control and wasta are part of Arab culture.
Do you agree with me?
Best regards
Waleed
Yes, many of the values and practices of Arab tribes have found their way into Arab Middle Eastern culture. Your question piqued my interest and a quick search tells me that wata is also an aspect of traditional conflict resolution. That doesn't surprise me, but I hadn't thought of that. But that concept fits with what I observed in blood debt negotiations between two Hawazma Baggara lineages in the Sudan. One lineage had a relative high in the military in Khartoum, and they brought him to Kadugli as one of the primary negotiators, giving them a lot of clout.
A quick Google search for scholarly papers suggests there is a lot written about wasta. Below are a few of the papers I found.
http://ftp.iza.org/dp7201.pdf
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Wasta: the hidden force in Middle Eastern society by Robert Cunningham, Yasin K. Sarayrah
Praeger, 1993 - Psychology - 209 pages
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http://www.al-bab.com/arab/background/wasta.htm
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https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=wasta+scholarly+papers&hl=en&as_sdt=0&as_vis=1&oi=scholart&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj_55b-2qjNAhXBKiYKHRnCASoQgQMIHTAA
Dear Waleed, I did not get where your research is conducted. In Nicosia or in an Arab country?? I do not know why suddenly the issue is concentrated on Middle East although it exists in Europe as well as in the USA in certain communities... Your initial questions dealing with National Culture and group related are valid and I agree with Irene's point of view. There are research papers conducted in Lebanon about the topic and I guess i other countries as well. Since you performed qualitative research based on Interviews, your questions should be designed based on your observations plus any other items used by others, as for Internal reliability use 5-level Likert scales questions or statements so its testing is easy.
As for bringing people of influence during negotiations, is this wasta? or it is part of strategies of negotiation and influencing cultural values, lie when Arafat and his counter Israeli official were insisting who enters the negotiation hall first??
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