Culture and Corruption: Plagiarism, Wasta and Bribery In the MENA Region

Individuals in different cultures may have diverse understandings of right and wrong, based on different worldviews. While the west predominantly shares a guilt-innocence culture, the east largely conforms to the shamehonor culture, and Africa (and parts of South America and Asia) is linked to the fear-power culture. Thus, justice, ethics, right and wrong, and corruption may be perceived differently in each culture. With data collected in a focus group with 11 participants from Lebanon, Egypt, and Algeria, the purpose of this study was to shed light on the role of culture in allowing and normalizing corruption in the MENA region. We found that in shame-honor cultures keeping relationships is the honorable and therefore the right thing to do. Therefore, culture may contribute to normalizing corruption when the value of keeping a relationship is considered above other values. While in guilt-innocence cultures values are predominantly determined by rules, in shame-honor cultures values are determined by relationships. Therefore, in shame-honor cultures, individuals tend to accept plagiarism, wasta, and bribery as long as it keeps the relationships. The paper ends with recommendations for research and practice.