Social Capital in Jordan: Wasta in Employment Selection

Social capital has emerged as a concept of great interest and potential to help understand and explain how social structures and networks impact political, social and business practices at the collective and individual levels. The basic premise is: investment in social relations will yield expected returns. Extant research has largely focused on the West; our knowledge of how social capital plays out in the Middle East is limited. We marry social capital with ‘wasta’, the strong family and tribal based connections secured in networks in the Arab world, and investigate HR managers’ perceptions of wasta in employment selection in Jordan. Often use of wasta in employment selection is related to favouritism and nepotism and the many negative outcomes of not adhering to merit-based selection. Through in-depth interview data we reveal a more nuanced and multifaceted view of wasta in employment selection. When examined through the social capital lens six distinct themes emerge: (i) wasta as an enabler to get jobs, (ii) wasta as social ties/ solidarity, (iii) wasta as a method to transfer/ attain information, (iv) wasta as a guide in decision-making, (v) wasta as an exchange, and (vi) wasta as pressure. Our findings confirm that at times wasta grants individuals unfair access to employment that is beyond their qualifications, skills, knowledge and/ or abilities. However, organisational context is relevant. In banking, not all roles are open to wasta. Where the possible negative impact on the organisation poses too great a risk HR managers feel able to resist even strong wasta. Context also emerges as being of key importance with regards to the background and business model of an organisation. Family businesses tend to operate wasta more frequently and extensively using tribal connections, religious networks and geographical area based networks as a key source in hiring. Despite globalisation and international nature of banking, wasta and tribalism feature strongly in daily business conduct in Jordan. Our paper illuminates the positive effects of wasta, e.g.as a method to transfer information, together with discussion on the dangers of ‘cloning’, a (lack of diversity), and the dangers of an incompetent workforce .

Children’s Friendships and Learning in School: Cognitive Enhancement Through Social Interaction?

Background. Recent literature has identified that children's performance on cognitive (or problem-solving) tasks can be enhanced when undertaken as a joint activity among pairs of pupils. Performance on this ‘social’ activity will require quality relationships between pupils, leading some researchers to argue that friendships are characterized by these quality relationships and, therefore, that friendship grouping should be used more frequently within classrooms. Aims. Children's friendship grouping may appear to be a reasonable basis for cognitive development in classrooms, although there is only inconsistent evidence to support this argument. The inconsistency may be explained by the various bases for friendship, and how friendship is affected by cultural contexts of gender and schooling. This study questions whether classroom-based friendship pairings will perform consistently better on a cognitive task than acquaintance pairings, taking into account gender, age, and ability level of children. The study also explores the nature of school-based friendship described by young children. Sample. 72 children were paired to undertake science reasoning tasks (SRTs). Pairings represented friendship (versus acquaintance), sex (male and female pairings), ability (teacher-assessed high, medium, and low), and age (children in Years 1, 3, and 5 in a primary school). Method. A small-scale quasi-experimental design was used to assess (friendship- or acquaintance-based) paired performance on SRTs. Friendship pairs were later interviewed about qualities and activities that characterized their friendships. Results. Girls' friendship pairings were found to perform at the highest SRT levels and boys' friendship pairing performed at the lowest levels. Both boy and girl acquaintance pairings performed at mid-SRT levels. These findings were consistent across Year (in school) levels and ability levels. Interviews revealed that male and female friendship pairs were likely to participate in different types of activity, with girls being school-inclusive and boys being school-exclusive. Conclusion. Recommendations to use friendship as a basis for classroom grouping for cognitive tasks may facilitate performance of some pairings, but may also inhibit the performance of others. This is shown very clearly with regard to gender. Some of the difference in cognitive task performance may be explained by distinct, cultural (and social capital) orientations to friendship activities, with girls integrating school and educational considerations into friendship, and boys excluding school and educational considerations.