Abstract

The influence of Nepotism and its impacts on organisational intrapreneurial practice in the Jordanian telecommunication sector is under-researched. This research study looks at addressing this gap in knowledge by providing empirical evidence and evaluating mechanisms within these companies about the practice of Wasta on intrapreneurship among employees and other relevant stakeholders like business partners. A Mixed (Both Quantitative and Qualitative) research approach using survey Questionnaire and open-ended questions methods will be proposed. This survey questionnaire and open-ended instruments will be set up with employees of the three companies. Expected outcomes from the study include addressing the gap of organisational and cultural dimensions that curtail maximum utilisation of human capital assets through internal intrapreneurial suggestions and the presence of Wasta practices. Additionally, the research seeks to develop both theoretical and practical research contribution to the other sectors.

Table of Contents

Abstract ii

Purpose of the study 5

Problem statement 5

Globe cultural dimensions 13

Intrapreneurial models 16

Research Methodology 23

Explanations on the variables 23

Research Limitations 30

Expected outcomes 32

Appendices 43

Introduction

Background

The Telecommunication industry in Jordan is handled by Jordan Telecom (JT) which is Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) provider that operates fixed public telecommunication network that provides international, national and local telephony services and leased lines.

Research terminology

Nepotism: Nepotism is a practice of favouring relatives or closely related individuals in the distribution of responsibilities or jobs over the general selection (Jaskiewicz et al., 2013, p.123).

Wasta: this is an Arabic word which meant the effects of nepotism in a scenario (Tashakova, 2020).

The rationale for the research

Farrukh et al., (2016, p.598) have shown that the lacking intrapreneurial practices in the business enterprises are creating a substantial barrier in the annual research and innovation projects. This research indicated that as intrapreneurship activities are vital to the competitive advantage of the companies, through limiting dependency on third-party research and development, they are sources of competitive advantage for technology-focused companies. Aris et al., (2019, p. 2771) pointed out the importance of training and development opportunities in the organisation to motivate the employees in the process of intrapreneurship in the public sector managerial environment. Their research found that if companies can successively manage the facility and training opportunities in the organisational environment, the employees who have an entrepreneurial mindset could be motivated to bring these talents to intrapreneurship benefitting their employers. Their research has only indicated the adverse relationship with the Training opportunities and Intrapreneurship. Among these research gaps, there is a good literature base concentrated and focused to the area of telecommunication with the effects of Nepotism (Altindag, 2014; Nadeem et al., 2015; Sutherland, 2013; Sutherland, 2012).

The telecommunication industry and allied sectoral areas are fast-moving and constantly evolving and changing with emergent and advanced technologies. Liu et al., (2015) analysed the presence of Nepotism in the context of family-based business and how this creates impacts on the managerial innovation. Their research has not clarified the linkage or the impacts of the nepotism practise on intrapreneurship in the specific Telecommunication organisational arena. The effective concluding analysis of Jaskiewicz et al., (2013) indicated the effects of the nepotism in the business organisation and tried to find out whether this could be good or bad for the managerial success. The evidence-based research findings of their research has found that managerial decisions could be influenced by the misleading information enhanced by the incapable manager recruited from the favourite group. Ombanda (2018) asserted that the presence of nepotism in the workplace or organisational structure might create supportive ways for the relatives or groups linked with favouritism in the recruitment process. Specifically, new studies on the analysis of the presence of nepotism in the practice of intrapreneurship in telecommunication companies have not to be conducted in the earlier years. Therefore, the research gaps including how nepotism create impacts on the employee motivation, employee engagement in creativity and intrapreneurial growth with annual new projects in the research have created a good rationale behind this research topic. The current research is interested in addressing the impacts of Wasta and how cultural nuance creates impacts on intrapreneurship in the telecommunication companies of Jordan by investigating the presence of Wasta as an inhibitor or facilitator of intrapreneurship. The data and study will focus on the case of three major telecommunication companies including Zain, Orange and Umniah.

Purpose of the study

Problem statement

This in turn leads to the statement of the problem underpinning this research which is an exploration of Wasta and its various dimensions on the practice of intrapreneurship in the Jordanian Telecommunications sector.

Research Questions

The research questions of this research could be framed as these following questions-

5. Is there any positive relationship between Wasta and Tribe/race importance?

6. Is there any positive relationship between Wasta and Presence of Kinship?

Theoretical Framework

Theory of Nepotism

Equity Theory

According to Daskin (2013), the Equity theory has been suitably built and developed to describe how the employees in a particular organisation feel de-motivated and de-organized when they observe that in the higher extent managerial roles, the authority is practising the unfair and unethical practice. Ombanda (2018) used the equity theory as a supplementary concept and theoretical grounding to describe how the organisations are practising the inequitable practice by the importance of their close and relative personnel over the expenses of the talented candidate in the organisation. Sidani & Thornberry (2013) defined the equity theory as the same goal of nepotism where the organisations or the higher authority places the kinship into the general corporate practise and demotivate the former general level employees in their employment practices. In this regard, this theory could be linked to the research synopsis.

Hofstede's cultural dimensions

Uncertainty avoidance dimension

Before indicating the theoretical relationship with the research topic, the relationship with the intrapreneurship and uncertainty avoidance could be addressed by the successive research finding of Arslanagic-Kalajdzic et al. (2019), where the four-level conceptual model has shown that the relationship with the uncertainty avoidance intention and practice of intrapreneurship practise is negative which has concluded that negative reflection of the higher tendency of avoiding the uncertainty on the intrapreneurial activities. The effectual attributable result of Zgheib (2017) has corresponded that most of the employees in the MENA region fear the result of failure intrapreneurial initiatives and future negative performance appraisal by the employers. Thus, this research has found that when the employees of western companies or under the supervision of the western leaders accelerate the intention of the intrapreneurial efforts.

Long term orientation Vs. STO

This theoretical aspect considers whether people are linking their future challenges and opportunities with the past events and they follow the acceptance of tradition without linking the long-term goals (Venaik et al., 2013). According to Huang & Crotts, (2019), the organisation in the western cultures tries to link the modern aspect like modern education, challenges and opportunities to be highly productive in the competitive market. On the other hand, the culture of middle east countries tries to focus on the tradition and past hierarchy in organisational practice. Hofstede Insights (2020) found a low score of 16 in the Jordanian culture in their research which demonstrates the presence of normative culture which focus on the traditional background in the decision-making process. Considering this low score, this theoretical aspect could be linked to the research topic where the researcher has been attempted to focus what could be the impacts of nepotism which are generated with the traditional relationship on the intrapreneurial practice in the three Jordanian telecommunication companies.

Globe cultural dimensions

Performance Orientation

According to Matzler & Mueller (2011), the motivational learning which is focused to the appraisal and consideration of the performance-based attachment rather human-based orientation is considered as the effect for the fair and strategic organisational practise of western countries where the employees are highly motivated to demonstrate their performance and intrapreneurial efforts. The literature-based study of Calza et al. (2010) confronted that the leaders who are supervising the middle east companies are more likely to concentrate on the human orientation and they overweight the familism and favouritism in the motivation which impedes the motivations for figuring out the intrapreneurial efforts of the employees, rather the employees always search the ways of closer relationship by which they could manage the early promotion and relatively higher benefit than the other general employees.

Source: (Zhang et al., 2020)

Intrapreneurial models

Wasta and Nepotism

Wasta (In Arabic) is a widely used concept in Middle East business culture and can be summarised as a social network of interpersonal connections rooted in family and kinship ties (Jackson et al., 2019; Salter & Harpending, 2013; Altindag, 2014). Weir, (2020) mentioned that Wasta is considered as an important practice in Middle East business culture which ensures information sharing through politic-business networks, the exercise of power and creation of opportunities which is much related to Chinese business culture. This research claimed that in both business cultures that are the Middle East and Chinese, sharing of knowledge is not extended outside the trustful relationship ties. According to Jaskiewicz et al. (2013, p.123-124; Sutherland, 2012), the reciprocal nepotism might create a substantial obligation in the management practices of the organisation to place a family member or the responsible relative in the highest position where the working performances are ignored. They also added that Entitlement nepotism could form a certain business environment in the organisation where the long-lasting practice of placing or encouraging the favoured family members and relatives could create a substantial destructive scenario regarding the business sustainability (Budhwar & Mellahi, 2018; Lokaj, 2015; Jaskiewicz et al., 2013). This research has indicated that the presence of long-lasting nepotism and ignorance of talents and intrapreneurs in the organisation might fail to take the immediate strategic decision of the business. According to Vanhanen (2014), Ethnic nepotism is another type of nepotism which is commonly seen in the middle east countries where the family members and relatives certainly recognize their favoured persons and employees as their ‘‘Own people’’ over other people in the organisation (Janssen et al., 2019; Hutchings & Weir, 2006). This literacy construct could be considered in this research because the topic is indicating that familism as a good part of nepotism considers their own people in their desired position which demotivate the other employees to practise the intrapreneurship. Ombanda (2018) grounded the equity theory in the nepotism context to describe that how the employees with the favoured relation get the support which is not supported with the employees' equity or performance rather they are emphasising the relative communication and unfair relationship.

Intrapreneurship

Falola et al., (2018) defined that Intrapreneurship involves people within a company discover or create new business ideas which lead to the creation of new parts of business even new businesses or acquire small businesses. This researcher added that intrapreneurship is the supportive objectives of every established business for their employees and management to display the characteristics and traits of the entrepreneurs (Kafile, 2018; Allen & Vardaman, 2017; Morgan et al., 2016). Urbano et al., (2013) stated that intrapreneurs are the organisational assets that make emerging and challenging ideas into real practise by distributing the risks in the initiatives. They claimed that if the organisation wants more ideas and initiatives to enhance the competitive advantage, the only way to get it is to identify, develop, trust and empower their intrapreneurs (Piesse et al., 2012, Rigtering & Weitzel, 2013). Therefore, it can be said that an organisation should understand the process of selecting, managing and creating the environment for intrapreneurs to thrive.

Impacts of Wasta in intrapreneurship

Organisational culture in MENA and Jordan

Organisational governance practices in MENA region including Jordan is different from Anglo-American countries as in MENA there are low levels of disclosure, concentrated ownership and ownership is high and minimal transparency (Piesse et al., 2012). Piesse et al., (2012) found that Family members in Middle East countries hold management and other key position in the organisation, where the traditional convention is that at a sheikh leads rather than followed business structures. Al-Dabbagh & Assaad, (2010) argued that Participative management is not new in the MENA region but it is mostly used by managers who work with western organisations. Precisely, tribal-family relation and religion truly affect other aspects management and Managers from the MENA region disregards the rules and procedure set to oversee the smooth running of the company as man-made precepts (Tung & Verbeke, 2010; Van De Voorde, 2012; Venaik et al., 2013). In this case, Stability and commitment are highly valued in Islamic culture but this often leads to a culture of blind compliance instead of questioning or challenging instructions. Megheirkouni, (2014) mentioned that family members in the Middle East countries are always paid but they do not need to work. This researcher found that tribal family tradition supports consultative management techniques and authoritarian management styles. Small family-controlled businesses in the MENA region are impersonal, less authoritarian and bureaucratic than larger firms not controlled by the family (Weir, 2020; Velez‐Calle, 2015; Mazanec et al., 2015). Thus, more theoretical supports could be enhanced by linking the various cultural dimensions of the previous literature from the context of Jordan or MENA region.

The successive research result of Mazanec et al. (2015) indicated that the emergence and higher concern of the uncertain avoidance which denotes the concern for not taking the risks have incorporated an organisational culture in the MENA region. Gianiodis et al. (2016) defined that the presence and concentration towards the power distance and its impacts on the organisation mostly in the middle east countries created an organisational environment where the employees of higher power group are gaining the lucrative roles and getting the unfair benefits over others. Hofstede Insights (2020) found a low score of 16 in the Jordanian culture in their research which demonstrates the presence of normative culture which focus on the traditional background in the decision-making process. According to House et al. (1999), the assertiveness trait of the employees in the organisation creates both higher and lower assertiveness for the specific group of people in the organisation. This research outlined that a higher assertiveness trait with the kind behaviour and kinship has been recognized in the MENA region where a group of people are getting unfair supports over others. The comparative analysis of the Tung & Verbeke (2010) has structured the importance of concentrating on the both human and performance orientation in the organisation where the human orientation is highly focused in the MENA region to present and highlight the relationship of the human rather their performance in the organisation. On the other hand, the performance orientation is motivated with a lower extent to address the successful task accomplishment and progress of the corporate performance.

Research Methodology

Explanations of the variables

4. Favourite groups: In the organisation, the favourite groups or favoured persons could get additional and unfair recognition which indicates the nepotism.

   Tribe/race: The importance of tribe/race recognition in the organisation could persuade the former employee or higher manager to select or approve their same race over others which is indicating the presence of nepotism.

   Sharing Ideas: The supportive environment of sharing ideas in the organisation could indicate the presence of intrapreneurial motivation.

   Decision making: The participation and motivating the employees in the decision-making process of the organisation indicates the presence of intrapreneurial efforts appraisal.

   1. Structural Equation Model (SEM)

   

   Figure: Structural Equation model

   1. 
      Hypothesis

H4: There is a positive relationship between Wasta and Favouritism

H5 There is a positive relationship between Wasta and Tribe/race importance

Sampling and data collection methods

The researcher will find out the relationship between the identified independent and dependent variables using the SPSS tool where the correlation and regression analysis will be executed and followed to present the relationship. The reason behind the use of correlation and regression is that the researcher has been aimed to examine the relationship between the Wasta (Nepotism) and practise of intrapreneurship which will help the researcher to examine the impacts of Wasta (Nepotism) on the Intrapreneurship in the Jordanian Telecommunication Industry Sector (Harrell & Bradley, 2009). The regression analysis will help the researcher to know the level of significance of each value compared to the other variables and how the dependent variables of the Intrapreneurship have been explained by the independent variables (Groenland & Dana, 2019). Muijs (2010) asserted that SPSS could be the supportive choice for the quantitative research where the researcher could find out the relationship of the identified variables with a successful attempt.

In this research, the researcher will also perform qualitative research which will be contained in the second half of the questionnaire to help the employees to write their answers in a single document as a result, they would complete the questions easily. Under the Qualitative analysis, the researcher will be focused on the open-ended question (See Appendix 2) along with the survey documents to the employees of the three selected organisations (Al-Weshah et al., 2019). Here, the collected answers will be analysed by the thematic analysis and findings will be discussed. To ensure the highest due responses from the respondents of all levels of employees of the three organisations, the translations of the English to the Arabic language for the survey questions and open-ended questions will be presented and shown to the employees.

Contingency plan

Contingency Plan 2: If only one company would participate in the research, the researcher could do quantitative research on the only one company which could represent the scenario of the whole telecommunication sector of Jordan on the research topic.

Contingency Plan 3: Based on the possibility of the refusal of the organisations targeted in the methodology, the method might be converted into the case study approach by taking one or two companies.

Research Limitations

Language: As the different respondents will be influenced by the different cultural segments, the language preferences might be considerable limitations of this research

Resource: another limitation could have arisen from the use of quantitative research method only for this research where the SEM and SPSS will limit the research.

Expected outcomes

Theoretical contribution

This research could generate steps in the advancement of the existing theories on the nepotism and intrapreneurship. The theory of Intrapreneurship could include the nepotism as for both facilitator actor in the Intrapreneurship practice. Besides, the theory of nepotism or this cultural nuance could make a linkage with the intrapreneurship practise and weight this theory into the business background. As a result, this cultural aspect could be researched or included for further theoretical grounding.

Practical contribution

This research will generate some practical contributions to business and social sciences. Based on the motivation of examining the impacts of nepotism on the intrapreneurship in the telecommunication sector, other researchers could reflect the same research question in other countries and other companies to examine the impacts of nepotism on the intrapreneurship in other business, social science or different sectors. Besides, the managers of Middle East business enterprises will be able to find pragmatic insights regarding their internal organisational culture and environment and could change or facilitate their organisational policies for an effective outcome.

Recommendation

References

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Appendices

Appendix-1

Open-ended Questions

1. Do you encourage the practice of Wasta or not? Why or why not?

6. Do you think that the employees who have been participated in the idea sharing and decision-making process are closely influenced by the Wasta practice?

Table 1: Timelines

Table 2: Proposed budget