Are indigenous approaches to achieving influence in business organizations distinctive? A comparative study of guanxi, wasta, jeitinho, svyazi and pulling strings

Managers in five nations rated scenarios exemplifying indigenous forms of informal influence whose cultural origins were concealed. Locally generated scenarios illustrated episodes of guanxi, wasta, jeitinho, svyazi and pulling strings. Local scenarios were judged representative of local influence p...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of human resource management 2012-01, Vol.23 (2), p.333-348
Main Authors: Smith, Peter B., Torres, Claudio, Leong, Chan-Hoong, Budhwar, Pawan, Achoui, Mustafa, Lebedeva, Nadezhda
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Brazil
Business practices
China
Comparative studies
Corruption
cross-cultural
Culture
guanxi
India
Influence
Informal groups
leadership
Management
Management theory
Manycountries
Organizational behaviour
Regionalism
Russian Federation
wasta
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Summary:Managers in five nations rated scenarios exemplifying indigenous forms of informal influence whose cultural origins were concealed. Locally generated scenarios illustrated episodes of guanxi, wasta, jeitinho, svyazi and pulling strings. Local scenarios were judged representative of local influence processes but so too were some scenarios derived from other contexts. Furthermore, many scenarios were rated as more typical in non-local contexts. While these influence processes are found to be widely disseminated, they occur more frequently in contexts characterized by high self-enhancement values, low self-transcendence values and high endorsement of business corruptibility. Implications for a fuller understanding of local business practices are discussed.
ISSN:0958-5192
1466-4399
DOI:10.1080/09585192.2011.561232