| 2064 - INFORMAL NETWORKS IN EMPLOYEE SELECTION- A CASE OF THE JORDANIAN BANKING SECTOR |
| Authors : Sa'ad Ali - UNIVERSITY OF WORCESTER, Ani Raiden - NOTTINGHAM TRENT UNIVERSITY, Susan Kirk - NOTTINGHAM TRENT UNIVERSITY |
| Friday, June 23, 2017 - Slot 8 (10:50 - 12:20) |
| TIC Building - Level 3 Conference Room 6 |
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Social networks and social capital have emerged as concepts of great interest and potential to help understand and explain how social structures impact political, social and business practices at the collective and individual levels. The basic premise is: investment in social relations will yield expected returns. Existing research has largely focused on the West; our knowledge of how social capital plays out in the Middle East is limited. This paper explores the prevalent practice of ‘wasta’ through the social capital lens, namely bonding and bridging social capital, 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. However, through in-depth interview data a more nuanced and multifaceted view of wasta in employment selection is revealed and how these impact HR practice in the organisation.
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| Keywords : social networks, social capital, wasta |
