Clientelism and Subservience in Organizational Behaviour and Professional Practice

Abstract

The purpose of this qualitative study was to discuss the opinions of diverse employees in a developing country where social inequalities, stratification and behavioural attitudes encourage the type of subservient behaviour and clientelistic attitudes that impact organizational behaviour and a tendency towards corruption. A range of qualitative techniques, such as observation, third-person listening, formal and informal dialogue and an in-depth interview approach was adopted to collect data from selected participants through a non-probability sampling strategy. An extreme lack of professional behaviour was observed. The qualitative study of contributions and motivations to these practices reveals a misunderstanding of professional etiquette, leading to a culture of senior officials and subordinate relationships (corruption), lack of responsibility and accountability and negative impacts on organizational policy implementation. The research revealed that networks may have a layered system that informs the activities of actors involved in organizational management. This study is the first evidence that subservient attitudes and senior-subordinate relationships may cause barriers to the execution of professional attitudes and other official rules and norms.