Access is determined by intercession from a well-placed connection, largely independently of the formal criteria.
A post is advertised, the criteria are published, and the appointment turns on who intervened. What distinguishes wasta from ordinary networking is that intercession is expected and acknowledged, so a candidate without it understands the application to be pro forma.
In practice
- A qualified applicant is told the post is filled before the interviews are held.
- A firm that recruits by referral only finds its staff resemble one another more each year, and calls it culture fit.
- Possible explanations
- One explanation is enforcement: where formal procedure is slow or unreliable, an intercessor supplies the accountability the process lacks. Another is obligation, since favours create debts that are expected to be repaid.
- In its favour
- It is described consistently across the region, and the practice is openly acknowledged rather than hidden, which makes it easier to study than its equivalents elsewhere.
- Against it
- How far outcomes differ from formal merit is hard to establish, since the counterfactual appointment is unobservable, and measurement across countries is uneven.
- Standing
- Described consistently across the region and measured unevenly; how far outcomes differ from formal merit is hard to establish, since the counterfactual is unobserved.
- Further reading
- Wikipedia
- Subject
- Sociology & Culture
- Essay
- How societies hold together, sort people, and change