Organizational Corruption in Secondary Schools: A Focus Group Study

Corruption is an issue as old as human history, which exists in almost every country to a certain extent (Bardhan, 1997; Somiah, 2006; Glaeser, & Saks, 2006; Lu, 2000); however, form of corruption, type of corruption and method of corruption may show variation (Rodriguez, Uhlenbruck, & Eden, 2005). Such countries as Hong Kong, Asian and Pacific countries are known to implement legal arrangements during each different government term to deal with corruption (Langseth, 2000; Annual Report, 2007). Despite the fact that humanity has achieved remarkable developments in social, political, economical, scientific, cognitive and communicational fields, corruption has not disappeared; on the contrary, new forms of corruption have been added to the already existing forms. Organizational Corruption According to Caiden (2001), corruption is a bad influence, an injection of rottenness or decay, a decline in moral conduct and personal integrity attributable to venality or dishonesty. Huberts (2003) stated that corruption is the abuse of public office for personal gain. According to Aguilera and Vadera (2007), and Shleifer and Vishny (1993), corruption is a crime which is committed for individual benefit by abusing the authority in the organization. In this sense, the writers define corruption as abuse of self-authority. In this context, definitions related to organizational corruption focus on public sector, and it is understood that mainly state officials commit corruption to increase their status or personal wealth (Huberts, 2008; Adaman, Carkoglu, & Senatalar, 2003; Maitland, 2001; Langseth, 2000; Bardhan, 1997). Organizational Corruption in Turkey In addition to inheriting the rich cultural and social structure of the Ottoman Empire, the Turkish Republic also inherited its centralized and bureaucratic administrative structure as well as tradition of corruption, which started as of 16th century and which could not be prevented despite numerous attempts (Bayar, 1979; Turkish Grand National Assembly, Assembly Research Commission Report, 2003; Akalan, 2006). Considering the research related to corruption, it is noted that corruption has not been prevented during the Turkish Republic and there are indications for continuing corruption cases. For example, Public Reform Research (2002), based on face-to-face interviews with 2416 individuals living in 78 different districts of 32 cities in seven regions all around the country, reveals that the public opinion in Turkey regards corruption mainly as a social spoil, and also as the spoil of public officials and public administration. 81 % of the participants are of the opinion that corruption is "extremely widespread" or "widespread" in public organizations. In another study, namely "From the Perspective of Household, The Reasons for Corruption in Turkey and Suggestions to Prevent Corruption (2001)", face-to-face interviews were made with 3021 individuals living in 17 different cities. According to the findings in this study, bribery and corruption has the third place with 14 % share in the list of problems to be dealt with before all else in Turkey. Still in another study, titled "From the Perspective of the Business World, The Reasons for Corruption in Turkey and Suggestions to Prevent Corruption (2003)", corruption in Turkey is investigated from the business world's point of view. In this study, 1219 individuals who are entitled to represent the company and 30 company managers were interviewed. The findings in this study indicate that companies face extreme bureaucracy and work load, as well as public officials causing difficulties during a legal procedure, as a result of which they are obliged to offer bribery so that their work is done or not delayed. The participants in the study reported that in more than 50 % of the bribery cases, the bribe is demanded explicitly by the state officials working for the institution. When participants were asked about the amount of the bribe, it was reported that it showed variation depending on the institution. …