The Wasta Model: Impact on Human Resource Practices and HRM Within Lebanese Universities

Background

HRM has gone through various changes over the years. Cohen (2015) discusses the evolution of HRM and states that it was formally recognized in the early 1800s. HRM goes back to when all levels of business organizations – employers and employees, skilled tradesmen and apprentices, supervisors and managers, companies and the people who work for them – were first recognized; this was a time when the “welfare secretary” started to appear. These ‘secretaries’ oversaw the hiring, paying, disciplining and developing of the employees. Hence, Cohen shows that the HR process actually began when the first person agreed to be paid for work completed. This author further explains that ‘personnel’, which was the term previously used before ‘HR’, began in the Industrial Revolution and in the era of scientific management.

Thus, the long-standing recognition in the literature of the importance of HRM in western business institutions creates a pathway for turning the focus on this aspect of employment and business management in the Middle East. The literature issuing from the Middle East is more anecdotal (Zahra, 2011) and case-study based. Budhwar & Mellahi (2007) give some interesting insights about HR in the Middle East, however they are still only ‘insights’. These insights are the changes in the level of ownership in several Middle Eastern countries due to privatization; identifying key differences in HRM practices between large and small firms in public and private sectors; the change in the role of the government towards HRM policies; GCC countries investing in HR however they are finding difficulties in meeting the demands of the labour market and the employment of locals (Emiratization etc.) Afiouni et al (2013) note that most of the HR research being conducted in the Middle East increased in 2007 and the quality also improved.