Uncovering the process of corruption formation in Iraqi government organizations

Abstract

The aim of the present study is to discover the process of formation and creation of political, social, economic, administrative and international corruption in Iraqi government organizations. The present study is in the basic research group in terms of orientation. The paradigm governing this study is interpretive. The approach of this research is inductive and its strategy is data-based with the Glaser approach. The research method is also qualitative. The population of the present study is Iraqi government sector organizations, and semi-structured interviews were conducted with managers and experts from selected organizations who had theoretical and practical knowledge of the subject under study and experienced administrative corruption when it occurred and before or after it, and data were collected. In order to conduct sampling, theoretical sampling was used. Since data saturation determines the sample size in the qualitative section, more samples were interviewed until the data reached saturation, until finally the interviews with 21 experts were completed. The reliability of the findings of this study (validity and reliability) was also assessed through the four criteria of Guba and Lincoln, which include credibility, transferability, reliability, and confirmability. In order to code the interviews and analyze them, the Glaser coding method, which includes two stages of real and theoretical coding, was used. At the end of the real coding, 38 components and 112 categories were discovered. Then, at the abstract level, theory creation was carried out, and in the theoretical coding stage, the "process" coding family in the data-based strategy with the Glaser approach was used. Theoretical coding showed that corruption consists of six stages, which include the accumulation of facilitating conditions, stimulating the incentive system of corruption, developing deviant actions, designing and institutionalizing the path of corruption, structural stabilization and reproduction of corruption, normalization and moral insensitivity, which finally takes the form of political corruption, social corruption, economic corruption, administrative corruption, and international corruption in the seventh stage.