Does Pakistani Society Accept Corruption as a Changed Value with Reference to Cultural Perspective?

Abstract

The major objective of this research study was to assess the impact of corruption upon the prevalent social values in Peshawar city, Pakistan. A sample size of 150 respondents was selected through stratified random sampling to ascertain respondents’ attitudes towards phenomena at hand with Likert scale as measurement tool. At first stage uni-variate analysis and then bi-variate analysis were carried out to determine outcomes. The dependent variable (corruption perception) was cross-tabulated with the independent variable (social values and its societal aspects). A chi-square test was used to determine the association between dependent and independent variables. In addition, Gamma (g) statistics were applied to determine the strength and direction of the relationship. The study found a significant and positive association between corruption perception with social values safeguarding the interest of rich (P=0.022), morality as existing behavioral standard in society (P=0.000), experience of corruption (P=0.000), significance of social pressure (P=0.000), use of social pressure (P=0.000), degradation of social values in society due to corruption (P=0.000), biased evaluative standards for various social classes (P=0.000). In addition, people who refused to accept and pay bribes, had followers in the society (P=0.037), increasing the magnitude of corruption with an increase in official rank (P=0.007), and finally, that an ethical environment based on social norms and values reduces corruption (P=0.000). The study concluded that, in the site of study, the social order is under deterioration due to corruption assuming the status of an emerging social value due to its practice amongst members of society in various fields of life. However, people still considered the prevalent social order strong enough to combat this changing dynamic by creating an ethical environment based on social alienation for those who acted corruptly.
 GEL Classification Code: Z10; Z11; Z13