Predictive Influence of Petty Corruption on Operations of Southern African Universities.

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume VI, Issue III, March 2022 | ISSN 2454–6186

Predictive Influence of Petty Corruption on Operations of Southern African Universities.

Andrew Jeremiah, Sulaiman Olusegun Atiku, Michael Ochurub, Fiina Shimaneni, Elias Kandjinga
Namibia University of Science and Technology

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of petty corruption on the operations of institutions of higher learning in Southern African countries. The study was prompted by the fact that Petty corruption has not received much attention as big or grand corruption from many researchers. Petty corrupt practices may cause more harm to operations in public institutions in the long term although they may appear petty and must be ignored. A cross-sectional survey research design was adopted following a quantitative approach. The target population of lecturers working in the participating universities was 2684. 446 lecturers were drawn from eight (8) institutions of higher learning in Southern African countries using a stratified purposeful sampling strategy. An online survey (Google forms) was used to collect data from respondents via their email addresses, which were retrieved from their university websites. Data was analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) Version, 26. The study found that petty corruption negatively affects the operations of universities in the Southern African region. The implication of this study suggests that more attention should be paid to all forms of petty corrupt practices such as lateness, absenteeism, presentism, and favouritism to address impact of petty corruption on teaching and learning activities in institutions of higher learning in Southern African countries.
Keywords: anti-petty corruption; direct consequences; indirect consequences; malpractices; petty corruption.

I. INTRODUCTION

Corruption is an abuse of public office by officials for illegitimate private gains or self-aggrandisement (Nguyen et al. 2016). A great deal of research has been conducted on big or grand corruption and its impact on societies and national economies. Albeit these efforts by researchers, only a few researchers focussed on petty or quiet corruption (Riley 1999). The majority of writers have focused on big or grand corruption with the view that petty corruption or quiet corruption has no significant impact on the national economic performance and that of public entities, which may be untrue (Madsen 2013; Riley 1999). This notable omission by many researchers and the separation of the two types of corruption has invoked researchers in the realisation that petty corruption is worth exploring further, hence the initiation of this study.

II. LITERATURE REVIEW

This section provides an overview of the literature, which is related to investigating petty corruption in Southern African countries’ institutions of higher learning. The types of petty corrupt practices prominent in institutions of higher education operating in the region are discussed in this section.
Corruption
Researchers have identified different types of corruption; big or grand, and petty corruption (Nguyen et al. 2016). Grand corruption is committed more on a bigger scale with high monetary stakes and is popularly known for its vast direct negative consequences to the economy. This type of corruption involves prominent government bureaucrats such as ministers, chief executive officers, and Director Generals to mention a few examples (Nguyen et al. 2016; World Bank, 2010).
In comparison, petty corruption is meagre, incidental, or low-level acts that involve unofficial payments of little amounts of money (or no money exchanges) or favours garnered from those seeking services. It can be in the form of behaviours that compromise standards of performance and may compromise beneficiaries of services. Petty corruption is mostly practiced by low-ranked officials and gullible high ranked officials in the public service. Petty corruption occurs when public officials are afforded a level of freedom in their jobs as they deem fit and are unlikely to be held accountable and responsible when things go wrong (Nguyen et al. 2016; Riley 1999; Tran-Nam 2017). It is worth noting that corruption in the public service has been differentiated and categorised into big or grand and petty or quiet corrupt practices. Petty corruption is not akin to a standalone fire that can be extinguished in an instant, and hence the need to take it more seriously before it does a lot of damage to economic development and operations of public entities like universities (Abjorensen 2014; Riley 1999).

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