Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Religious influences on the rationalization of corporate bribery in Indonesia: a phenomenological study

  • Published:
Asian Journal of Business Ethics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This study explores Islamic influences on corporate bribery practices in Indonesia. As the dominant religion in Indonesia, Islam substantially influences society in everyday life, including business practices. Although bribery issues in Indonesia have been raised in great numbers for many years, few studies have explored the role of Islamic influences in the ways businesspeople rationalize corporate bribery. This study aims to explore the lived experiences of businesspeople involved in corporate bribery. The authors conducted a phenomenological study to analyze the mindsets of businesspeople who used the Islamic religion to rationalize corporate bribery. To this end, a phenomenological study was conducted based on in-depth interviews with inmates who were imprisoned for their bribery practices in Indonesia. The interview data were subsequently analyzed and revealed several ways that Indonesian businesspeople invoked Islam to rationalize their practices of bribery and render them coherent with their mindsets. The analyses in this study provide insights into how to curb the rationalization of corporate bribery via religious perspectives and point to recommendations for future research.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. This study addresses the general religion of Islam, not specific sects such as Shia, Sunni, Ahmadiyya, or others. To date, there are no official statistics in Indonesia for the number of Sunnis, Shias, and Ahmadis. However, the estimated overwhelming majority (or 99%) of Muslims adhere to Sunni Islam, while about 1% are Shias and 0.2% Ahmadis. Since the majority of Indonesians are Sunni, most adherents of other sects keep their beliefs secret.

References

  • Al-Albani, M. S. (2006). Shahih Sunan Tirmidzi (seleksi hadits shahih dari Kitab Sunan Tirmidzi Buku: 2). Pustaka Azzam.

  • Anand, V., Ashforth, B. E., & Joshi, M. (2004). Business as usual: The acceptance and perpetuation of corruption in organizations. Academy of Management Executive, 18(2), 39–53.

    Google Scholar 

  • Asad, T. (2003). Formations of the secular: Christianity, Islam, modernity. Stanford University Press.

  • Ashforth, B. E., and Anand, V. (2003) The normalization of corruption in organizations. In R. M. Kramer & B. M. Staw (Eds.), Research in organizational behavior, Vol. 25 (pp.1–52). Elsevier.

  • Atbani, F. (2007). The prevention of financial crime within an Islamic legal framework. Economic Affairs, 27(1), 27–33.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Atkinson, M. (1972). A precise phenomenology for the general scholar. Journal of General Education, 23(4), 261–297.

    Google Scholar 

  • Batson, C. D. (2011). What’s wrong with morality? Emotion Review, 3(3), 230–236.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bellah, R. N. (1970). Beyond belief: Essays on religion in a post-traditional world. Harper and Row.

  • Bouckaert, L. (2010). From business ethics to business spirituality: The Socratic model of leadership. In S. S. Nandram & M. E. Borden (Eds.), Spirituality and business: Exploring possibilities for a new management paradigm (pp. 73–86). Springer.

  • Brooks, G. (2016). Criminology of corruption: Theoretical approaches. Palgrave Macmillan.

  • Bu, Q. (2018). The culture variable vis-à-vis anti-bribery law. A grey area in transnational corporate criminal liability. In I. Kubbe & A. Engelbert (Eds.), Corruption and norms: Why informal rules matter (1st ed., pp. 291–328). Palgrave Macmillan.

  • Burnham, T. A, Jeon, H. J. J., & Zeng, H. (2018). Illegal corporate bribery: The pressure to “make-do” and achieve goals. Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, 26(3), 246–259.

  • Chikudate, N. (2000). A phenomenological approach to inquiring into an ethically bankrupted organizations. A case study of a Japanese company. Journal of Business Ethics, 28(1), 59–72.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Collins, K. M. T., Onwuegbuzie, A. J., & Jiao, Q. G. (2007). A mixed methods investigation of mixed methods sampling designs in social and health science research. Journal of Mixed Methods Research, 1(3), 267–294.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Darley, J. M. (2005). The cognitive and social psychology of contagious organizational corruption. Brooklyn Law Review, 70(4), 1177–1194.

    Google Scholar 

  • Deloitte Forensic Center. (2011). Anti-corruption practices survey 2011. http://rai-see.org/wpcontent/uploads/2016/01/anticorruption-practices-survey.pdf. Accessed 15 Feb 2019.

  • Durning, A. T. (1990). How much is “enough”? World Watch, 3(Nov/Dec), 12–19.

    Google Scholar 

  • Englander, M. (2012). The interview: Data collection in descriptive phenomenological human scientific research. Journal of Phenomenological Psychology, 43(1), 13–35.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fischer, D. H. (1970). Historians' fallacies: Toward a logic of historical thought. Harper & Row.

  • Giorgi, A. (2009). The descriptive phenomenological method in psychology: A modified Husserlian approach. Duquesne University Press.

  • Gladwin, T. N., Newburry, W. E., & Reiskin, E. D. (1997). Why is the Northern elite mind biased against community the environment and a sustainable future? In M. H. Bazerman, D. M. Messick, & K. A. Wade-Benzoni (Eds.), Environment, ethics, and behavior: The psychology of environmental valuation and degradation (pp. 234–274). New Lexington Press.

  • Hamid, A. (2018). Corporate ethics, cultural heritage and the environment: A Pakistani perspective. Paper presented at the International Conference Business Ethics and Compliance in Asia, Thailand, November 17-18.

  • Hamm, B. (2014). ‘Buying heaven’: The prospects of commercialized salvation in the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries. In J. Von Hagen & M. Welker (Eds.), Money as God: The monetization of the market and the impact on religion, politics, law, and ethics (pp. 233–256). Cambridge University Press.

  • Hunt, S. D., & Vitell, S. M. (1993). The general theory of marketing ethics: A retrospective and revision. In N. C. Smith & J. A. Quelch (Eds.), Ethics in marketing (pp. 775–784). Irwin Inc.

  • Husserl, E. (1973). Experience and judgment. Northwestern University Press.

  • Husserl, E. (1982). Ideas pertaining to a pure phenomenology and to a phenomenological philosophy. First book: General introduction to pure phenomenology (Vol. 2). Martinus Nijhoff.

  • Indartono, S., & Wulandari, S. Z. (2014). Moderation effect of gender on workplace spirituality and commitment relationship: Case of Indonesian ethics. Asian Journal of Business Ethics, 3(1), 65–81.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jakarta Post. (2016). Suryadharma gets 6 years for haj scam. https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/01/12/suryadharma-gets-6-years-haj-scam.html. Accessed 1 Apr 2019.

  • Ko, K., & Moon, S.-G. (2014). The relationship between religion and corruption: Are the proposed causal links empirically valid? International Review of Public Administration, 19(1), 44–62.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kompas. (2013). Zulkarnaen Djabar divonis 15 tahun penjara. https://nasional.kompas.com/read/2013/05/30/20290254/Zulkarnaen.Djabar.Divonis.15.Tahun.Penjara. Accessed 19 May 2018.

  • Kompas. (2019). Kemenag rilis lamanya antrean haji Indonesia, Sulsel mencapai 39 tahun. https://nasional.kompas.com/read/2019/02/12/14250341/kemenag-rilis-lamanyaantrean-haji-indonesia-sulsel-mencapai-39-tahun. Accessed 24 Jun 2019.

  • Longenecker, J. G., McKinney, J. A., & Moore, C. W. (2004). Religious intensity, evangelical Christianity, and business ethics: An empirical study. Journal of Business Ethics, 55(4), 373–386.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lowenstein, D. H. (1985). Political bribery and the intermediate theory of politics. UCLA Law Review, 32(4), 784–851.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marquette, H. (2010). Corruption, religion and moral development. RaD Working Paper No. 42. University of Birmingham. 

  • Massarik, F. (1983). Searching for essence in executive experience. In S. Srivasta & Associates (Eds.), The executive mind: New insight on managerial thought and action (pp. 243–268). Jossey-Bass.

  • McKay, R., Efferson, C., Whitehouse, H., & Fehr, E. (2010). Wrath of God: Religious primes and punishment. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences, 278(1713), 1858–1863.

    Google Scholar 

  • Meador, J. (2010). Cosmetic Christianity and the problem of colonialism – Responding to Brian McLaren. https://notesfromasmallplace.wordpress.com/2010/09/17/cosmetic-christianity-and-the-problem-of-colonialism-responding-to-brian-mclaren. Accessed 24 Jun 2019.

  • Miles, M. B., & Huberman, A. M. (1994). Qualitative data analysis: An expanded sourcebook (2nd ed.) Sage.

  • Moustakas, C. (1994). Phenomenological research methods. Sage.

  • Muravska, J. (2014). How to bribe: A typology of bribe-paying and how to stop it. https://www.transparency.org.uk/publications/how-to-bribe-a-typology-of-bribe-paying-and-how-to-stop-it/#.WdY_smhSyUk. Accessed 2 Nov 2018.

  • Noonan, J. T. (1984). Bribes. Macmillan.

  • O’Collins, G., & Farrugia, E. G. (1991). A concise dictionary of theology. Paulist Press.

  • O’Fallon, M. J., & Butterfield, K. D. (2005). A review of the empirical ethical decision making literature: 1996-2003. Journal of Business Ethics, 59(4), 375–413.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Olken, B. (2007). Monitoring corruption: Evidence from a field experiment in Indonesia. Journal of Political Economy, 115(2), 200–249.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Olken, B. (2009). Corruption perceptions vs. corruption reality. Journal of Public Economics, 93(7–8), 950–964.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Paldam, M. (2001). Corruption and religion: Adding to the economic model. Kyklos, 54(2-3), 383–413.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Parry, J. P. (1986). The gift, the Indian gift, and the “Indian gift ”. Man, 21(3), 453–473.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pavarala, V., & Malik, K. K. (2010). Religion, ethics and attitudes towards corruption: A study of perspectives in India. RaD Working Paper 53. University of Birmingham.

  • Pertiwi, K. (2018). Contextualizing corruption: A cross-disciplinary approach to studying corruption in organizations. Administrative Sciences, 8(12).

  • Peteet, J. R. (1994). Approaching spiritual problems in psychotherapy: A conceptual framework. Journal of Psychotherapy Practice and Research, 3(3), 237–245.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pinto, J., Leana, C. R., & Pil, F. K. (2008). Corrupt organizations or organizations of corrupt individuals? Two types of organization-level corruption. Academy of Management Review, 33(3), 685–709.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pisani, E. (2014). Indonesia, etc: Exploring the improbable nation. W. W. Norton Company.

  • Postero, N. G. (2000). A case study of land loss and leadership in a Guarani Village. Paper presented at the 2000 AAA Annual Meeting. The Public Face of Anthropology, San Francisco, November 15–19.

  • Pradiptyo, R., Partohap, T. H., & Pramashavira. (2016). Korupsi struktural: Analisis database korupsi versi 4 (2001–2015). https://cegahkorupsi.wg.ugm.ac.id/publikasi-/Database%20Korupsi%20V%204-5April16_RP_VR_THP.pdf. Accessed 11 Sept 2018.

  • Ricoeur, P. (1974). The conflict of interpretations. Northwestern University Press.

  • Roof, R. A., Bocarnea, M. C., & Winston, B. E. (2017). The spiritual engagement instrument. Asian Journal of Business Ethics, 6(2), 215–232.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rosoff, S. M., Pontell, H. N., & Tillman, R. H. (2002). Profit without honor: White-collar crime and the looting of America (2nd ed.). Prentice Hall.

  • Samanta, S. K. (2011). Corruption, religion and economic performance in OPEC countries: an analysis. International Journal of Economics. Management and Accounting, 19(2), 187–208.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sanders, P. (1982). Phenomenology: A new way of viewing organizational research. Academy of Management Review, 7(3), 353–360.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Seidman, I. E. (1991). Interviewing as qualitative research. Teachers College Press.

  • Shadabi, L. (2013). The impact of religion on corruption. The Journal of Business Inquiry, 12(1), 102–117.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sharp, B. D. (2000). Changing criminal thinking: A treatment program. American Correctional Association.

  • Sheikh, S.-R., & Beise-Zee, R. (2015). Perception of corporate social responsibility among devout and nondevout customers in an Islamic society. Asian Journal of Business Ethics, 4(2), 131–146.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smith, R. E., Wheeler, G., & Diener, E. (1975). Faith without works: Jesus people, resistance to temptation, and altruism. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 5(4), 320–330.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sunnah. (n.d.). 'Umrah (minor pilgrimage). https://sunnah.com/bukhari/26/1. Accessed 1 July 2019.

  • Tam, W. K. (2014). Organizational corruption by public hospitals in China. Crime Law and Social Change, 56(3), 265–282.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tart, C. T. (1975). Introduction. In C. T. Tart (Ed.), Transpersonal psychologies (pp. 3–7). Harper & Row.

  • Tempo (2018). Pengusaha keberatan jika KPK bisa jerat korupsi di sektor swasta. https://nasional.tempo.co/read/1063049/pengusaha-keberatan-jika-kpk-bisa-jerat-korupsi-di-sektor-swasta. Accessed 8 Apr 2019.

  • The National. (2013). Scandal hits Indonesia’s Islamic parties. http://www.thenational.ae/world/southeast-asia/scandal-hits-indonesias-islamic-parties. Accessed 4 Jun 2017.

  • Tjiptono, F. A., & Elfitasari, T. (2018). Consumer ethics among youths in Indonesia: Do gender and religiosity matter? Asian Journal of Business Ethics, 7(2), 137–149.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Transparency International. (2013). Business principles for countering bribery: A multi-stakeholder initiative led by Transparency International. https://www.transparency.org/whatwedo/publication/business_principles_for_countering_bribery. Accessed 13 Jun 2019.

  • Transparency International. (2021). Corruption perceptions index 2020. https://www.transparency.org/cpi2020. Accessed 1 Mar 2021.

  • Tsang, J. (2002). Moral rationalization and the integration of situational factors and psychological processes in immoral behavior. Review of General Psychology, 6(1), 25–50.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Turow, S. (1985). What’s wrong with bribery? Journal of Business Ethics, 4(4), 249–251.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vaughan, D. (2006). The social shaping of commission reports. Sociological Forum, 21(2), 291–306.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Warta Ekonomi. (2018). Suap warnai bisnis properti, pengamat: Sudah biasa. https://www.wartaekonomi.co.id/read204058/suap-warnai-bisnis-properti-pengamat-sudah-biasa.html. Acccessed 8 Apr 2019.

  • Weaver, G. R., & Agle, B. R. (2002). Religiosity and ethical behavior in organizations: A symbolic inter-actionist perspective. Academy of Management Review, 27(1), 77–97.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Werner, C. A. (2002). Gifts, bribes, and development in Post-Soviet Kazakhstan. In J. H. Cohen & N. Dannhaeuser (Eds.), Economic development: An anthropological approach. Wallnut Creek (pp. 183–208). Altamira Press.

  • Xu, X., Li, Y., Liu, X., & Gan, W. (2017). Does religion matter to corruption? Evidence from China. China Economic Review, 42(C), 34–49.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zakaria, P. (2013). Is corruption an enemy of civil society? The case of Central and Eastern Europe. International Political Science Review, 34(4), 351–371.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zakaria, P. (2018). Religiosity and corruption. In I. Kubbe & A. Engelbert (Eds.), Corruption and norms. Why informal rules matter (1st ed., pp. 69–90). Palgrave Macmillan.

  • Žižek, S. (1989). The sublime object of ideology. Verso.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Dakwah and Communication, Walisongo State Islamic University, Jalan Prof. Dr. Hamka (Kampus III), Ngaliyan, Semarang, Central Java, 50185, Indonesia

    Nadiatus Salama

  2. Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Hiroshima University, 1-1-89 Higashi-senda machi, Naka-ku, Hiroshima-city, Hiroshima, 730-0053, Japan

    Nobuyuki Chikudate

Authors
  1. Nadiatus Salama
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Nobuyuki Chikudate
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Nadiatus Salama.

Additional information

Publisher’s note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Salama, N., Chikudate, N. Religious influences on the rationalization of corporate bribery in Indonesia: a phenomenological study. Asian J Bus Ethics 10, 85–102 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13520-021-00123-0

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13520-021-00123-0

Keywords

Search

Navigation