Value-Semantic Attitude to Bribery as a Form of Grass-Roots Corruption Among Working Adults

Abstract

The destructive nature of the corruption effect and the ultra-tolerant attitude of the citizens towards the grassroots of corruption has been a focus for many types of research and became a basis for this study. The study is aiming to establish the types of value-semantic attitude to bribery as a form of grass-roots corruption and originality of its components found among 216 working professionals in South of the Russian Federation. Survey (a questionnaire to assess the meaning of each component of the attitude towards bribery), analysis of the open questions in the questionnaire, testing and statistical methods are used in the work. The research considers such an attitude as a value-semantic purposeful attitude where bribery is presented as a substitution of certain needs, goals, and values. The study reveals the cognitive, emotionally evaluated, and conative components of the attitude. Based on the dominant verbal-semantic version of bribery (its subjective interpretation and functional purposes identified by the working professionals) the research designates the following types of value-semantic attitude to it: "Business economic transaction", "Instrumental value", and "Illegal act". The specific content of each component of this attitude is revealed for working professionals, depending on the type of attitude towards bribery.