Abstract:

Progressive globalization means that business entities conduct business in various parts of the world and in different cultural circles, often using the local services. A knowledge of certain cultural differences and the resulting phenomena that create mechanisms and style of doing business becomes indispensable today. The article aims to present a phenomenon of the wasta, relatively little known in other cultures but widespread in Muslim society. This paper shows what a wasta is from a sociological point of view and investigates some consequences of it (political and economic), but mostly tries (by analyzing principles of Islamic ethics – qualitative research) to answer the question whether the wasta can pose an ethical challenge for Muslim accountants and auditors, whose threats their clients should be aware of.