Journal of Economics and Administrative Sciences
Abstract
Iraqi governmental organizations face a persistent governance crisis in which tribal affiliation - rather than merit – influences recruitment, promotion, and resource allocation decisions, yet the quantitative structural impact of this informal institutional logic on organizational performance remains underexamined. This study aims to examine the direct impact of tribal governance on organizational performance in Iraqi ministerial and governmental organizations, and to test the mediating role of HRM practices effectiveness and employee competency, and the moderating role of merit-based management systems in this relationship. A quantitative cross-sectional survey was conducted with 414 managers and senior specialists across Iraqi governmental organizations, using proportionate stratified random sampling and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). Tribal governance significantly undermines organizational performance both directly and indirectly through degraded HRM effectiveness and eroded employee competency, while merit-based management systems demonstrably reduce - though cannot fully eliminate - these destructive effects.
DOI
10.33095/2227-703X.4361
Article Type
Research Article
Subject Area
Managerial
First Page
49
Last Page
62
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Recommended Citation
Noori, R., Tehrani, M., Vakili, Y., & Fartoosi, G. (2026). Tribal Governance and Organizational Performance in Iraqi Government Organizations: The Mediating Role of Employee Competency and the Moderating Role of Merit-Based Management Systems. Journal of Economics and Administrative Sciences, 32(3), 49-62. https://doi.org/10.33095/2227-703X.4361
