Nepotism means to give favor to those who are someone’s near and dear. A person who has the authority and special power, but he uses it unfairly and refers to his family or friends. For example, such a person generates opportunities in the workplace or provides a job to an individual or a group. He increases that particular person’s pay or other benefits.
The origin of the word “nepotism” is the mid of the 17th century. It came from an Italian word “nephew”. In that period, the Bishops and Popes used to award special civil liberties and promotions to their families. Usually, they were their legitimate sons, called as nephews. This was the background that gave birth to the concept of nepotism.
However, it is done in the workplace in the shape of a leader who hires or promotes someone without any qualification. The employee feels that the action is taken due to some of his mistake but it is due to favor. If you find a manager doing favor under nepotism, you should inform your HR representative.
As a professor of Industrial-Organizational Psychology, named Robert Jones says that nepotism is a normal part of human endowment. According to Jones, “How it is perceived is up to the culture.” For example it is taken positively in India and China or may be regarded as the same in the world.
Usually, in western countries nepotism has no regard. Some of the individualistic countries like the USA where a favored recipient is not selected. It is the action that harms any business because it affects the morale of an employee. To get success in your business, stop favoring the individual, prefer to the qualified employees.
Employee’s Morale Lower:
It causes lowering employee morale in the atmosphere of the company. In the workplace, nepotism declines the morale of the employees. Whenever the employees find inequity in the organization, it has a bad impact on the employees’ attitude. In the words of the Houston Chronicle, employees react in two ways.
Their behavior to the favored-person either can undermine the capabilities of him by backstabbing or have an attitude of defeat. In the defeated attitude, the employees no longer give their best when they see their efforts go unrewarded or ignored. In such situations, the culture of the workplace can go down.
Has Nepotism Benefits:
In spite of all the drawbacks, does not mean that you cannot hire from your friends and family. Yes, you can hire but it all depends upon the situation. So, let us know in what cases nepotism can be beneficial for your business. There are various types of companies like modern closed niche, fraternal, atomistic, traditional family, sweatshop, and paternalistic. Nepotism also performs different functions for the growth of companies and keeps your HR department on its toe.
At some of the workplaces, the companies prefer sexual inequity the most. They hire and promote women rather than men and sometimes they marry co-workers as well. Since the past, this thing has been occurring as it is today. If we see into the past, we will find kings handed over their kingdoms to their sons. Popes were succeeded by their promising disciples.
In the end, I must say that nepotism either be harmful or extremely beneficial. It is up to you how you use it in the term of being a successful businessman. He wants to run his business in accordance with his ideas but it all depends on the choice he makes.
