Nepotism In The Recruitment Process - Essay Help

The success of an organization is directly linked to the performance of its employees. Under-achievement and lower productivity on the part of the employees may escort the organization to workplace failure. Furthermore, without proper staffing, an organization would not be able to sustain competitive advantage in this fiercely competitive environment. Hence, hiring of the most qualified and capable individuals is imperative for every organization (Anderson. J and Rainie. L, 2017). For these reasons, recruitment and selection are considered valued procedures that are carefully conducted by the human resource department of every organization across the globe. This process involves identifying and attracting capable candidates from within and outside the institution in order to effectively evaluate them for employment. Every company may follow an exclusively different criteria when carrying out the recruitment and selection process. Most of these institutions carry out an extensive procedure when executing this HR function since they want to hire the most capable candidate for their organization (Otoo, Assuming, & Ageyi, 2018). However, this merit-based procedure is often interrupted by factors that may rust the essence of this recruitment process.

Many companies may resort to preferential treatment when conducting this procedure. Preferential treatment is an unprofessional act that includes activities like Nepotism, cronyism and favoritism. These acts hamper the productivity of the recruitment process and may develop a workforce which is unqualified and which can prove to be a harmful trigger for the organization’s long-term progress (Safina. D, 2015). This essay essentially focuses on the idea of Nepotism in the recruitment process and the different kinds of nepotism that has been pursued by organizations these days. Focus has also been placed on the negative effects that this activity leaves on the organization and the employees. Furthermore, the essay also highlights the unethical aspect of Nepotism and the extent of corruption that it causes. Efforts at eradicating this obnoxious and unethical activity has also been discussed at the end of the essay. 

Nepotism is derived from the Latin work “Nepo” which means nephew. It is a phenomena which revolves around the idea of an organization hiring or promoting the employees based on kinship relations, friendship or family, instead of being judged on the basis of merit. Hence, the consideration of qualifications, skills, abilities and competence are eradicated in the judgment criteria of recruitment and the hiring takes place via an unfair means (Bogen. M and Rieke. A, 2018). It is a practice which is highly common in organizations in both developed and developing countries. 

The management of organizations adheres to different forms of nepotism. All these forms may prove to be detrimental to the organizational success. The most prevalent form of this fatal activity is the relative nepotism which can also be commonly known as the cross-generational Nepotism. It involves the recruitment of the family members from more than two generations of a family. Research shows that this form of nepotism is mostly common in family-owned businesses. Families are endeavoring to attain continuity and healthy survival of their business for generations. They also want to sustain and secure growth and progression of their inheritance. Furthermore, managers also believe that this practice of hiring relatives and family members serves as a strategic step in the success of the organization. This is because, the top management can easily have a higher degree of trust on their relatives, thereby, having the ability to develop a strong network of managerial control within the organizational setting (Erden & Otken, 2019). Hence, managers tend to casually adapt this practice in their recruitment procedure. This fatal practice can lead to lower commitment and morale on the part of the other unrelated employees. This can also lead to employees developing feelings of hatred for people in the top management position. Furthermore, these employees also feel that there is no scope of progression since the top leadership positions have already been reserved (Al-Shawareh, 2016). Hence, this in-builds a lot of negativity within the organizational framework.