"Uncle asked his nephew, 'If I gave you two cats and another two cats and another two, how many would you have?''Seven,' his nephew replied.'No, listen carefully ... If I gave you two cats, and another two cats and another two, how many would you have?"Again, came the reply, 'Seven.''Let me put it to you differently,' the uncle added, 'If I gave you two apples, and another two apples and another two, how many would you have?''Six,' the answer came according to mathematics.'Good,' the uncle responded, 'Now, if I gave you two cats, and another two cats, and another two, how many would you have?"But still, the reaction was, 'Seven!''O nephew, where in the heck do you get seven from?!' the uncle annoyed.'Because I've already got a freaking cat!' replied his nephew.""Since Indonesian Reformations in 1998, a good and clean government has been an aim. It seems that the theme: Korupsi, Kolusi, Nepotisme (KKN)—corruption, collusion, and nepotism—will open a battle cry. A broad definition of corruption, which can incorporate collusion and nepotism is the misuse of public office for private gain. Nepotism is expected to be out, according to the Reformation, but still, it has pushed deeper," Cananga went on while looking at a portrait of what the media called 'Adorable': both hands of General 08 holding Abah's arms. Oh, it turns out that the most adorable person among the adorable ones is Abah!"Dinara Safina writes about Favoritism and Nepotism in an organization. Favoritism, from the Latin word 'favor' meaning 'mercy', has the sense of unfair and prejudicial patronage of minions in office to the prejudice of common cause. Favoritism in state and social life appears more often than not as to passionate patronage of pets (favorites) and their appointment to superior positions despite their having neither capabilities nor experiences necessary for such duties. Therefore, a favorite is a person being in the confidence of his chief and affecting his solutions to move up the career ladder thanks to a sense of having been chosen.The term 'favoritism' is closely intertwined with such notions as nepotism (from the Latin word 'nepos', 'nepotis', meaning 'grandson, nephew') as well as cronyism (for instance, employment according to the principle of old university ties) granted to relatives or friends regardless of their professional values. Foreign Words Dictionary reports nepotism to be the official patronage of relatives and right guys, i.e. cronyism. It is implies that favoritism and nepotism take place in such cases where a patron vested with power pushes forward a favorite or nepot to move up the career ladder irrespective of their experience, knowledge, services, and advances.In Safina’s opinion, the consequences of favoritism and nepotism can be: personnel demotivation; personnel apathy, loss of self-belief and abilities; social alienation, the feeling of being needless in the organization; permanent fear and negative anticipatory thinking (fear of demoting from the position being occupied, rightsizing, etc.); dismissal of high-potential co-workers desperate to occupy the desired position because it is already occupied by a favorite; manpower policy inefficient solutions e.g. assignment to a position those employees who do not deserve it at all by their moral and professional criteria; restriction or lack of competition about promising projects or senior positions among the co-workers; irresponsible behavior on the part of favorites and nepots given their certitude 'I won’t be punished because I’m a pet or relative'; favorites’ unrestrained behavior putting at hazard economic security of the organization activities; destructing the foundations of the teamwork; creating weak ('unhealthy') organizational culture characterized by intrigues and mobbing’s flourishing, i.e. psychological and in some extreme cases physical terrorizing by favorite in view of his sense of impunity; a favorite’s negative influence upon managerial decision making is evident in the fact that the fauvorite issuing from his interests imposes upon chief his considerations about who must be either employed, contracted, closed a transaction or not, etc. Safina considers that the advancement of favoritism and nepotism taken as a whole puts at hazard organization development.Favoritism and nepotism keep down effective competition for superior positions and impede high performers’ career progress which turns out to be one of the reasons for the 'brain drain' in a country. Certainly, talented scientists, highly-skilled professionals and entrepreneurs leave the country for a variety of reasons among which are unfavourable institutional environment for business operations, low level of labour remuneration, inadequate equipment, lag in technology and unfavourable working environment. Favouritism and particularly cronyism facilitate corruption. Hence, the inference should be drawn that favouritism and nepotism adversely affect organizational and economic development.Decades of research in political science, economics, and anthropology, says Jone L. Pearce, have demonstrated that nepotism and cronyism are bad for organizational performance. Nepotism and cronyism damage exactly the kinds of social relationships that make for a humane and tolerable workplace and foster organizational performance. There is no evidence that nepotism and cronyism facilitate the kinds of personal relationships I-O psychologists would seek, and there is substantial research evidence (as well as the personal conclusions of anyone who has ever seen nepotism and cronyism in operation in an actual organization) that nepotism and cronyism undermine organizations and the people who work in them. Nepotism and cronyism are bad for employees who are forced to weigh conflicting obligations, they are bad for coworkers who become demoralized when they suspect the worst, and they are bad for organizational performance.Nepotism can be defined as favoritism towards relatives, usually in the form of offering them jobs, write Rimvydas Ragauskas and Ieva Valeškaitė. In the public sector, it is considered a particularly toxic phenomenon as it goes against the public interest: citizens generally expect that public employees should deserve their jobs, hired according to merit-based criteria. Nepotism breaks the link between employment and meritocracy and can create opportunities for state exploitation. In other words, nepotism imposes costs on a society that can range from unfair competition for employment opportunities to embezzlement of public funds.Nepotism in the public sector is a salient problem, researchers have provided a body of evidence about adverse micro- and macro-level consequences of nepotism in the public sector. At the micro level, it has been shown that being a relative of politicians or public sector employees gives a sizable advantage in the labor market. Close relatives of public employees and politicians are both more likely to be employed in the public, or even private, sector and earn higher salaries. Nepotism also represents a deficiency of meritocracy, as less qualified individuals, are shown to most benefit from corrupt hiring and career advancement practices.Researchers have also demonstrated how the effects of nepotism ripple into the broader economy. It can skew distributions of wealth and status, which in extreme cases may lead to social unrest. In addition, it has the potential to lower the quality of public services. Furthermore, it creates negative welfare consequences through wasteful spending or even direct embezzlement of public funds.Nepotism is more prevalent when public-sector wages are set above an optimal level and recruitment decisions are placed in the hands of individuals rather than, say, hiring committees. For example, research by Geys (2017) demonstrates that electorates prioritize meritocracy over belonging to political dynasties, while politicians tend to prefer family members—even if they are less qualified—when making hiring decisions.On the other hand, the broader literature on patronage offers several hints towards the possible determinates of nepotism. Researchers have demonstrated that public employment is often higher in less developed regions. Public employment then can be seen as a redistributive policy, which leads to over-employment in the public sector but can alleviate unemployment and economic insecurity problems in less developed areas. A competing explanation suggests that excessive public employment is not a policy meant to maximize social welfare, but rather a rent-extraction device deployed in response to demands by pressure groups. The pressure to create public jobs is higher where other employment opportunities are scarce.The prevalence of nepotism proposes an alternative narrative, suggesting that the ballooning size of the public sector might result from bureaucrats taking advantage of their position to extract rents. In this scenario, public servants who already benefit from taxpayers gain additional utility by distributing jobs to their close relatives. It is argued that an excess in public employment might be the result of opportunistic behaviour by poli- ticians and bureaucrats who are not reacting to public needs or pressure from lobbying groups but rather are serving their own narrow interests. In municipalities where employ- ment opportunities are scarce, relatives of public employees have fewer alternatives to get well-paying jobs, and bureaucrats feel more pressure to employ them.Researchers have already demonstrated that patronage leads to overstaffing; lower quality of public services; and even put a drag on economic growth due to wasteful diversions of resources away from productive investment. Similarly, nepotism research has shown that nepotism leads to suboptimal allocations of public sector jobs and creates negative welfare consequences due to a lower quality of public ser- vices, wastefulness, or just outright fraud.Nepotism is a common hiring mechanism in (family) firms where families use their control to hire family members—therefore perpetuating family involvement over time and across generations. It is thus the practice of nepotism that facilitates commonly held family goals of passing the firm leadership on to the next generation. However, since nepotism discriminates against non-family members, it has been characterized as detrimental to society. Some studies show that nepotism can be detrimental to the firm itself.Peter Jaskiewicz [et al] suggest that based on family conditions that are indicative of the type of social exchange relationship between family members, nepotism types can be distinguished. Hiring that is based on family ties without consideration of family conditions is what is referred to as entitlement nepotism. Entitlement nepotism can occur, be stable, and be supported by others based on family or cultural traditions. Because it can be so deeply embedded, this type of nepotism can also be dysfunctional, dangerous, and detrimental to firms. Entitlement nepotism mirrors the model of man that underlies the literature on asymmetrical altruism, agency theory, and transaction cost economics in family business. The underlying assumption is that an agentic relationship between family members can involve egoistic goals, information asymmetries, low levels of trust, and eventual exploitation of exchange partners. Entitled nepots are more likely to exploit family firm resources for personal gain rather than to use them for the collective benefit of current and future family firm owners.Nepotism is associated with the family conditions of interdependence, previous interactions, and cultural norms that support obligations to family members is referred to as reciprocal nepotism. Reciprocal nepotism extends previously established perspectives on nepotism outcomes and helps explain the potentially superior performance of firms that take advantage of generalized exchanges among family members in their employment policies. Although family exchange relationships vary significantly, they hold more potential than nonfamily relationships for a long-term, stable, and generalized social exchange relationship and indirect reciprocity. The act of nepotism can select a family member who shares a generalized exchange with the family decision-makers. In such cases, the nepot will feel indebted to the family member for hiring him or her.Carol L. Vinton exposed that Nepotism is a human resource practice that affects all kinds of family and nonfamily organizations. Nepotism has impacts on some managerial issues.According to Alma Shehu Lokaj, nepotism is a form of discrimination in which members of the family or friends are hired not because of their talents, or experience but only because they are relatives to the owner or the executives of the enterprise. Nepotism is a common problem in almost all organizations and it affects the morale, culture, and overall performance of the organization. Nepotism is considered a form of corruption and actions must be taken to combat this phenomenon even the public says that is impossible to combat nepotism.In the next episode, we will discuss the topic of Safar again. Bi Idznillah."Cananga then sang,Dimana oh dimana, cinta yang sejati?[Where oh where, the true love is?]Kucari, kucari, telah lama kucari[I'm looking, I'm looking, I've been looking for a long time]Ternyata oh ternyata, tak perlu mencari[It turns out, oh it turns out, no need to find out]Karena, karena, kamulah orangnya *)[Because, because, you're the one]
Citations & References:
- Fiona Robertson-Snape, Corruption, Collusion and Nepotism in Indonesia, The New Politics of Corruption, Third World Quarterly Vol. 20, No. 3, 1999, Taylor & Francis, Ltd.
- Dinara Safina, Favouritism and Nepotism in an Organization: Causes and Effects, Procedia Economics and Finance, 23, 2015, Elsevier
- Jone L. Pearce, Cronyism and Nepotism Are Bad for Everyone: The Research Evidence, Industrial and Organizational Psychology Volume 8 Issue 01 pp 41 - 44, March 2015, Cambridge Journals
- Rimvydas Ragauskas & Ieva Valeškaitė, Nepotism, Political Competition and Overemployment, Political Research Exchange Volume 2; Issue 1, 2020, Informa
- Peter Jaskiewicz, Klaus Uhlenbruck, David B. Balkin and Trish Reay, Is Nepotism Good or Bad? Types of Nepotism and Implications for Knowledge Management, Family Business Review, 24 January 2013, SAGE
- Karen L. Vinton, Nepotism: An Interdisciplinary Model, Family Business Review Volume 11; Issue 4, 1998, John Wiley and Sons
- Alma Shehu Lokaj, Nepotism as a Negative Factor in Organization Performance, Academic Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies Vol 4 No 2 S1, August 2015, MCSER Publishing
*) "Kamulah Orangnya (Sendiri)" performed by Indra Oktiana
