In any society that likes to think of itself as “progressive” and which considers that it promotes “equality”, “nepotism” is a particularly ugly word.
It conjures up images of corpulent managers in mahogany panelled boardrooms fecklessly advancing slack jawed relatives or children of school chums in preference to solid, hardworking and honest artisans.
It is rare, if ever, that we see nepotism being depicted in anything other than a negative context. However, there is an argument that nepotism is essential for the survival of some family businesses from generation to generation.
A useful working definition of nepotism is:-
“The practice amongst those with power or influence of favouring relatives or friends, especially by giving them jobs.”
In a family business, those with power will naturally tend to be family.
This can be disconcerting for non-family employees. While there is a lot to be said for the view that if you join a family business as a non-family employee you should never really expect to become “the big boss” and there are many benefits to being an employee in a family business - they tend to be more stable and more, well, familiar, than other businesses - it is well recognised that nepotism and the effect of the family on promotion, advancement and job prospects, is a significant concern and de-motivating factor for non-family employees.
Read the full article on Nepotism here
