There is a huge elephant in the room: organizational decisions are often
based on family relationships, rather than on the ‘rational’ approach advocated by
many professionals.
Textbooks on Human Resources, Management, Organizational Behavior, Economics,
Public Administration, and a host of related areas seem to have entirely missed this
important aspect of organizational decision making.
This book seeks to change all of this. By clearly identifying and defining
nepotism in organizations, this book pulls back the curtain on the primary basis for many
of the important things that really happen in organizations, large and small. The authors
skillfully weave examples of nepotism in real organizations with the usual scholarly
textbook topics (hiring, leadership, employment law, career search, culture, etc.) in a
way that defines an entire new field of quantitative organizational research. This new
book, in SIOPs Organizational Frontiers series , represents the first time IO
psychologists have looked at the important subject of nepotism in organizations.
Robert G. Jones
is professor of psychology and department head at Missouri
State University. After a first career in music and banking, Bob returned to school to get
his PhD in industrial/organizational psychology from The Ohio State University in 1992. In
this second career, Bob and his students, colleagues, and clients have dealt with a broad
range of issues in selection and assessment. Most of this work has focused on
understanding and managing the basis for applied, person-perception-based assessments,
including emotive perception and prejudices. He has addressed these issues in various
publications, numerous applied settings, and classrooms in the U.S., Australia, and the
Netherlands. As Book Review Editor of Personnel Psychology (1994-2004), Bob had the
pleasant task of reading lots of books, including the ones that inspired this one.
Table of Contents
E. Salas,
Series Foreword. Preface.
R. G. Jones, Defining a Psychology of
Nepotism.
A. Gutman, Nepotism and Employment Law.
P. W. Muchinsky, The Nepotistic
Organization: What is This Place and How Do the People Make It?
E. Van Hooft, T. Stout, Nepotism and
Career Choice, Job Search, and Job Choice.
M. W. Dickson, L. R. G. Nieminen, B. J.
Biermeier-Hanson, Nepotism and Organizational Homogeneity: How the ASA Process is
Accelerated by Non-merit-based Decision-making.
T. E. Becker, Nepotism and the Commitment
of Relevant Parties.
A. Masuda, M. Visio, Nepotism Practices
and the Work-Family Interface.
K. H. Mhatre, R. E. Riggio, H. R. Riggio,
Nepotism and Leadership.
G. Wated, J. I. Sanchez, The Cultural Boundary of Managing Nepotism.
B. H. Mulder, A Model of Organizational
Nepotism.
R. G. Jones, Toward a New Understanding of
Nepotistic Organizational Behavior.
317 pages, Hardcover