The Pros And Cons Of Nepotism

Decent Essays
Nepotism, the practice of hiring, promoting, or showing undue favoritism towards employees who are relatives, is one of the oldest practices in the history of business. The legality of the practice has been hotly debated, but the official verdict holds that nepotism is technically legal. The ethicality of nepotism has also been hotly debated. The results show that people fall on both sides of the argument with some stressing that it can be a way to help family members, while others insist that it 's an indirect assault on other employees (Welch 144). Nepotism should be defined as an immoral practice in society because it entails rewarding those who have not earned it, indirectly punishes those who have worked hard, and reduces the efficiency …show more content…
In fact, this reason justifies the previous reason, indicating the practice’s unethicality. While it is not immediately obvious that nepotism punishes those who have worked hard, it merely takes a quick consideration of who is skipped over or not rewarded in place of the relative at the receiving end of nepotism. Needless to say, every time an unqualified relative of a boss is hired to a position, a better qualified individual is turned down; every time an undeserving relative of a boss is promoted or rewarded, a more deserving, harder working employee is slighted. Therefore, nepotism ultimately results in overlooking talented and hardworking individuals. In this way, it can be seen as a form of segregation (Hofmeyr, Andre & Burns 344). Those who are not relatives of the boss are denied the moral right to earn rewards through their hard work. Failure to hire or reward people who deserve to be hired or rewarded is equivalent to not paying someone for their labor. In other words, this is identical, in some ways, to one of the greatest evil practice by mankind: slavery. Of course, it is a hyperbole to truly equate slavery to nepotism. However, understanding the similarity between the two, the fact that both slavery and nepotism entail denying (whether intentionally or unintentionally) the results of one 's …show more content…
The strongest point that supports this counter-argument is found in the case of small businesses. The principle defense for nepotism as a practice which is not necessarily unethical is the notion that it surely should not be considered immoral for an owner of a small business of only one or two employees. For example, to hire a relative rather than hiring other potential employees who are in the labor market. While this argument against nepotism being necessarily defined as an immoral practice is reasonable, a deeper consideration of the argument reveals that it is not at all rational. It implies that nepotism is acceptable when an executive in power feels like hiring a relative so long as the business is sufficiently small. It is a logic fallacy to state that the size of the business should alter the ethicality of the practice. Moreover, the argument obviously fails to address the ethical issues with nepotism mentioned earlier and merely tries to skirt around the issue by focusing on a specific case of nepotism.
In conclusion, nepotism should be defined as an immoral practice in democratic society because it entails rewarding those who have not earned it, indirectly punishes those who have worked hard, and decreases the efficiency of organizations. Only a

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Behind the reality of Black underemployment, recruiting process in manufacturing plants was an issue. Job inquiries from Black workers were always rejected, regardless of the availability of positions. Factory managers practiced an oligarchic recruitment, that allowed White workers to enjoy the benefit of working. However, this practice was common in selective plants, and did not reflect as a company in general.…

    • 816 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    This week’s lecture by Professor Dan Gilbert and the excerpts of Tera Hunter’s works titled “Domination and resistance: The Politics of Wage Household Labor in New South Atlanta” and “Dancing and Carousing the Night Away” portrayed the role labor relations played in relation to inequality. It is quite interesting how the relations in the workplace mirror those in the community and across the nation. Tera Hunter discuss how workers challenged daily inequality in the workplace and Professor Gilbert made the social and political implication of their actions more obvious. In the workplace power is an important thing and those in power often abuse it.…

    • 825 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Next, the people who worked in the courts were discussed. It is stated that most promotions within a law firm and court are decided by white males; thus, minorities are extremely unlikely to receive promotions or jobs in the first place. It is…

    • 1660 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Inequality or Meritocracy? America: “The Land of Opportunity!” The desirable ideal of this great nation is that those who reside or migrate here have the chance at the American Dream— the opportunity to “pull themselves up by their bootstraps” and achieve success as long as they “put their best foot forward.”…

    • 184 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Bullying In The Workplace

    • 1257 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Zero-sum competition. Employees are pitted against each other in positions or tasks that allow only one winner to emerge from deliberate battles, creating many losers. 2. A small percentage of employees see the Opportunities and are willing to harm others, at least willing to try to harm others if they…

    • 1257 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Andrew Williams, in his paper, Incentives, Inequality and Publicity, takes to task Cohen’s analysis of Rawls’ remarks concerning what the basic structure of society consists in. Drawing on a close examination of Rawls’ comments on the subject, Williams’ posits a characterisation that pushes to the fore the idea of publicity. The upshot of William’s analysis is that Cohen’s attempt to broaden the definition of the basic structure to capture individual choices, and in so doing identify society possessing an egalitarian ethos as a demand of justice, fails because it is not consistent with Rawls’ publicity requirements. The difference principle, Williams maintains, “is inherently restricted” and “applies only to a society's fundamental social,…

    • 1179 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Nepotism is the hiring and favoring of relatives or friends primarily by offering them employment. Nepotism is perceived as a preferential treatment even if the person is qualified for the…

    • 812 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Describe the issues in the case? “On January 5, 1999, grievant Keith W. Walton applied for work with the Company by filling out the Company’s employment application (C-1). In it, he reported that he had no relatives employed by the Company. On April 30, 1999, he was hired as a Helper at the Manatee Power Plant and was continuously employed there (working his way up to journeyman mechanic status) for the next seven and one-half years” (Soloane & Witney, 2010). The issue describe in which Keith Walton case study is with him not properly being discharge for allegedly violating the company anti-nepotism policy.…

    • 892 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Conferred dominance is the act of giving one group unearned control over another group. Additionally, unearned advantage is the privilege that one group holds over society. An example of this can illustrated though the hierarchy system where white men are usually on top. This “unearned enticement” gives the dominant group an advantage based on their race, gender, place of birth, etc. Furthermore, a contemporary example of unearned advantage can be the wage gap between men and women.…

    • 394 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    It would affect the efficiency of the company if the less qualified person were hired. Lastly he says that the most…

    • 1047 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In Tina Rosenberg’s article, “The Taint of the Greased Palm,” she writes about how her garbage man in Mexico demanded “a tip” each week because he was not paid enough to provide for his family. She acknowledged these kind of bribes as a normal part of her life, but she claimed that, “What people really need, of course, is a system that doesn’t require bribery to get things done” (Rosenberg 6). She suggests that if the government and other businesses in the formal economy pay their workers a higher wage, that they would be able to provide for their family and therefore would no longer need the bribes to survive. This is a possibility that we have discussed extensively in class in order to predict its effectiveness. In this article, Rosenberg…

    • 714 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In this memo I explain how privilege can cause large groups of people to receive unfair treatment due to their identity and background. It contains discussion how being part of a more privileged group in society gives me advantages while being part of a minority leaves people with significantly fewer resources. Areas in Which I am Privileged There are several reasons why I am privileged; being white, able-bodied, cisgender, receiving an education, and having a stable income are all examples.…

    • 671 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “Systems are defined as meaningful wholes that are maintained by the interaction of their parts. ’’(Lazlo 1972) In Shelly Smith-Acuna’s book Systems Theory in Action, she discusses the idea of systems looking from a larger perspective that is intertwined with the smaller meanings.…

    • 805 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Based on the video, how do we make ourselves vulnerable or not so vulnerable with decision-making? We make ourselves vulnerable by embracing fear, shame, and not engage in our daily lives, in the video “The Power of Vulnerability,” Dr. Brené Brown, discusses vulnerability, and she states, that vulnerability is “uncertainty, risk and emotional exposure” (Brown, n.d.). Dr. Brown also implies that “vulnerability is the birthplace of love, belonging, joy, courage, empathy and creativity” (Brown, n.d.). She is encouraging us to live wholeheartedly also, to embrace vulnerability and imperfections in order to have control over our decisions in life.…

    • 817 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The scientific training of workers is important because it allows each worker to be able to achieve his greatest amount of efficiency. However a challenge to this facet is that it is human nature to resist change. Workers and management alike become accustom to how thing are being done and will initially resist the slightest change. Taylor felt that it was management’s duty of to scientifically analysis which changes they plan to put into practice in order to create the smallest amount of rebellion within the minds of the workforce. Bureaucratic management relies on authority of regulations to implement change.…

    • 1083 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays

Related Topics