Paradox of nepotism in enterprises in Poland and Ukraine: social capital perspective

Abstract

The aim of the article is to analyse the phenomenon of nepotism, its effects in small and medium enterprises in Poland and Ukraine and their negative impact on social capital. Systematization literary sources and approaches for solving the problem of nepotism indicate that it is quite a common phenomenon in central and east European countries. Nepotism caused a lot of negative impact on organizations. It means, that in the organization, where nepotism is common employees have less motivation, job satisfaction. Their commitment to the organization is lower. They are also less efficient due to the selection of less capable candidates for the job or position. According to literature, on the other hand, nepotism could sometimes have a positive impact on family-owned companies. The article contains a review of the literature on social capital, nepotism and its effects, followed by an analysis of the results of quantitative research aimed at expanding knowledge about the problem of nepotism, determining its scope in Polish and Ukrainian enterprises, as well as its evaluation. The methodological tool of the research was a survey. Questionnaires were distributed to 691 working part-time students of private universities in Poland. The research was conducted from February to May 2019. The paper presents the results of an empirical analysis which showed that both nepotism and closely related cronyism are common phenomena in Poland and Ukraine. It should be pointed out that they are more common in Ukraine. Both phenomena have a negative impact on satisfaction, motivation and work, commitment and trust among employees. One of the important effects of favouring people in the workplace is also reduced the social capital of the company. The results of the research can be useful for managers. Social capital is one of the important elements significant for the development of a company, and nepotism affects it negatively. The conducted research can be used as an aid in creating and reorganizing transparent processes related to the employment of staff and effective personnel management in the organization.

Risk of Increased Acceptance for Organizational Nepotism and Cronyism during the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Cronyism was assessed negatively, more severely than nepotism, which is consistent with previous studies of this phenomenon (Sroka and Vveinhardt 2018;Onoshchenko and Williams 2014;Williams and Onoshchenko 2014;Padgett and Morris 2005;Padgett et al 2015;Abdalla et al 1998;Ignatowski et al 2019), however, the change in the respondents' opinions on the assessment of cronyism, as in the case of nepotism, was insignificant. In addition, in the interviews with business owners, no arguments were made about a stricter assessment of cronyism during the pandemic.…”

“…Comparison of nepotism depending on membership in the public and private sector, age and gender, as well as Poland and Lithuania (Sroka and Vveinhardt 2020;Vveinhardt and Sroka 2020). The understanding of nepotism from the perspective of family businesses was also undertaken (Ignatowski et al 2019). Al-Youbi et al (2020) dealt with the issue of acceptance for organizational nepotism from the perspective of belonging to the Protestant and Catholic denominations.…”

Nepotism and Favouritism in Polish and Lithuanian Organizations: The Context of Organisational Microclimate

“…While both states share the same past of the socialist market, the level of their autonomy differed similarly to that between Poland and Ukraine, which was more integrated in the Soviet Union. The study conducted in the context of the latter countries showed significant differences in preferences with regard to nepotism too [79].…”

How Do Nepotism and Favouritism Affect Organisational Climate?

“…However, to the authors' knowledge, until now, the connection between organisational climate, nepotism, and favouritism has only been researched according to separate variables, which highlighted the need for a systematic perspective. Research shows that nepotism and favouritism is a rather frequent phenomenon in postcommunist countries of Central and Eastern Europe (e.g., Onoshchenko and Williams, 2014;Ignatowski et al, 2019); for this reason, research was conducted by surveying persons who work in organisations of Lithuania.…”