Essay on Recruitment Through Nepotism, Favoritism, and Cronyism

Some of the business organizations in developing countries fill their job vacancies not based on competitive practices, but on personal likings and preferences. Although the practice was common in public organizations, it is now a common trend in private businesses. The concepts of nepotism, favoritism, and cronyism have been used in reference to the deployment of relatives, friends, and acquaintances by organizations based on preferential treatment (Pearce, 2015). Those deployed through preferences do not have the required skills, knowledge, and expertise to execute their mandates. As a result, they fail to have job satisfaction as they fail to carry out their mandates independently. If the preferred employees compare with privileged individuals, their probability of being promoted becomes very high. Additionally, according to Ozler and Buyukarslan (2011), an inequality exists between the contribution rate of the favored employees and those deployed through competitive channels hence providing distressing situations. Such incidences have a negative effect on not only organizational commitment and individual performance but also on the job satisfaction. Recruitment through nepotism, favoritism, and cronyism leads to reduced productivity whereas the employees are normally dissatisfied.

Problem Statement

Most of the organizations in the banking sector in Saudi Arabia experience a dip in their productivity due to the deployment of unfair recruitment, selection, and promotion practices (Nadeem et al., 2015). When organizations recruit employees based on personal likings and preferences, they are likely to miss on top talents, which are critical for organizational development and success. Additionally, using nepotism, favoritism, and cronyism in the hiring and promotion processes promotes disharmony and unfair professional practices whereby some of the employees feel disappointed because of unfairness and lack of transparency in the recruitment and selection process (Pearce, 2015). The dissatisfaction arising from preferential treatment can result in reduced productivity and profitability and ultimately a recipe for business failure. As such, it is critical that the effects of the use of use of nepotism, favoritism, and cronyism on job satisfaction are established to promote competitive business practices.

Research Objectives

The proposed research will seek to achieve the following research objectives:-

To establish the effects that the use of nepotism, favoritism, and cronyism have on the satisfaction of employees in Saudi Arabia.

To discuss the reasons for the phenomena of nepotism, favoritism, and cronyism in Saudi Arabia.

To establish how the instances of nepotism, favoritism, and cronyism affect the productivity of the employees.

Definition of Key Terms

The following will be the key terminologies used throughout the study:-

Favoritism - in this form of preferential treatment whereby the employer provides special privilege to his/her friends, colleagues, and acquaintances in the realms of employment and in other personal decisions concerning a specific job (Ozler and Buyukarslan, 2011).

Nepotism- this is the practice of the employer demonstrating preferential treatment towards relatives especially by virtue of blood or marriage (Pearce, 2015).

Cronyism- this terminology is defined by as the preferential treatment shown only to the long-standing friends irrespective of their professional qualifications, skills, and competencies especially due to similar political preferences (Nadeem et al., 2015).

Job satisfaction- also known as employee satisfaction, job satisfaction is the level of contentment that employees have towards their job positions and responsibilities.

Significance of the Research

Most organizations use unfair and uncompetitive hiring practices without having the knowledge on the effects that these have on the productivity of their employees, their job satisfaction, as well as the success of their businesses. The proposed study is therefore critical, as it will provide information to organizations on why they should shun away nepotism, favoritism, and cronyism in their hiring processes. The proposed research will be key in proving key data on how preferential treatment impacts on the satisfaction of the employee and hence their productivity. Business organizations will use the findings of this study to establish how they can avoid nepotism, favoritism, and cronyism to ensure business success. From this study, it will be known that only competitive recruitment practices contribute to high job satisfaction and hence increased employee productivity and organizational success.

Literature Review

Varieties of studies have been done on the aspects of preferential treatment and its effects on the human resource practices of recruitment and selection. According to Sidani and Thornberry (2013), nepotism, favoritism and cronyism have become part of the business routine practices in Saudi Arabia. Granting preferential treatment to some individuals negatively affects their motivation and job satisfaction. Some of the reasons for the use of nepotism and favoritism in Saudi Arabia is lack of transparency in hiring and recruitment (Nadeem et al., 2015). Ozler and Buyukarslan (2011) provide that employees recruited through preferential treatment have low organizational commitment, productivity, and job satisfaction. However, Pearce (2015) state that preferential treatment in the form of nepotism and favoritism is bad not only for the organizations but also for everyone in the society as the success of businesses touches is critical for the society. Talib (2017) add that wasta (nepotism) is detrimental the independence of employees, their productivity, and business success. Despite the many studies on preferential treatment, none has established the connection between them and job satisfaction.

Methodology

The proposed research will deploy a qualitative research methodology on the quest to obtain the necessary information. The use of a qualitative methodology was based on a variety of factors. One of those is the ease as well as the less costs involved. Instead of using quantitative methods, which require a lot of time in the collection, analysis, and dissemination of data, a qualitative methodology will take a short time (Nadeem et al., 2015). Additionally, a qualitative methodology will save on the costs, as it does not much require financial resources. However, the disadvantage of this methodology is that it relies mostly on secondary information whose credibility and reliability cannot be ascertained. This limitation will be mitigated by using a survey, which will provide primary information in addition to the secondary information collected through scholarly articles, and peer-reviewed websites.

Research Design

The proposed study will use a phenomenological research design. In this design, the phenomenon of job experience will be studied on how it related to those who have been recruited through preferential treatment ion organizations. Studying the experiences of the employees requires the use of a phenomenological approach due to its ability to examine a lived experience. The information obtained from the use of this research design will ensure that participants give a full description of their experiences and views on the subject matter of the research.

Sampling Procedures

The recruitment of research participants in the survey will require the use of a sampling technique that will ensure that the sample is representative enough of the study population. In this case, a non-probability sampling technique will be ideal. Specifically, random sampling will be used considering the huge number of individuals who are qualified to participate in the study. The use of random sampling ensures that there is no bias (Nadeem et al., 2015). The recruitment of study participants will start with ensuring that the individuals are within the banking sector. Additionally, the ratio of the male to female participants will be equal. The participants will be asked of their permission to participate in the study. After signing the confidentiality form, and the critical consent form, they will then be randomly selected for participation through random sampling. Some of the ethical issues will be considered such as confidentiality of information.

Instrumentation and Data Collection Plans

Data from the study participants and which will be analyzed to present various conclusions will be collected using a questionnaire. In the survey, a questionnaire will contain questions related to the subject matter. The advantages of a questionnaire is that it contains straightforward questions and does not take a lot of time to collect data as in interviews. Additionally, it is quick to prepare, print, and discuss to the study participants. In addition to that, various websites will be visited and a variety of scholarly articles examined in the quest to collect data on the aspects of the research topic. The use of secondary data has several advantages, as it does not cost a lot compared to primary sources deployed in quantitative research. Using the secondary sources coupled with the primary sources of the results of questionnaires will give the study more credence.

Proposed Analysis of the Data

Data collected from the open-ended questionnaires and the secondary sources will be analyzed via different methods. One of the methods is that of coding whereby data will be arranged in a manner that the common themes will be identified. Additionally, the use of graphical representations will be key in the analysis and presentation of information arising from the analysis. The secondary data collected through a review of secondary sources such as the scholarly sources and websites will be analyzed by identifying the commonalities in the themes and grouping similar themes together so that a relationship can be established. Using such type of analysis will be critical in ensuring that any relationship is established and that the conditions arising from the analysis are the correct ones.

Implications and Limitations

the implications of the use of the coding in data analysis is that it will be easier to identify the common themes that exists from the data collected through a review of literature and secondary sources as well as the use of open-ended questionnaires. The implications of the analysis of the data is that information will be presented as to the effects of the use of nepotism, favoritism, and cronyism in the recruitment and selection process and its relationship with the motivation of the employees. The research design deployed will be key in ensuring that the data will be of the highest quality and value.

Time Schedule

The study will be done through via using step-to-step milestones, which will be completed within the set timelines. The following are the key timelines for the respective parts of the proposed research.

No Activity Time

1 Introduction, Problem Statement, Research Objectives, Significance of the Study 2weeks

2 Review of Literature 3weeks

2 Data Collection 7weekss

3 Data Analysis 4weeks

4 Discussion 2weeks

5 Conclusion 2weeks

Questions for Survey

The open-ended questionnaire used in the collection of data will have similar questions for each respondent. The following questions will be used in the proposed survey to get the attitudes of the employees of financial institutions on the effects of preferential treatment in the hiring and recruitment of employees in their job satisfaction.

How were you recruited in your organization?

..

Were you hired through competitive practices or through prefere...