The price of getting a job for having connections

One's own merits do not always guarantee success. access to a joband on too many occasions what is really decisive is whether or not you know someone related to the organization or project in question. When jobs are scarce and unemployment skyrockets, as has happened in many countries during the last global financial crisis, there are even more reasons to consider the repercussions than the practice of nepotism may have in the workplace.

Because what is clear is that someone who accesses a job position by knowing someone is getting some Benefits: Go from not having a job you may not be qualified for to one without going through too many filters staff pick. But it is possible that the practice of "enchufismo" also has a negative effect on the beneficiary. A kind of consideration that is more difficult to detect than the positive of earning a position with hardly any effort.

Stigmatization through plugs

A group of psychologists from Butler University have published an article in the Journal of Business and Psychology

in which evidence is presented about the fort social stigma carried by people who have been selected for a position by nepotism. Specifically, people who access a job because they are related to someone are not only negatively judged for having taken advantage of their special contacts, but also they are perceived as less capable to perform their work.

Investigation

The researchers focused on analyzing the answers given by 191 business administration students. The members of this group of volunteers had to imagine being workers in a bank in which their boss had not yet been selected and then read information about three applications for that position of job. Two of these candidates were always the same: a well-qualified profile that met the requirements for the vacancy and another clearly underqualified. The third candidacy, which was the one corresponding to the person who was finally hired, varied between three levels of qualification.

In some cases, this candidate had a better qualification than the other two applicants, but in others it was on the same level as the "strong" candidacy of the two previous ones or it was slightly below below. In any of these three possibilities, the third candidacy met the minimum requirements to access the position. However, half of the volunteers were informed that this candidacy, the one chosen, was that of a close relative of the vice president.

Having gone through this phase, the volunteers had to fill out some questionnaires in which they evaluated the person chosen to be superior to him in factors such as his level of proficiency, luck, skill, and ability policy.

karmic stuff

The results show how chosen people are significantly less valued when there are indications of nepotism. In fact, in the three degrees of qualification that the third candidacy could present, it was always less valued than the candidacy that had been chosen on merit. The students assumed that this person had been chosen primarily because of her family ties, regardless of his ability level reflected in his Curriculum vitae. In this way, the selected people were evaluated as if they lacked all the typical characteristics that are usually associated with good managers, regardless of whether the person chosen on the basis of "plug" was male or female.

In this way, even people who, based on the professional and academic information that was available, seemed well prepared for the position, were perceived as not very capable. Paradoxically, the type of stigma seen in the study could make people chosen by their connections have more difficulties to carry out their work due to the type of work climate that they inoculate in the organization. It could also be difficult for them to rise beyond the influences of the one who has selected them.

Bibliographic references:

• Padgett, M. Y., Padgett, R. J., and Morris, K. TO. (2014). Perceptions of Nepotism Beneficiaries: The Hidden Price of Using a Family Connection to Obtain a Job. Journal of Business and Psychology, 30(2), pp. 283 - 298.