Can anyone recommend me books about the modern elite/modern nepotism and how it works?
I have experienced/observed modern nepotism several times in my life, to give you some examples:
- person founds a so called start up with money from person relatives, which boils down to paying other people to do all the work w/o anything resembling a business plan in the first place. Start up is a total failure, person gets job as a specialist for building startups via divine intervention.
- at several companies there is a level which people who do the work can reach, and above that level people from higher class get positions seemingly out of nowhere (unless they were childhood/study buddies of someone higher up) w/o any qualification/knowledge/experience to do this kind of work
- from a certain level on (at least in IT where we have more than enough money for it) everything is politics; when discussing technical problems/solutions at that level, the first question is always who is the sponsor behind the initiative and if this comes from the wrong party, the technical merits are of no interest at all
- a lot of positions even lower level in IT usually are distributed via nepotism/connections, I observed especially SCRUM masters and product owners are chosen for their family names/connections. (Two negative highlights: Product owner was literally boyfriend of company owner and another product owner was son of parent to which company wanted to sell their shit)
- lower on the list but still annoying and experienced several times: Son of friend of boss/manager/team lead gets internship in company although better candidates are there and often the nepotism sons would never have gotten an internship on their own merits, but end up with fancy internship from known company on their CV.
I understand that when you deal with a group of people politics are always relevant and inherent to groups.
My question is literately, how does this all work and why is this so extremely widespread?
Anyone can recommend some books about this social systems which give some insights?
Further, when I see what is mounted on money/time/energy because of this nepotism or the current favorite ideas of the elite, how comes no companies (that I know of) interrupt the market with a company slightly less dysfunctional.
Are there historical examples how elites/nepotism was overthrown w/o a bloody revolution?
Hunter Lewis, “Crony Capitalism in America: 2008-2012” looks pretty interesting. I have not read it.
I have run into nepotism and/or favortism at every single job, and I’ve had several. I know that’s only anecdotal evidence. But like you, I have the feeling it’s omnipresent.
I have also benefitted from it early in my career
Thanks for the book suggestion, I’ll buy it! :-)
Yes, I also saw it in every job/team/organization, and it seems very human, everyone just likes some people better than others.
The think which irks me, is that I also sometimes experienced favoritism/nepotism with totally incompetent people I had to directly work with and also several level above my pay grade. Like, if you have two competent people and chose the one you like more, I can totally understand. But if there are competent people and you chose your incompetent crony over literally everybody else, it seems self defeating in the mid/long run.
I benefited of someone with relative power taking a liking to me later in my career, and all of a sudden I was elevated into a network where things are possible which weren’t before. Still at the very bottom of the ladder, but very aware how much difference a few connections can make.
I’m less bothered by it for entry-level jobs. Agree that it’s human nature. Social networks are almost always at play. But it’s not an advantage most people have. Bootstrap mentality glosses over or even ignores this stuff. It doesn’t fit their American dream BS narrative that anyone can succeed if they simply succeed hard enough.