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?
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Correct, not all of my examples are about nepotism.
Thank you for your recommendations, funnily enough I don’t suffer from the political/social skills.
What I cannot wrap my head around are situations, where people through nepotism/favoritism or politics get a position where they fail, which then comes back to the people who put them there. To rephrase it a little bit: “Why not put someone who is 50% competent and 90% loyal on a position instead of someone who is 25% competent and perhaps 95% loyal”? It seems kind of obvious to have a little bit competence, and if it is only for self preservation. (Just to ‘objectify’ that: Saw higher managers which are totally incompetent (not only my opinion), have a proven track record of failing everything they touch by stupidity (like: that is not how reality works stupid) which got officially demoted after several years, hurting their sponsors. Why didn’t their sponsor demote them earlier or put them in the position in the first place?)
Maybe another term you would be interested in reading about it “the Peter Principle”. The tendency of competent people to get promoted until they fail. Coupled with some managers getting rid of underperforming employees by helping them find new jobs (and sometimes that means promotions), a “no longer my problem” approach.
It would be lovely if all managers did things to best serve customers, employees, and the greater good of the company, but that isn’t reality. Managers are often in competition with each other to scrounge resources for their teams. I don’t know that there is a book on this, it’s just the reality of our current capitalist economic model.
Thank you very much, a great recommendation!
… and yes, agreed: I am lucky I had a very good manager once, who didn’t pull the usual shit and had human integrity, but people like that are the exception not the rule.
The whole post appears to be looking for qpp% under qualified nepotism baby example when most nepotism babies are just other mid people but they get to get a head.
That’s what real nepotism looks like.
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.
Here are a few books I found about the lives of the super-wealthy.
Jackpot: How the Super-Rich Really Live–And How Their Wealth Harms Us All
Capital without Borders: Wealth Managers and the One Percent
And here is an interesting 20-min interview with the second author:
What’s It Like To Be Rich? Ask The People Who Manage Billionaires’ Money
I highly recommend the Hidden Brain Podcast.
Wow, thanks a lot, the books look very interesting and special shout out for the Podcast, I already subscribed to the feed! :-)
