Attitudes towards business organizations

This study explored an individual's tolerance of nepotism in an organization that either hires a nepotised or non-nepotised candidate. It was hypothesized that individuals who have a high tolerance for nepotism will have higher leader identification, organizational commitment, organizational identification and trust in the nepotised leader than individuals' who have low tolerance for nepotism. This study also examined tolerance of nepotism as a predictor of subsequent unethical business behavior. This study was carried out on 210 undergraduate marketing students at California State University of Fullerton, in exchange for research credit. Multivariate analyses using a MANOVA were performed on the data to explore the relationship between two independent variables and whether the high and low groups differed on their acceptance for either the nepotised or non-nepotised leader. Roy Bargmann stepdown analysis was performed on the significant multivariate main effects and interaction effects. The significant multivariate effect was then followed up by a number of a-priori t-tests. The study showed that no one likes nepotism, but the only significant effect where non-nepotised leaders' received higher ratings was on the trust in leadership DV. There was also a significant interaction between high-nepotised and low-nepotised individuals, when the variable of interest is trust in leadership in the nepotised leader. There was a larger difference between nepotised and non-nepotised leaders when tolerance for nepotism is low. All other hypotheses were non-significant.