Human Nature, Cooperation, and Organizations

Jones and Stout (2015) have shed much needed light on an organizational reality that industrial and organizational psychologists have unfortunately not paid much attention to: nepotism and cronyism (or what Jones and Stout have called social connection preference; SCP). Jones and Stout (2015) have made a good case (a) that SCP is pervasive, (b) that there are good reasons to believe that policies (and beliefs) against SCP are frequently counterproductive, (c) that SCP involves compelling moral dilemmas, and (d) that there are workable solutions to dealing with these moral dilemmas. I would like to offer a few observations about some additional issues involved in SCP: bias against SCP; SCP and cooperation; and nepotism, altruism, and personnel decisions criteria.