Question

(1) Because Mary Barra's father also worked at General Motors, was her hiring an example of nepotism? if you were a business owner, would you want to hire relatives of your employees? what would the pros and cons of doing so be? (2) what role did mary barra play in advancing her career? what role did GM play in "growing" her career?

Answer 1

1. If Mary was hired because her dad had something to do with it then it is definitely nepotism. Even if her father had written a recommendation letter it can be considered as nepotism. Any influence of a family member in the recruitment will definitely make a positive impact and make the applicant the first choice for the role. But sometimes the company can also hire a relative for their talent. Mary Barra is a very talented individual who has transformed the business at General Motors. I would not encourage my company to hire the relatives of the existing employees of the company. I prefer having a very unbiased environment where the employees are hired for their talent and not because of the reference. The advantages of hiring relatives are:

• They can trust the person easily
• They know about the family background beforehand
• They do not have to do a background check
• They can create a good working environment
• They get adjusted to the environment quickly as they are already of what to expect

The some of the disadvantages are:

• They create a biased environment
• They might hide things and still join the company
• They might take the work for granted and don't work seriously
• They can get emotional easily because they have a family member in the company observing their activities

2. Mary Barra took the hard route to advance in her career. She worked in multiple departments like Engineering and Manufacturing for many years. She also got an MBA degree from the Stanford University and this shows that she is talented and hard working. She demonstrated excellent leadership skills and climbed up the ladder of company management structure. She took the responsibility as the Vice-President of Product Development and in 2014 she was named the CEO of the company. So she has had a tough route to climb up and she is sitting at the top mainly because of her hard work and dedication.

General Motors basically acted a good launch pad for her career. When she joined the company, she got the opportunity to get involved in multiple business units. She learned a lot about the company and the industry and this made her an expert in the domain. Working on product development made her aware of the market needs and the customers. So the company kept providing her the required support in every step and that made her a very confident individual. So the company had a big role to play in her success.