| Abstract [eng] |
The existence of nepotism is a painful problem for public sector organizations in Lithuania and other democratic countries. For this reason, it is important to find out what circumstances create the conditions for the spread of nepotism, because only by knowing the reasons for the spread of nepotism will it be possible to fully remove it from the public administrations around the world. Therefore, this work aims to try to find out what explains the spread of nepotism in Lithuania. Research objective: To analyze the internal characteristics and combinations of characteristics of all 60 municipal administrations of the Republic of Lithuania that can influence the level of nepotism and thus explain why Lithuanian municipalities have different levels of nepotism. Two main theoretical strands can be discerned that attempt to define the causes of nepotism. One of them is related to external factors in a certain state or territory that can promote the spread of nepotism - such factors can be related to the economic situation, the general culture of society, the political situation. However, it can be seen from several conducted studies that such an interpretation explains the Lithuanian nepotism situation quite poorly. For this reason, this paper relied on another theoretical direction related to circumstances that arise from within the organization. This theoretical approach to internal organizational characteristics attempts to examine the organizations themselves, rather than the territories or states in which these organizations exist. Seven hypotheses were formulated based on the existing literature that can justify why certain internal organizational characteristics can explain the level of nepotism: H1: Municipalities with lower HRM concreteness scores will have higher levels of nepotism. H2: Municipalities with more advanced monitoring practices will have lower levels of nepotism. H3: Municipalities with smaller administrative apparatuses will have lower levels of nepotism. H4: Municipalities with relatively more female employees will have lower levels of nepotism. H5: Municipalities whose administrative directors hold their positions longer will have a higher level of nepotism. H6: There is a higher level of nepotism in municipalities with leaders who are politically affiliated. H7: Municipalities with higher salaries will have higher levels of nepotism. The results obtained during the study differed from the predictions formulated according to the raised hypotheses. During the correlation analysis, it was observed that only one of the seven correlations corresponded to the statements formulated in the hypotheses - a higher proportion of women in the municipal administration (H4) was indeed correlated with a decreasing level of nepotism. However, based on the analysis of causal relationships performed in this paper, it cannot be stated that even one of the discussed correlations is statistically significant. Since the analysis provided in this paper was not conclusive, nepotism remains a very relevant topic in Lithuanian public administration. Further research into the causes of nepotism is necessary to better understand this problem, and internal organizational factors may be an important factor explaining the level of nepotism in state institutions. In the future, when analyzing the issue of nepotism, it would be possible to consider other methods of analysis, such as comparative analysis, case studies or other qualitative or mixed research methods. Potentially, this alternative approach would lead to more statistically significant answers to the questions of concern and contribute to a future with lower levels of nepotism. |
