Book excerpt: There is a huge elephant in the room: organizational decisions are often based on family relationships, rather than on the ‘rational’ approach advocated by many professionals. Textbooks on Human Resources, Management, Organizational Behavior, Economics, Public Administration, and a host of related areas seem to have entirely missed this important aspect of organizational decision making. This book seeks to change all of this. By clearly identifying and defining nepotism in organizations, this book pulls back the curtain on the primary basis for many of the important things that really happen in organizations, large and small. The authors skillfully weave examples of nepotism in real organizations with the usual scholarly textbook topics (hiring, leadership, employment law, career search, culture, etc.) in a way that defines an entire new field of quantitative organizational research. This new book in SIOP's Organizational Frontiers series represents the first time IO psychologists have looked at the important subject of nepotism in organizations.