From kinship to trust: Changing recruitment practices in unstable political Contexts

Research on recruitment has neglected the possible influence of political instability and civil wars. This article seeks to redress this gap, by providing insights into recruitment and selection criteria in African countries during a time of political instability, based on the case of Algeria. The research focuses on how small businesses in highly unstable political environments vet candidates, the recruitment channels they use, and the type of criteria small businesses use during the recruitment process. Through interviews with 14 managers of small and medium sized enterprises, data were collected on recruitment and selection criteria of 144 employees. It was found that a tradition of basing recruitment on extended family networks has mutated into narrower and more confining networks based on trust.