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Workplace Favouritism - An issue for Singapore?

We commonly hear about favouritism occurring in the classrooms and families. How real is favouritism an issue at the workplace? Research with university students in the USA has shown that around 62% of students believed that favouritism was occurring in their family life. These students suggested that this was evidenced in subtle rather than obvious ways and the reasons for this were related to intellect, birth order, creativity and general behaviour, as opposed to gender or physical appearance. Perhaps it is not surprising then that the study also noted a significantly higher level of self-esteem in students who reported ... read more

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We commonly hear about favouritism occurring in the classrooms and families. How real is favouritism an issue at the workplace?

Research with university students in the USA has shown that around 62% of students believed that favouritism was occurring in their family life. These students suggested that this was evidenced in subtle rather than obvious ways and the reasons for this were related to intellect, birth order, creativity and general behaviour, as opposed to gender or physical appearance. Perhaps it is not surprising then that the study also noted a significantly higher level of self-esteem in students who reported that favouritism did not occur at home.

Does favouritism also occur in the workplace and if so, how acute is the problem?

Psychologists have reported that favouritism does occur at work. Given that the "workplace family" is typically much larger than the home family, this phenomenon is more likely to be evidenced through favouritism of one group over another rather than one individual over another (in-group versus out-group). That said, personal favouritism has also been reported as an issue. There is little published research available for Singapore, but drawing on evidence from Canada, in May of last year, the Federal government reported that only 55% of 2579 government employees in their survey felt that personal favouritism never occurred in their work units. There is also a cultural issue within the in-group/out-group divide. Singapore is a mix of cultures and thus contains aspects of both individualism and collectivism. For those Singaporeans whose cultural origins are more Chinese and thus, collectivist, it has been reported that greater in-group favouritism and out-group distrust may exist. Furthermore, collectivists appear to demonstrate stronger out-group discrimination than individualists.

In summary, although favouritism is an issue of perception as well as reality, there certainly is evidence to suggest that it is more prevalent than it should be even in today's competency-driven organisations.

How does favouritism affect working relationships among colleagues and what can be done about this?

Favouritism does occur in one form or another in the workplace. How then does it affect relationships between colleagues? It can lead to feelings of anger, envy or jealousy. Especially for those who believe that they are competent, hard-workers. We can expect to see this translated into reactions such as defensiveness should mistakes be made, withholding of information in order to retain some aspect of power, frequent arguments, as well as total lack of effective communication. At the extreme, it may appear that although individuals are part of a team, they are in reality only working for themselves! Such situations will most probably lead to a stifling work environment; distrust and lack of creativity will be witnessed. Members of favourite groups (also known as the in-group) will come to despise the out-group for their suggested "lack of abilities" or other negativities, whilst the out-group will despise the in-group for being favoured and will lose self-esteem. Given the loss of esteem, the out-group may even come to believe and demonstrate that it is ineffective or incompetent and thus a self-fulfilling prophesy is established and hard-evidence is fed back to the in-group. It's obviously important to avoid such situations in organisations. Events that highlight each person's merits and contribution to the overall organisational objectives will assist in this. Also, a mature attitude by each employee…the understanding that in order for the team to work well, each person must cooperate and contribute equally. Such an environment must be promoted by the organisation's hierarchy in order to be fully effective. Esteemed Professor of Management, Robert Veccio has suggested a plan for dealing with favouritism and envy and this plan includes elements such as paying attention to emotional maturity when selecting employees as well as encouraging open communication and implementing incentive systems that reward cooperation.

Case studies illustrating favouritism at work…

Case Study One: Personal Favouritism
 
Ling was an exceptional employee in the sales team of a banking corporation in Singapore. Her boss, Ivy, had enjoyed their first conversation and from the start had decided that Ling was extremely bright. Ivy gave Ling more work than the others on the team because she felt that Ling was more able to cope. At the same time, Ling was showered with praise for her achievements and attitude. Other members of the team felt cheated and became despondent towards Ling. Ling herself felt uncomfortable, as well as unfairly overworked. The end result was that the performance of the other members of the team declined along with morale and Ling ultimately gave her notice and took her exceptional skills elsewhere. Overall, a costly situation for the organisation, resulting in not only the necessity to recruit another exceptional member of staff, but also the need to notice the contributions of the other team members and rapidly improve morale.

Case Study Two: In-group/Out Group Favouritism
 
Lee was in charge of two interdependent teams in the Singapore regional office of a multi-national manufacturing company. As human resource manager, Lee had selected one team himself with simple recommendation from his assistants. The other team however were selected entirely by the overseas head office with little input from Lee. From day one, Lee felt uncertain about the decisions made by his head office as well as somewhat unhappy that he had not been more involved in the selection decisions. Lee continued to churn this over and without realising it, distanced himself from the second team. His "chosen" team noticed this and started to speak of the other team as though they were incompetent. This affected the performance of both teams. Communication became poor and many mistakes were made. Some aspects of the work were done twice, whilst others were not done at all. Head office suggested a communication course. In reality though, it was Lee's perceptions, attitude and favouritism that had led to this situation. Team-building would have been a more appropriate resolution. Here the members of each team may learn what each team does and about their mutual competencies. Although the situation is recoverable, again, it is costly to do this and there has been great loss up to this point both in terms of morale, misunderstanding and work errors.

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