Favoritism among bosses is a common occurrence in various workplaces, as many can attest. It involves providing advantages like better parking spots and more comfortable workstations and prioritizing certain employees’ opinions during planning sessions.
Although this may seem unjust, recent research from the Stevens Institute of Technology indicates that biased bosses can yield more favorable outcomes, not just from their preferred employees.
“For leaders, playing favorites isn’t always a bad thing,” the researchers explain. “Favoritism is a double-edged sword—it can be harmful to team dynamics, but in the right circumstances it can also help organizations to succeed.”
Picking favorites
The researchers analyzed over 1,100 employees in 200 teams from various Chinese industries and examined the interplay between workplace favoritism and other factors affecting team performance.
Through surveys administered to both employees and supervisors, the researchers found that when team structures were already well-established, biased bosses had a detrimental effect on team performance.
On the other hand, in less-structured teams, favoritism tended to have a positive impact, fostering better coordination and overall team performance.
“That’s an important finding, because most previous research has focused solely on the negative impacts of workplace favoritism,” the researchers explain. “Now, we’re getting a more nuanced view of the way that leadership biases play out in the real world.”
The researchers base their arguments on the leader-member exchange (LMX) theory in management science, which focuses on supervisor-employee relationships. They explain that leadership biases create perceptions about the social standing of team members. In teams where a social hierarchy already exists, favoritism can create tension and conflicts.
However, in teams without a defined pecking order, biased leaders can provide a structure that leads to increased efficiency and reduced conflict. Favoritism establishes a framework for these teams, enabling employees to establish a stable dynamic and collaborate more effectively.
“In homogenous groups, playing favorites can be a way for leaders to clarify the roles that different team members should play,” the authors explain. “When teams lack obvious hierarchies, it helps if the boss sends clear signals about who’s on top and who is expected to take a more subordinate role.”
“The key point is that playing favorite has clear positive and negative effects, so leaders need to ensure they’re paying attention to how their favoritism is affecting their team.”
While leadership biases can affect team performance, other factors can also contribute to their impact. For instance, workplace favoritism can destabilize more recently formed teams more easily.
Additional research is required to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the effects of favoritism across different levels of organizations. Furthermore, the researchers suggest investigating how individual team members’ interactions are influenced by their supervisor’s favoritism.
