Feedback is nearly always seen as a positive thing in the workplace, but research from the University of Konstanz reminds us that undue praise can create a sense of false pride in employees. The researchers explored how managers’ feedback affected how employees behaved toward one another.

“As our findings show, employees who receive better treatment from their supervisor often display arrogant behavior towards their colleagues,” the researchers explain. “This is especially true when privileged employees are already dominant and want to keep their perceived higher status. In this case, some are even willing to undermine their coworkers.”

Making comparisons

The findings emerged because humans tend to compare themselves to one another, so they may easily interpret praise from a manager as inferring some kind of status or rank.

The researchers suggest that this can be overcome this by ensuring that when praise is given, it should be for specific contributions that they make to their team or the wider company. This helps the employee develop a sense of authentic pride that is more likely to motivate them in the future without having any negative externalities.

They conducted a series of thought experiments. In the first one, participants read a short fictional story about their work in a team. The story portrayed situations where they were either treated better than others or equally. Afterward, they answered questions about their feelings of pride and how they acted toward their teammates, like whether they tended to criticize their ideas.

The second experiment had participants write about times in their lives when they felt better than others or proud of an achievement without feeling superior. As a comparison, a third group wrote about their typical workday. Similar questions were asked about their behavior towards colleagues in this context.

However, real-life work situations can be quite different from these controlled experiments. To address this, the researchers conducted a diary study with employees from various fields. For two weeks, these participants recorded how their managers treated them, how it affected their feelings, and how they treated their coworkers. This involved behaviors like criticizing colleagues behind their backs or not sharing important information with them.