Work Place Favourtism - 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 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?
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