Favors certain employees when making decisions or recommendations regarding promotions or pay. Assigns desired tasks to certain employees. Assists certain employees with career development and not others. Gives certain employees performance evaluations that they do not deserve.
A hard worker losing a promotion to a less deserving candidate who's better friends with a manager is a popular example of workplace favoritism. You might associate workplace favoritism with leaders who favor a specific employee, but it can exist among coworkers, too.
Favoritism is when someone in a position of power gives preferential treatment to a person or a group based on personal feelings or relationships instead of merit. Nepotism, on the other hand, is when someone in a position of power gives preferential treatment to family members or relatives.
One social psychologist noted that favoritism is more likely “when parents are under a great deal of stress (e.g., marital problems, financial worries). In these cases, parents may be unable to inhibit their true feelings or monitor how fair they're behaving.”
Other research has shown that parents favor the better-looking child because they have more of a chance of finding a mate. From an evolutionary perspective, parents favor the child that's most likely to reproduce. “In the end, it's about which child will yield more healthy offspring,” says Nikiforidis.
Signs of Workplace Favoritism
Assigns them the most desired tasks or otherwise favors them in workload allocation. Offers them more resources, such as a higher budget, more recent technology, a larger staff, and additional coaching. Shares valuable information only with certain employees.
The word favorite is at the root of favoritism, from the Latin root favere, "to show kindness to." Definitions of favoritism. an inclination to favor some person or group. synonyms: favouritism.
When parents favor one child over another, abuse does not necessarily follow. Favoritism is normal but abuse is not.
Favoritism does not just negatively affect those who are not receiving as much attention but those who are the target as well. Favoritism may cause a child to have anger or behavior problems, loneliness, increased levels of depression, a lack of self-esteem, or a refusal to interact with others.
“The biggest long-term dangers are depression, anxiety, unstable or even traumatic reactions in personal relationships, and performance anxiety for both the favored and non-favored children,” says Williams. She also discusses self-esteem issues and feelings of rejection following the child into adulthood.
Lower self-esteem. When favoritism creeps into the corporate culture, it causes feelings of inadequacy and inferiority in those who are not receiving the same amount of consideration. This can lead to a decrease in self-esteem, as well as a feeling of powerlessness.
Some leaders practice favoritism to strategically maximize their self-interest — they adopt favoritism to seek their personal interests or the interests of a friend, a family member3 — or they use favoritism as a tool to manipulate and control situations by deliberately favoring some employees instead of others to gain ...
Showing favoritism in the workplace is completely legal, unless the employer is discriminating against individuals on the grounds of a protected status, like race, age, sexual orientation, color, religion, ability, national origin, or gender.
In-group bias can harm our relationships with people who don't happen to belong to the same group that we do. Our tendency to favor in-group members can lead us to treat others unfairly and cause us to perceive the same behaviors among different people very differently depending on their group.
While the youngest sibling is usually the funniest kid, mom and dad favor the youngest for a reason that might surprise you. According to a new study conducted by Brigham Young University's School of Family Life, the youngest sibling of the family tends to be mom and dad's favorite child because of perception.
Overall, 38 percent of Americans who are the youngest in their family report they were the favorite, compared to 27 percent of those who were oldest. Middle children are the least likely to say they were a favorite child; only 20 percent believe they were.
Researchers have found that 74% of mothers and 70% of fathers admit to having a favourite child - and children say there is a bias towards the eldest one.... READ MORE ABOUT: Children.
Favoritism is commonly associated with a bond that develops between the child and the parent. Moreover, the favoring parent may have a guilt, remorse, or negative emotion associated with the unfavored child. In some cases, a detachment occurs because of some major traumatic event or a major life challenge.
Children often will struggle with depression, anxiety, low self-worth, performance issues, and even suicidal thoughts as a result of favoritism. Many times a child might be favored because of their gender or being the “firstborn” or “baby” of the family.
“Parental favouritism happens when one or both parents display consistent favouritism towards one child over another,” says Visher. And it's backed up by research. She points to several journals, including a study published by Elsevier, that explain why parents play favourites. “There are different reasons for this.