“What about you, how would you react if your company practiced favoritism?”

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Entrepreneurship, Human Resources Management

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In a research paper entitled “Legitimacy, Particularism and Employee Commitment and Justice” published in the Journal of Business Ethics, a 4* NEOMA journal (Rank 1 FNEGE, Rank 2 CNRS), Helena González-Gómez, professor in the People & Organizations department, in collaboration with Sarah Hudson and Cyrlene Claasen (Rennes School of Business), examine the practice of favoritism in companies and its impact on employee commitment.

Today, you can be proud! It’s your first day at your new company! You’ve won over your new employer with your skills and now it’s time to show what you can do… You’re chatting with another employee at the coffee machine: he shamelessly claims to be the treasurer’s nephew and that’s why he recently joined the company. How would you react in this situation? What if your company practiced favoritism rather than meritocracy?

This paper, written by Helena González-Gómez and her co-authors, analyzes the difference between the two models of managerial practices and their impact on employee engagement. “Overall, the results are clear: when your company’s HR department favors meritocracy more than it allows it, it has a clear negative impact on engagement. Employees feel de facto less involved and less concerned because they feel they are being treated unfairly by their employer. A result that has no impact on whether or not you took advantage of the system.”

However, based on the study that was conducted in China, a distinction was made between family businesses on the one hand and non-family businesses on the other. “In non-family businesses, people who have lived in an environment where this practice of favoritism was used, show a full understanding of the system and accept it. It is then this historical link that impacts your commitment.” Conversely, in family businesses, the association of your history with this practice has no impact. “Favouritism will always have a negative impact on your commitment. In a family model, you expect to find your boss’s best friend’s wife in the executive assistant position, or his brother as treasurer. You don’t fight this system because you know it’s unfair. So you accept the rules that are induced but logically this has a strong negative impact on your commitment.”

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GONZÁLEZ-GÓMEZ Hélena
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NEOMA Business School

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