Up Close and Friendly: A Study of Compassion and Favoritism by Human Resource Professionals
Year: 2019
Type: article
Abstract: We assess differences in human resource professionals’ displays of compassion and \nfavoritism by observing the rigor with which participants in an experiment enforce an \norganizational rule. In our experiment, participants must decide to report (be rigorous) or \nnot report (be lenient) a rule violation committed by an employee. Participants are \nrandomly assigned to three scenarios varying in affective and psychological closeness: \nthe employee violating the rule is a co-worker, a co-worker experiencing serious difficulties \nat home, or a close friend experiencing the same difficulties. We observe that staff and \nsenior human resource managers act with compassion towards co-workers facing severe \ndifficulties at home. We also observe that human resource professionals (with the \nexception of senior managers) tend to be more lenient towards their friends. Our model \nsuggests that moral reasoning is a fundamental driver of compassion when participants \nhave information about extenuating circumstances. However, moral reasoning seems to \nbe inhibited in the presence of friendship, so that favoritism, when it exists, is produced \nentirely by the direct effect of adding friendship to the decision context.
Source: BIA (Drake University)
Language: English
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W3130124724