An integrative ethical approach to leader favoritism

• Author: Nada K. Kakabadse,Inju Yang,Sven Horak
• Published date: 01 January 2021
• Date: 01 January 2021
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/beer.12309

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  wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/beer Business Ethics, Env & Resp. 2021;30:90–101.© 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd

1 | INTRODUCTION

As leadersh ip primarily con cerns the proce ss of influencing su b-

ordinates (e.g., Ha slam, Reicher, & Platow, 2010; Yukl, 1998), the

question of how to t reat subordinate s fairly and jus tly becomes an

important ethical questi on for leaders. Favori tism has been obser ved

in the context of leadership since the individualized and particularis-

tic treatment of su bordinates by leader s is important for re lationship

building (Hoop er & Martin, 20 08). In fact, leadershi p is manifested

in terms of the lead er’s favoritism tow ard individual m embers and

affective di splays (c.f. Dasboroug h, Ashkanasy, Tee, & Tse, 2009).

At the same time, leaders encounter challenges between differen-

tiating their int eractions wi th employees to bui ld a more person al

relationship and levelling their interactions with employees in an in-

discriminate manner (Lämsä & Pučėtaitė, 2006; W hetstone, 2002;

Yang, 2015a). However, the balanci ng act betwee n two differen t

priorities may p ose an ethical dilemma for lead ers. Moreover, most

research tends t o consider favorit ism as something ne gative with

adverse conse quences, such as low perception s of trust and justice

(Chen, Chen, & X in, 2004; Jiang, Chen , & Shi, 2013).

Ethical judgment of fairness and justice is particularly relevant

for leaders be cause of their po sitional power, which r aises the

issue of subordina tes’ dependen cy (Ciulla, 20 05). So far, mostly

negative aspec ts have been at tributed to lea der favoritism, s ug-

gesting it wou ld be better to suppre ss or abandon it. Wh ile studies

suggest that f avoritism is quite pe rvasive in many or ganizations

(e.g., Brandt s & Sola, 2010) and that co ntrolling lead er favoritism

is unrealistic and ignorant to the relationship-building process be-

tween a leade r and subordinate s, the organiz ational social c apital

(OSC), goodwill, a nd resources (A dler & Kwon, 2002) lea ders gain

from their relat ionships with sub ordinates enab les a leader to as-

semble the resources (e.g., knowledge) necessary for successful

change. Taking into account t he negative assum ptions atta ched

to the leaders hip favoritisms as well as leaders hip favoritism com-

monality in organizations, an in-depth exploration of how leader

favoritism could b e perceived by both l eaders and sub ordinates

is undertaken. These perceptions may vary depending on the ad-

opted ethical principles. Additionally, the relevance of leadership at

the dyadic and te am level as well as its influence and me aning for

the organization cannot be ignored. Leadership shapes the organi-

zational cultu re and the employee's well-being, an d in turn it is an

important contextual factor at the organizational level.

In this vein, the goa l of this paper is to conc eptualize leade r

favoritism in a mor e integrative way by ad apting differ ent ethical

principles. We ac hieve this goal by examining lead er favoritism from

divergent ethic al positions and alternative vi ews, and suggest solu-

tions to leader f avoritism by adapt ing Mill's utilita rianism. Our ap -

proach contrib utes to leadership the ory by responding to con sistent

calls for resea rch to take into account a more gl obal view of ethics to

diminish the gap b etween the values p eople stand for and t he reality

Received: 26 Novem ber 2019 

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  Revised: 19 June 2020 

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  Accepted: 27 June 202 0

DOI: 10 .1111/bee r.12309

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

An integrative ethical approach to leader favoritism

Inju Yang1 | Sven Horak2 | Nada K. Kakabadse3

1School of Mana gement, RMIT Unive rsity,

Melbourne, VIC, Australia

2Department of Management, The Peter

J. Tobin College of Busi ness, St. John’s

Universit y, Queens, NY, USA

3Henley Busin ess School, Univer sity of

Reading, Reading, UK

Correspondence

Sven Horak, Department of Management,

The Peter J. Tobin Coll ege of Business, St.

John’s Universi ty, 8000 Utopia Pa rkway,

Queens, NY 11439, USA.

Email: horaks@stjohns.edu

Abstract

Relationship buildin g is one of the most important aspec ts of leadership; however, it

can pose ethical c hallenges. Though p articularis tic treatment of employe es by lead-

ers, that is, lead er favoritism, common ly occurs, it is conventiona lly regarded nega-

tively as fairness n orms require leaders to treat followers e qually. In this conceptual

study, we explore diffe rent views on leader favoritism bas ed on different ethical pr in-

ciples. We develop an alte rnative to the conventional view a nd suggest that leader

favoritism may not necess arily lead to negati ve outcomes when empathy-bas ed fa-

voritism is applied. In t his vein, we recommend drawing on the ethic al principles of a

utilitarian app roach by balancing particular ism and universalism, which is also h elpful

to build organizational soc ial capital. We contribute to leadership theor y by develop-

ing an early concept of an inte grative ethical approach to leade r favoritism.