Loyalty pays… doesn’t it? Considered an essential virtue in private life but also in the workplace, decades of research have shown that it benefits both the virtuous and those around them. However, according to a recent study led by Duke University researcher Matthew Stanley, it’s a double-edged sword in business: A loyal employee is more likely to be exploited by his or her managers.
The other side of loyalty at work
An employee with a reputation for loyalty is not only considered a best friend, employee, and leader, but this character trait can also strengthen mutual support and trust in a group according to several previous studies.
Benefits Matthew Stanley doesn’t dispute, but he did highlight a much less appealing aspect of this much-lauded quality: “loyal employees are particularly targeted by managers for exploitation” because they are perceived as more readily willing to agree to make personal sacrifices.
The reverse would also be true: workers who accept being exploited earn a reputation for loyalty with their superiors. This two-way link between loyalty and exploitation can create “a vicious cycle of suffering,” according to the study.
In his conclusions, Matthew Stanley notes that society has certainly made progress in prohibiting the most egregious forms of corporate exploitation, but the subtlest forms remain all too common and the most loyal employees are more likely to be involved. as victims.
John, 29, loyal or disloyal
To arrive at this observation very well summarized by the title of the article “Loyal employees are ironically and selectively exploited”Matthew Stanley and his team conducted four studies in the United States that represent what-if scenarios.
For each of the studies, the managers are given the profile of a man named John. John is 29 years old, works in technology and lives in Chicago, United States. The company he works for, Intercomm, is on a tight budget and looking to cut costs. John is, according to the profiles received, loyal, disloyal, or neither.
In the first study, managers had to assign menial or unjustified tasks and overtime to John without any compensation in return. They were much more likely to do so when John was portrayed as loyal. The second study consolidates the conclusions of the first by demonstrating that other moral virtues -honesty and a sense of justice- do not have the same incentive effect on the choice of superiors.
The following study shows that when John agrees to work on his vacation days without any benefits in return, managers view him as more loyal. The latest study confirms this finding.
Source: BFM TV
