When your strength threatens me: Supervisors show less social comparison bias than subordinates

Employee referral programmes encourage employees to recommend outstanding candidates to their organizations. However, a superior candidate can be a threat to a referee. People tend to not recommend higher performing candidates who have the same strengths as themselves because these candidates can be a threat to their self-positivity. This is known as social comparison bias (Garcia et al., 2010, Organ. Behav. Hum. Decis. Process., 113, 97) and has a tendency to hinder the effectiveness of employee referral programmes. We propose that supervisors will show less social comparison bias than their subordinates. Data taken from the results of three experiments and a field study show that supervisors (vs. subordinates) exhibit less social comparison bias (Studies 1a, 1b, and 2), and we learn that self-threat account for the difference between supervisors and subordinates (Study 2). Moreover, we verify that the difference between supervisors and subordinates in terms of their willingness to provide a recommendation reflects social comparison bias rather than a complementarity concern (Study 3). Practitioner points: Positions influence the willingness to provide a recommendation. Supervisors (vs. subordinates) are less threatened by a higher performing other who has the same strength.