Sharing personal information with friends and family has long been considered by researchers as a way to build rapport and healthy relationships. But that is not always true among colleagues. That's the gist of new research, where researchers explored how personal disclosures in a work environment can influence peer relationships and task effectiveness. In the study, the researchers found that for higher status individuals, the disclosure of a weakness negatively affected their relationship and task effectiveness with their lower status partners.
The researchers devised three lab experiments, in which a total of 762 participants completed virtual tasks with a higher-status or peer-status partner. During the task, the 'colleague', who was actually an ally in the study, revealed personal information that could be perceived as both a weakness, a positive or neutral. The researchers found that while the type of disclosure did not affect peer status disclosure, higher status individuals who disclosed a weakness experienced a "status penalty." As a result, higher status revealers were less valued, and members resisted their influence more on the job.
