Favouritism in Higher Education Institutions: Exploring the Drivers, Consequences and Policy Implications

Purpose: Favouritism is one of the most harmful informal practices in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) that affect the success and growth of the institutions, especially in recent decades. However, as destructive as favouritism is, most institutional managers seem to perpetuate its practice either because its negative effects are not well appreciated by the leaders or because the leaders have never been unfavourable of the favouritism act. This study explores favouritism and all its mutations, its causes and effects, and how to curb it in the HEI context. Methodology: The study was qualitatively driven. Valid data were solicited from 60 staff of the University for Development Studies (UDS), Tamale, Ghana, through an interview session and analysed. Based on the results and insights from secondary data, the study discusses three main types of favouritism in HEIs: nepotism, cronyism, and patronage. We found that favouritism of any form is cancer that can affect employees psychologically, emotionally, and even mentally. Findings: As a result, we conclude that the principle of fairness in the selection of employees is directly related to the level of public trust in the institution's ability to serve its stakeholders and has deeper organisational implications that determine the ethos in the HE domain and that failure, on the part of institutional managers, to employ a trusted merit-based recruitment and selection procedures in the recruitment of employees is one of the factors that can significantly contribute to the spread of unrest in the HEI space. Recommendations: Given this, we recommend, among others, that managers and administrators of HEIs avoid playing favourites by instituting an anti-favouritism policy that seeks to check murky recruitment and selection procedures and promote trust in employees in the promotion and reward systems in HEIs.