What can I call actions that seem to motivate employees to give gifts to a senior?

Question

A situation like this has been happening.

The most senior (say the dean of a faculty or a manager of a company) of the workplace, kind of likes to receive gifts. When there are new members, she looks for a chance and shows her gifts to some others, appreciating those gifts and those who gave them, in front of those new members. She does it with implications in her gestures towards the new members, as if to encourage them – this I can’t explain further because it’s just something which is happening, and not very explicable.

Most of the time, the new members get motivated to give her gifts themselves too. Especially, as she is the dean, they think it might also positively affect their career. Very rarely, (if the new member is very hard up with money only) they will not do so at once.

So she kind of emotionally drives the members to do something she likes. What is this behavior called? I want to know the word which we can use to describe such behaviour, because I need to explain a similar behaviour to explain something important at the workplace, but I can’t use the above example related to gifts.

I'm new to such behaviours at workplaces. So I don't know whether there is a specific word we can use to identify such behaviour (like for instance the word for "malicious talk about someone who is not present" is "backbiting").

Also, is this type of behaviour common in work places?

Answer 1

What is this behavior called?

Words that come to mind (I had to google the English version of some as I thought of them in Spanish):

• Manipulative: As she is manipulating new recruits into gifting her things.

• Nepotism: (as per Wikipedia def) "the act of granting an advantage, privilege, or position to relatives or close friends in an occupation or field" - perhaps she is not granting positions to the ones that gift things to her (or perhaps yes?) but if she were to then it would fall into nepotism.

And the one I had to translate from Spanish:

• Influence peddling: "the practice of using one's influence in government or connections with authorities to obtain favours or preferential treatment for another, usually in return for payment. It is also called traffic of influence or trading in influence"

Also, is this type of behaviour common in work places?

This is a "depends" answer. Knowing if this is common or not also serves no practical purpose for you.

However, based on my experience, it's not rare to find people like this in many industries and contexts, even more frequently in positions of power.

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Now, regarding the gifts. If you don't want to do it, then don't. You are not forced to gift her things. Perhaps she is manipulative or know how to influence people, so just don't fall for that and dismiss any thoughts or sense of obligation that you have to gift her something.

If she starts to treat you differently or make your life hard or "take revenge" on you because you haven't gifted her anything, then that would be a very clear signal/red flag that she may not be the best boss you could have.

Answer 2

It's usually called 'fishing'.

It is common in some locales to remind employees or inform new ones without outright saying so (which would be wrong) that gifts to superiors are expected and noticed.

Particularly in developing or Third World countries it is almost formalised and quite an important part of a superior's income and status. Therefore, it can be career limiting not to give them gifts.

Outsiders would see such gift giving as bribes. And it is, in their context. But it's tradition as well in other contexts and extends well beyond the workplace with its own important social functionality.

Answer 3

IMHO (coming from a culture where the described behaviour is a big no-no)

• abuse of power for the how to press people into giving, and
• corruption, more precisely extortion for the personal enrichment aspect of the situation

deserve to be listed in an answer and not just in comments - so, thank you commenters who brought them up already.

Emotional blackmailing ("I won't love you if you don't give me gifts") may be a relevant specific technique of manipulation, though the described situation sounds as if the threat may be more tangible action than "only" affecting emotion.

Answer 4

In general, using emotions to get people to do something without asking them directly is called manipulating. For example, a boss might talk a lot about how going home right on time is technically ok but doesn't show the kind of drive and commitment that staying late shows. And might praise everyone who stayed late. New hires find out quickly they are expected to stay late. Yet the boss can say "I never asked anyone to stay late or punished anyone for not staying late."

In the case of trying to get people to give personal gifts, this is a bigger issue. A manager who can make people enrich the company by working late for free is generally thought of as helping, even in companies that officially support "work life balance". But enriching yourself, by pushing people to spend their own money on person to person gifts, is usually not allowed and not thought well of.

If the behaviour you want to describe is not a matter of personal enrichment like getting a personal gift, find an example that isn't that -- like working late, coming in early, working at home extra hours, or the like. But whatever the behaviour you want to discuss with another person, I would describe hinting, showing off what others have done and praising them for it, and implying that the new people might want to join in as manipulative or manipulating.

Answer 5

The specific action is "eliciting" gifts.

Other answers have good terms for the overall behavior, approach, and moral implications.

Answer 6

A descriptive term for this approach would be "quid pro quo", which literally means "this for that" in Latin. You could also say, "a favor for a favor". Quid pro quo will always exist in office politics, but it becomes unethical when the favors are rendered as material things per OP's description, or even as sexual favors.

Answer 7

How about 'patronage' ? It was a term used to describe jobs given out to people with the expectation they would then pay a portion of their pay to their benefactor or donate it to selected candidates. Typically it was political and involved government jobs

Answer 8

To my surprise, no one has yet mentioned unethical as the word to use.

NOTE: Ethical codes vary by region.
As an example: The PMP certification(1) says that bribery (very similar concept to the above situation) is not unethical for the Project Manger if, in the country where the business is being done, bribery is 'common'. (That's paraphrased, but it's what I remember from studying for version 4 of the PMP)
Basically, 'if it is a commonly accepted practice in that country, it is not unethical for the PMP to also engage in that practice' (because your projects there would almost certainly fail).
If the 'boss' comes from a place where bribery is common, unethical is not a good word choice.

I'd use one of these three: (in order of accuracy)
• solicitation
• extortion
• unethical behavior (see Note above)

If you think she'll figure out you're talking about her, I'd recommend:
• manipulation

It is still accurate, and probably will offend her, but at least manipulation doesn't imply a crime has been committed.

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(1) The PMP is a "Project Management" certification in the USA and other countries

Answer 9

Perhaps this not quite blatant request is one for tribute.

Answer 10

Something like:

• subliminal persuasion
• indirect persuasion
• subtle persuasion
• soft persuasion

Although I don't think outright showing gift your juniors have given you is very "subtle". Might as well go

And these are all the gifts that juniors LIKE YOU have given me throught the years WINK WINK NUDGE NUDGE