In large organisations, cliques at all levels are excluding people regardless of their talent, which is highly regarded in such business environments, says Professor Isabel Metz.

"The problem of cliques arises when those groups become powerful, too cohesive and exclude others," she says.

"When this occurs, members in these groups tend to over value their own characteristics and almost unconsciously sometimes devalue the characteristics of members in the outside group."

Professor Metz spoke with Yasmin Rupesinghe on the latest episode of the Melbourne Business School Podcast about her research into what she calls the "dark side" of human capital, which creates multi-faceted challenges for everyone involved, including a lack of diversity and opening the door to negative emotions entering professional relationships.

Isabel Metz is a Professor of Organisational Behaviour whose research in human resource management has been published in the Journal of Business Ethics, Human Resource Management, International Journal of Human Resource Management and elsewhere. Visit her faculty profile for more information.

Yasmin is a Program Manager on our Executive MBA and Senior Executive MBA programs, and a radio presenter for PBS FM.

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