Emerging Research on Constructive and Destructive Consequences on Workplace Envy

Workplace envy, defined as the negative feelings and thoughts aroused when employees lack or desire coworkers’ superior qualities, achievements, or possessions, has captured the interest of organizational researchers and practitioners. A small but growing body of literature examines the consequences of workplace envy but more theoretical and empirical work is needed to understand why and how envy relates to its outcomes. The purpose of this symposium is to address this research agenda. The contributions of this symposium do so by: (1) examining different forms of workplace envy (i.e., benign and malicious envy, affective and cognitive envy, episodic envy); (2) addressing consequences that are both destructive (e.g., counterproductive work behavior, depressive symptoms, hiding) and constructive (e.g., greater work effort and persistence on tasks, citizenship behavior, impression management) in nature; (3) identifying processes that explain the relationship between dimensions of envy and its outcomes (e.g., scope of justice, self-esteem); (4) examining moderators of the relationship between envy and its consequences (e.g., social dominance orientation, social network characteristics, physical proximity), thereby shedding light on other potential theoretical mechanisms linking envy and its consequences. The symposium papers use strong theoretical frameworks and a variety of methodological and analytical techniques (e.g., experimental design, envy in reference to one particular coworker, peer-rated behavioral consequences, social network analysis) in their contributions to the literature. The Consequences of Benign and Malicious Envy in the Workplace Presenter: Chris Sterling; U. of Kentucky Presenter: Richard Smith; U. Kentucky Presenter: Niels van de Ven; Tilburg U. Psychological Mechanisms Explaining the Effects of Envy on its Consequences Presenter: Ryan M. Vogel; Pennsylvania State U., Erie Presenter: Michelle K. Duffy; U. of Minnesota Presenter: Lingtao Yu; U. of Minnesota, Twin Cities