We propose a novel temporal-based theory of how a painful social comparative emotion-job search envy-transmutes as deviant or normative job search behaviors (resume fraud or search effort). We theorize that as job searches progress across time or discrete events, temporal-based pressure increases via perceptions that situations are less changeable or more critical, propelling envious job seekers toward deviant rather than normative search behavior. We propose that market-based pressure, deriving from employment opportunity perceptions, further moderates these effects. In a first study of unemployed job seekers, after more search time passes, job search envy relates to deviant search behavior. Market pressure further qualifies this relationship, although contrary to our prediction, lower market pressure exacerbates rather than attenuates the relationship. Study 2, a two-year study of graduate students engaged in internship and full-time job searches, focuses on event-based temporal pressure and mostly replicates the Study 1 findings. It also indicates that under lower event and market pressures, job seekers expend more effort but do not commit resume fraud in response to job search envy. Overall, we conclude that job search envy transmutes differently depending on temporal-and market-based contingencies and discuss future research possibilities.

In the past 20 years, there has been a growing interest in the phenomenon of workplace envy. This article provides an overarching review and analysis of the workplace envy literature. We first consider conceptual and measurement challenges facing envy researchers. We then review the current knowledge base in the research with a focus on synthesizing what we have learned regarding workplace envy's transmutations, highlighting directions for future research. We explore two relatively understudied areas in the envy literature—antecedents of envy and the experience of being envied. We discuss methodologies used in the literature to study envy and outcomes and conclude with a focus on cross-cultural and practical implications. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, Volume 8 is January 21, 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

Although gender has been identified as an important antecedent in workplace mistreatment research, empirical research has shown mixed results. Drawing on role congruity theory, we propose an interactive effect of gender and bottom-line mentality on being the target of mistreatment. Across two field studies, our results showed that whereas women experienced more mistreatment when they had higher levels of bottom-line mentality, men experienced more mistreatment when they had lower levels of bottom-line mentality. In another field study, using round-robin survey data, we found that team gender composition influenced the degree to which the adoption of a bottom-line mentality by female team members was perceived to be a gender norm violation, which subsequently predicted their likelihood of being mistreated. Specifically, women who had higher (vs. lower) levels of bottom-line mentality were more likely to be perceived to violate gender norms in teams with a lower proportion of women, and in turn, perceived gender norm violation was positively associated with being mistreated. We discuss theoretical and practical implications of our findings and directions for future research.

Summary We examine the effects of the balance between positive and negative affect experienced at work on well‐being outcomes. An extensive literature on affect balance suggests that it is not only positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA) alone that affect well‐being; rather it is the balance between them that matters. We use experience sampling methods and polynomial regression to test the notion that daily PA and NA at work, along with their interactive and nonlinear effects, predict employee well‐being after work. In a sample of working adults, we find that affect balance—the dynamic interplay between daily PA and NA—at work was differentially associated with various indices of well‐being: PA, NA, and the interaction between them predicted physical and mental health. Affect balance at work also predicted life satisfaction, but only for those low on trait affect balance. Detailed examination of the joint effects of PA, NA, and the balance between them reveals that high PA at work is most important for life satisfaction, whereas both low NA and high PA are important for health. Low NA plays an especially important role in physical health.

Recent studies have shown that workplace victimization is negatively related to work engagement. The explanations for the underlying mechanisms, however, are still in a nascent stage. Drawing on the limited resource theory of self-regulation and research on workplace aggression and sleep, we develop and test an integrated model, which explains that victimized employees may have impaired sleep quality and thus have less energy and be less likely to be engaged in their work. The results of logistic regression and structural equation modeling analyses of large-scale survey data collected from 90,272 employees across the years 2010, 2011, 2014, and 2017, indicate that workplace victimization is negatively related to sleep quality and subsequent workplace engagement, even controlling for alternative explanations—job insecurity and basic psychological needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness. Our findings advance our knowledge on the detrimental consequences of workplace victimization and suggest that, while unmet basic psychological needs matter, impaired sleep quality is one reason why victimized employees find it difficult to engage at work.