Coworker Narcissism: Employee Emotional and Behavioral Reactions as Moderated by Bottom-Line Mentality and Trait Competitiveness

Abstract

We advance research on narcissism in the workplace by examining the effects of coworker narcissistic rivalry on focal employee emotional states and behavioral intentions. We rely on social function of emotions theory to explain why coworker narcissistic rivalry results in focal employee negative emotions. We then explain that the focal employee is likely to handle their negative emotions arising from coworker narcissistic rivalry differently depending on individual differences of bottom-line mentality (BLM), which captures a defensive competitive posture, or trait competitiveness, which captures an offensive competitive posture. Across three studies, our results generally support our predictions by revealing that the indirect effect of coworker narcissistic rivalry onto focal employees’ social undermining of that coworker (through focal employee negative emotions) is more strongly positive when the focal employee is higher in BLM, whereas the indirect effect of coworker narcissistic rivalry onto focal-employee-intended work-goal progress relative to the coworker (through focal employee negative emotions) is more strongly positive when the focal employee's trait competitiveness is lower.

The Construct of Bottom-Line Mentality: Where We’ve Been and Where We’re Going

“…Research has also found that employees who are higher (versus lower) on BLM were more likely to mimic the social undermining behaviors of their supervisors by undermining coworkers (Eissa, Wyland, Lester, & Gupta, 2019). More recently, Greenbaum, Gray, Hill, Lima, Royce, and Smales (2022) found that a coworker's narcissism provokes an employee's negative emotions, and these negative emotions have a stronger positive influence on the employee's social undermining of the coworker when the employee is higher in BLM. In comparison to employees lower in BLM, those higher in BLM interpret their negative emotions (arising from coworker narcissism) as indicating a stronger need to defend their bottom line by undermining their opponents.…”

When the victims fight back: the influence of workplace ostracism on employee knowledge sabotage behavior

“…, 2020). Research has shown that individuals with high BLM often exhibit high levels of vigilance toward transactions that threaten the bottom line and are accustomed to using competitive thinking in response to external threats (Greenbaum and Gray, 2022). Any behavior or person that poses a threat to the bottom line may be the subject of counterattacks by individuals with high BLM (Greenbaum et al.…”

“…Recently, research has begun to focus on the role of BLM as a boundary condition in the process by which emotions are generated. For example, Greenbaum and Gray (2022) revealed that employee BLM intensifies the influence of coworker narcissism on focal employees’ social undermining of the worker through focal employees’ negative emotions based on emotion as social information theory. Seo et al.…”

“…In the primary appraisal stage, employees with high BLM place an extreme emphasis on the bottom line (such as their performance and financial goals), which can lead such employees to appraise workplace ostracism events that hinder the bottom line as serious threats (Greenbaum and Gray, 2022). Namely, employees with high BLM are prone to pursuing the bottom line based on the mindset of “winning the competition at all costs” (Greenbaum et al.…”

“…Such employees tend to chase the bottom line and to adopt a “win at all costs” mindset (Greenbaum et al. , 2012); they are, therefore, very sensitive to threatening stimuli, such as workplace ostracism events based on malicious intent, and view such stimuli as high-risk situations (Greenbaum and Gray, 2022). When appraising coping ability, employees with high BLM preferentially invest resources in the realization of the bottom line (Wan et al.…”