Episodic envy and counterproductive work behaviors: Is more justice always good?

Abstract

Summary The authors examined how perceived event‐specific procedural and distributive justice about own and envied others' outcomes interacts with episodic envy to predict counterproductive work behaviors. Our results were consistent with the attribution model of justice, finding that episodic envy significantly predicted counterproductive work behaviors aimed at envied others in the workplace and that this relationship was more pronounced when perceptions of procedural, but not distributive, justice about own or envied others' outcomes were high rather than low. We tested a moderated‐mediation model in which self‐attributions for the outcome mediated the effect of episodic envy on counterproductive work behaviors and that the effect of envy was stronger when perceptions of own or others' procedural justice were high rather than low. This research contributes to the literature on envy processes in the workplace and is the first to use a specific emotion, envy, as a proxy for a negative outcome in a demonstration of the attribution model of justice. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Is Consistently Unfair Better than Sporadically Fair? An Investigation of Justice Variability and Stress

“…Our investigation extends the literature on organizational justice in general, and uncertainty management theory in particular, in several ways. First, our laboratory study demonstrates that higher average levels of fair treatment do not necessarily result in desirable outcomes when those average levels of fair treatment are unstable, challenging the assumption in the justice literature that more justice is always better (Brockner, Wiesenfeld, & Diekmann, 2009;Khan, Quratulain, & Bell, 2014;Van den Bos, Bruins, Wilke, & Dronkert, 1999). Second, both studies demonstrate how differences in justice variability experienced by employees over time influence important work outcomes, thereby broadening the scope of uncertainty management theory.…”

You don’t actually want to get closer to the star: How LMX leads to workplace ostracism

“…Previous studies suggest that the causes of workplace exclusion can be divided into two categories: punitive tendency and protective tendency (Robinson et al, 2013). Engaging in workplace ostracism behavior could possibly restore or maintain positive self-evaluation and balance mental states for followers in lower-quality LMX relationships (Khan et al, 2014). For example, ostracizing the "in-group" team members can be seen as a form of punishment from "out-group" members.…”

“…The second one usually associates with a specific individual as referent and has an episodic nature. The last one is a general emotion occurring in a specific circumstance (Duffy et al, 2012;Khan et al, 2014). According to prior definitions, envy can be either benign without hostile emotion or malicious with hostile emotion (Parrott, 1991;van de Ven et al, 2009).…”

The Effects of Upward Social Comparison on Workplace Envy: Moderate of Gender Identification and Self-Esteem

“…For example, some studies have found that individuals who experience envy tend to be hostile and resentful, thus reducing their organizational citizen-ship behaviors (Kim et al, 2010). Envy can affect group satisfaction and lead to absenteeism, social undermining and counterproductive work behavior (Duffy, Scott, Shaw, Tepper, & Aquino, 2012;Khan, Quratulain, & Bell, 2014); envy can also indirectly reduce group performance by increasing social undermining and reducing group effectiveness and cohesion. In addition, high performers are more likely to be targets of group members' envy and victims (Kim & Glomb, 2014); then high performers may reduce their efforts when they realize they are being envied.…”