Guilty or proud?: on the ambivalent experience of being envied

Yoonhee Kim

doi:10.17918/00010477

The workplace is full of situations (i.e., salaries, promotions, office size) that elicit feelings of envy. Until recently, envy researchers directed most of their attention toward studying the envious individual. But there is a growing recognition among scholars to study a person who is a target of that envy. This dissertation joins the conversation by addressing two questions: how do employees react to and cope with others' envy? What are the boundary conditions that influence the reaction of envied targets? Based on the cognitive, motivational relational theory (Lazarus, 1991), I theorize that experience of being envied evokes dual affective reactions, feelings of guilt, and pride via an appraisal of the envied situation. I propose that the experience of being envied elicits guilt when the situation is appraised as a threat and elicits pride when the situation is appraised as a challenge. I demonstrate that these feelings of guilt and pride eventually lead to knowledge sharing and team identification of the envied target. Furthermore, I propose that narcissism (i.e., narcissistic rivalry and admiration) of envied target and perceived team performance pressure interact with the envied situation to influence whether individuals judge it as a challenge or a threat, which will then evoke discrete emotions of guilt and pride. To test my hypotheses, I conducted a between-subject design experiment utilizing a team simulation in an undergraduate business course. None of my hypotheses were supported. However, my findings provide support for the moderating effect of perceived team performance pressure that when the envied target perceives a high level of team performance pressure, they were more likely to appraise the envied situation as a threat. However, the feeling of guilt did not elicit the threat appraisal. Additionally, the envied target did not appraise the situation to be challenging or feel proud of the experience. Narcissism did not have significant effects on the appraisal of the envied situation. This research makes important contributions to the literature on workplace envy. First, this paper provides a comprehensive view of envy by studying the perspective of the envied person. Second, this paper advances cognitive-motivational-relational research and envy literature by suggesting contextual factors (i.e., performance pressure) as a moderator that impacts the underlying appraisal mechanism. Third, I extend cognitive-motivational-relational theory by empirically testing the primary appraisal process, which has rarely been explored in previous studies. Lastly, this paper suggests that managers or HR professionals can prevent the emergence of negative emotions such as guilt from the envied target (i.e., high performers) by closely monitoring their perception of performance pressure.

Guilty or proud?: on the ambivalent experience of being envied

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Guilty or proud?: on the ambivalent experience of being envied

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