2016
Chapter
Envy at Work and in Organizations

Envy and Interpersonal Corruption: Social Comparison Processes and Unethical Behavior in Organizations

By: Julia J. Lee and Francesca Gino

Format:Print

Abstract

Book Abstract: Competition for resources, recognition, and favorable outcomes are all facts of life in professional settings. When one falls short in comparison to colleagues or subordinates, feelings of envy may arise. Fueled by inferiority, hostility, and resentment, envy is both ubiquitous and painful. Will employees "level up" with their envied counterpart through self-improvement behaviors? Or will they "level down" through sabotage and undermine their peers and subordinates in the process? Envy at Work and in Organizations aims to determine the direction workplace envy takes. Contributors are drawn from many countries and from an extraordinary range of disciplines to share their insight: experimental social psychologists offer insights from lab studies, psychoanalytical scholars emphasize unconscious processes, organizational psychologists describe groundbreaking research from disparate work settings, and cross-cultural psychologists reveal the variety of ways that envy can emerge as a function of cultures as wide-ranging as the Japanese school system to the fascinating structure of the Israeli kibbutzim. Work and insight from behavioral economists and organizational consultants is also included.

Citation

Lee, Julia J., and Francesca Gino. "Envy and Interpersonal Corruption: Social Comparison Processes and Unethical Behavior in Organizations." In Envy at Work and in Organizations, edited by Richard H. Smith, Ugo Merlone, and Michelle K. Duffy, 347–372. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016.