Comprehending envy and its impact on employees and the organization

Abstract

Considerable theoretical and empirical work has identified the impact of envy on the organization and its employees. The mechanisms underlying this emotion, however, are not well understood. To enhance the understanding of workplace envy, we examined the relationship between envy and the secondary affective variables, distress and job satisfaction. Furthermore, we determined how envy might impact personal response variables in the workplace. We used Vecchio´s theory (1995) on antecedents and consequences of envy as a theoretical framework for our study. To test a possible behavioral coping response to envy, we modified Vecchio´s model by adding an additional variable to it, antisocial behavior. The present study relied on cross-sectional research design where 97 respondents from various business settings in Norway participated. Our findings revealed envy to be directly related to distress and job satisfaction. Furthermore, SEM analysis showed envy to have indirect and positive relation to propensity quit via distress and job satisfaction. However, the analysis did not find antisocial behavior to be related to envy as predicted. The limitations and implications of these findings are discussed and the paper concludes with an outline for possible future research. Keywords: envy, distress, job satisfaction, propensity to quit, antisocial behavior