Antecedents and Consequences of Workplace Envy: Further Unlocking the Black Box

Envy has been described as a hostile emotion, primarily conceptualised as “pain at another’s good fortune”, but concurrently with a potentially constructive influence. Previous studies conducted on envy have shown that it emanates from workplace events that trigger social comparisons. Drawing on affective events theory, social comparison theory, and attribution theory, this paper proposes a new integrative theoretical framework which examines novel categories of workplace events and their impact not only on cognitive assessment and emotional reactions, such as envy, anger, and admiration, but also on subsequent performance at work. In a new innovative approach, we bring together cognitive appraisal processes of emotions with internal, external and relational attribution processes, the use of metacognitive resources, and dimensions of social comparison and perceptions, which have been neglected in previous research. We also propose that the behavioural effects of envy, specifically on task performance, organizational citizenship behaviours, and counterproductive work behaviours, are based on an individual’s use of their self-regulatory resources. Finally, we consider the post-performance impact of envy to highlight its potential further repercussions. With this, our paper not only contributes to further theorising workplace envy, but also brings together previously disconnected fields of research and makes the important link to workplace behaviours and performance, thus providing insights for practice and people management. Envy has been described as a hostile emotion, primarily conceptualised as “pain at another’s good fortune”, but concurrently with a potentially constructive influence. Previous studies conducted on envy have shown that it emanates from workplace events that trigger social comparisons. Drawing on affective events theory, social comparison theory, and attribution theory, this paper proposes a new integrative theoretical framework which examines novel categories of workplace events and their impact not only on cognitive assessment and emotional reactions, such as envy, anger, and admiration, but also on subsequent performance at work. In a new innovative approach, we bring together cognitive appraisal processes of emotions with internal, external and relational attribution processes, the use of metacognitive resources, and dimensions of social comparison and perceptions, which have been neglected in previous research. We also propose that the behavioural effects of envy, specifically on task performance, organizational citizenship behaviours, and counterproductive work behaviours, are based on an individual’s use of their self-regulatory resources. Finally, we consider the post-performance impact of envy to highlight its potential further repercussions. With this, our paper not only contributes to further theorising workplace envy, but also brings together previously disconnected fields of research and makes the important link to workplace behaviours and performance, thus providing insights for practice andimportant link to workplace behaviours and performance, thus providing insights for practice andpeople management.