THEY WANT WHAT I'VE GOT (I THINK): THE CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES OF ATTRIBUTING COWORKER BEHAVIOR TO ENVY

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Puranik, Harshad; Koopman, Joel; Vough, Heather C.; Gamache, Daniel L.
• 署名单位: University of Illinois System; University of Illinois Chicago; University of Illinois Chicago Hospital; Texas A&M University System; Texas A&M University College Station; Mays Business School; University System of Ohio; University of Cincinnati; University System of Georgia; University of Georgia
• 刊物名称: ACADEMY OF MANAGEMENT REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0363-7425
• DOI: 10.5465/amr.2016.0191
• 发表日期: 2019
• 页码: 424-449
• 关键词: organizational citizenship behavior; LEADER-MEMBER EXCHANGE; self-esteem; SOCIAL-EXCHANGE; INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS; RELATIONSHIP QUALITY; prosocial behavior; task-performance; RISK REGULATION; work

摘要

The focus in research on envy has recently shifted to include not only the envious person but also the person who is a target of that envy. We join the conversation in this nascent but developing literature by addressing a critical question: Given that envy is a covert emotion, how do employees come to perceive that they are envied? The answer, we propose, is that when employees are faced with ambiguous coworker behavior, they will, under certain circumstances, make an envy attribution for that behavior. We position envy attributions as a type of a relational attribution and elaborate a model grounded in theory on self-regulation that explains both how and when employees come to attribute the behaviors of their coworkers to envy. Going further, we then draw from research on approach-avoidance to explain the subsequent behavior of an employee who has attributed coworker behaviors to envy. In so doing, we not only provide an explanation for conflicting findings in the extant being envied literature but also call for an increased focus on attributions as intervening mechanisms that explain people's response to others' emotions.