IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v19y2022i14p8351-d858492.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

You Have Received More Help than I Did and I Envy You: A Social Comparison Perspective on Receiving Help in the Team

Author

Listed:
  • Shaoqin Han

    (School of Entrepreneurship, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China)

  • Yuanfang Zhan

    (School of Economics and Business Administration, Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430070, China)

  • Lu Zhang

    (School of Management, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China)

  • Renyan Mu

    (School of Management, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China)

Abstract

In the current research, we developed and tested a model of how and when upward social comparison of received help influenced an employee’s interpersonal citizenship behavior. Based on social comparison theory, we posited that upward social comparison of received help triggered an employee’s feelings of envy, which in turn had a negative relationship with interpersonal citizenship behavior (ICB). Further, we argued that the effects of upward social comparison of received help on envy differed in the employee’s social comparison orientation. Using data collected in three waves from 411 employees in China, we found that upward social comparison of received help was positively associated with the employee’s feelings of envy while controlling for overall receiving help, which further negatively affected interpersonal citizenship behavior. Moreover, the relationship between the upward social comparison of received help and the employee’s feelings of envy was stronger when employees had high levels of social comparison orientation and further strengthened the indirect relationship between the upward social comparison of received help and the employee’s ICB via envy. Overall, these findings have the potential to extend our knowledge of the adverse effects of receiving help in a team by introducing a social comparison perspective.

Suggested Citation

  • Shaoqin Han & Yuanfang Zhan & Lu Zhang & Renyan Mu, 2022. "You Have Received More Help than I Did and I Envy You: A Social Comparison Perspective on Receiving Help in the Team," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(14), pages 1-11, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:14:p:8351-:d:858492
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/14/8351/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/14/8351/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Liu, Xin Lucy & Lu, Jackson G. & Zhang, Hongyu & Cai, Yahua, 2021. "Helping the organization but hurting yourself: How employees’ unethical pro-organizational behavior predicts work-to-life conflict," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 167(C), pages 88-100.
    2. Brown, Douglas J. & Ferris, D. Lance & Heller, Daniel & Keeping, Lisa M., 2007. "Antecedents and consequences of the frequency of upward and downward social comparisons at work," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 102(1), pages 59-75, January.
    3. Greenberg, Jerald & Ashton-James, Claire E. & Ashkanasy, Neal M., 2007. "Social comparison processes in organizations," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 102(1), pages 22-41, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Miaomiao Li & Xiaofeng Xu & Ho Kwong Kwan, 2023. "The antecedents and consequences of workplace envy: A meta-analytic review," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 40(1), pages 1-35, March.
    2. Hale Dilek Suer & Florence Allard-Poesi, 2013. "How do judgments of justice form during periods of change: a sensemaking model," Post-Print hal-01123798, HAL.
    3. Matt Grimes, 2010. "Strategic Sensemaking within Funding Relationships: The Effects of Performance Measurement on Organizational Identity in the Social Sector," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 34(4), pages 763-783, July.
    4. Wang, Le & Luo, Xin (Robert) & Li, Han, 2022. "Envy or conformity? An empirical investigation of peer influence on the purchase of non-functional items in mobile free-to-play games," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 308-324.
    5. Taegyong Kwon & Seakhwan Shin & Myoungjin Shin, 2022. "The Effect of Observational Learning on Self-Efficacy by Sport Competition Condition, Performance Level of Team Members, and Whether You Win or Lose," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(16), pages 1-16, August.
    6. Wang, Liwen & Zhao, Jane Zheng & Zhou, Kevin Zheng, 2018. "How do incentives motivate absorptive capacity development? The mediating role of employee learning and relational contingencies," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 226-237.
    7. Dejun Tony Kong & Violet T. Ho & Sargam Garg, 2020. "Employee and Coworker Idiosyncratic Deals: Implications for Emotional Exhaustion and Deviant Behaviors," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 164(3), pages 593-609, July.
    8. repec:thr:techub:1008:y:2020:i:1:p:452-471 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. De Cremer, David & Van Kleef, Gerben A., 2009. "When being overpaid makes me feel good about myself: It depends on how the other feels," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 793-802, October.
    10. Laura Gomez-Ruiz & María J. Sánchez-Expósito, 2020. "The Impact of Team Identity and Gender on Free-Riding Responses to Fear and Cooperation Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(19), pages 1-21, October.
    11. Henry Sauermann & Michael Roach, 2011. "Not All Scientists pay to be Scientists:," DRUID Working Papers 11-03, DRUID, Copenhagen Business School, Department of Industrial Economics and Strategy/Aalborg University, Department of Business Studies.
    12. Eko Yi Liao & Chun Hui, 2021. "A resource-based perspective on leader-member exchange: An updated meta-analysis," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 38(1), pages 317-370, March.
    13. Simon Gächter & Daniele Nosenzo & Martin Sefton, 2012. "The Impact of Social Comparisons on Reciprocity," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 114(4), pages 1346-1367, December.
    14. Yau-De Wang & Wen-Chuan Sung, 2016. "Predictors of Organizational Citizenship Behavior: Ethical Leadership and Workplace Jealousy," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 135(1), pages 117-128, April.
    15. Costa, Sandra & Coyle-Shapiro, Jacqueline, 2021. "What happens to others matters! An intraindividual processual approach to coworkers’ psychological contract violations," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 109872, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    16. Donald E. Gibson & Barbara S. Lawrence, 2010. "Women's and Men's Career Referents: How Gender Composition and Comparison Level Shape Career Expectations," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 21(6), pages 1159-1175, December.
    17. Natalya Sergeeva & Johan Ninan, 2023. "Comparisons as a discursive tool: shaping megaproject narratives in the United Kingdom," Policy and Society, Darryl S. Jarvis and M. Ramesh, vol. 42(2), pages 197-211.
    18. Wu, Long-Zeng & Ferris, D. Lance & Kwan, Ho Kwong & Chiang, Flora & Snape, Ed & Liang, Lindie H., 2015. "Breaking (or making) the silence: How goal interdependence and social skill predict being ostracized," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 51-66.
    19. Chase Thiel & Zhanna Bagdasarov & Lauren Harkrider & James Johnson & Michael Mumford, 2012. "Leader Ethical Decision-Making in Organizations: Strategies for Sensemaking," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 107(1), pages 49-64, April.
    20. Schneck, Stefan, 2014. "My Wage is Unfair! Just a Feeling or Comparison with Peers?," Review of Behavioral Economics, now publishers, vol. 1(3), pages 245-273, May.
    21. Arnett, Rachel D. & Sidanius, Jim, 2018. "Sacrificing status for social harmony: Concealing relatively high status identities from one’s peers," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 108-126.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:14:p:8351-:d:858492. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.