IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/jbuset/v202y2025i1d10.1007_s10551-025-05927-9.html

Sour Grapes: Exploring Unfavorable Reactions of Employees Who Observe Leader Leniency

Author

Listed:
  • Wenjuan Mei

    (Chizhou University)

  • Pablo Zoghbi-Manrique-de-Lara

    (Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria)

  • Jinnan Wu

    (Anhui University of Technology)

Abstract

Although leniency from leaders is a frequent occurrence in workplaces, there is no research to date regarding the reactions of employees when observing leaders display leniency towards their peers. This paper applies deonance theory to argue that employees interpret leader leniency as a form of comparative grievance, which shapes feelings of envy towards their peers. Subsequently, employees hold the grantor and recipient involved in leadership leniency responsible for this unfavorable situation. Responding out of deontic reactions, it is predicted that employees will react by socially undermining their favored peers and avoiding interaction with lenient leaders. It is also proposed that observers’ rivalry and mindfulness moderate these responses. Two studies (Study 1, N = 314, and Study 2, N = 458) were conducted to empirically test our model. As expected, the results revealed that employees who witnessed leader leniency reacted by socially undermining peers and avoiding interaction with leaders. Our results also found that employees who observe leader leniency react unfavorably harming both their peers and supervisors; and that this reaction peaks when both employees rival with their coworkers and lack mindfulness. The paper concludes by discussing the implications of these findings and suggesting directions for future research.

Suggested Citation

  • Wenjuan Mei & Pablo Zoghbi-Manrique-de-Lara & Jinnan Wu, 2025. "Sour Grapes: Exploring Unfavorable Reactions of Employees Who Observe Leader Leniency," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 202(1), pages 55-72, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:202:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1007_s10551-025-05927-9
    DOI: 10.1007/s10551-025-05927-9
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10551-025-05927-9
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10551-025-05927-9?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jennifer A. Chatman & Francis J. Flynn, 2005. "Full-Cycle Micro-Organizational Behavior Research," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 16(4), pages 434-447, August.
    2. Shaohui Lei, 2024. "Shedding Light on the Adverse Spillover Effects of Work-Family Conflict on Unethical Sales Behaviors at Work: A Daily Diary Study," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 190(2), pages 399-411, March.
    3. Bertels, Stephanie & Cody, Michael & Pek, Simon, 2014. "A Responsive Approach to Organizational Misconduct: Rehabilitation, Reintegration, and the Reduction of Reoffense," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 24(3), pages 343-370, July.
    4. Eissa, Gabi & Wyland, Rebecca & Gupta, Ritu, 2020. "Supervisor to coworker social undermining: The moderating roles of bottom-line mentality and self-efficacy," Journal of Management & Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 26(5), pages 756-773, September.
    5. Shuhua Sun, 2022. "Is Political Skill Always Beneficial? Why and When Politically Skilled Employees Become Targets of Coworker Social Undermining," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 33(3), pages 1142-1162, May.
    6. Xing Zhou & Lele Fan & Cong Cheng & Yancheng Fan, 2021. "When and Why Do Good People Not Do Good Deeds? Third-Party Observers’ Unfavorable Reactions to Negative Workplace Gossip," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 171(3), pages 599-617, July.
    7. 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.
    8. Zoghbi-Manrique-de-Lara, Pablo & Aguiar-Quintana, Teresa & Suárez-Acosta, Miguel A., 2013. "A justice framework for understanding how guests react to hotel employee (mis)treatment," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 143-152.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Xiao, Limin & Han, Xiaoyun, 2026. "Enhancing patient value co-creation via AI-enabled cases disclosure: The role of uncertainty reduction, patient empowerment and risk aversion," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 389(C).

    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. Maximilian J. L. Schormair & Lara M. Gerlach, 2020. "Corporate Remediation of Human Rights Violations: A Restorative Justice Framework," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 167(3), pages 475-493, December.
    2. Xing Zhou & Lele Fan & Cong Cheng & Yancheng Fan, 2021. "When and Why Do Good People Not Do Good Deeds? Third-Party Observers’ Unfavorable Reactions to Negative Workplace Gossip," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 171(3), pages 599-617, July.
    3. Nasib Dar & Muhammad Usman & Jin Cheng & Usman Ghani, 2023. "Social Undermining at the Workplace: How Religious Faith Encourages Employees Who are Aware of Their Social Undermining Behaviors to Express More Guilt and Perform Better," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 187(2), pages 371-383, October.
    4. Philip R. Walsh & Rachel Dodds & Julianna Priskin & Jonathon Day & Oxana Belozerova, 2021. "The Corporate Responsibility Paradox: A Multi-National Investigation of Business Traveller Attitudes and Their Sustainable Travel Behaviour," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-20, April.
    5. Kennedy, Jessica A. & Anderson, Cameron, 2017. "Hierarchical rank and principled dissent: How holding higher rank suppresses objection to unethical practices," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 30-49.
    6. Preston, McKenzie C. & Boyd, Terrance L. & Leigh, Angelica & Burgess, Richard & Marsh, Victor, 2024. "An ally by any other name: Examining the effects of racial minority leaders as allies for advancing racial justice," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 181(C).
    7. Li, Tao & Chen, Yun, 2022. "The obstacle to building a mutual regulation system: Exploring people's intervention intention toward tourists' deviant behavior," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    8. Hardin, Ashley E. & Bauman, Christopher W. & Mayer, David M., 2020. "Show me the … family: How photos of meaningful relationships reduce unethical behavior at work," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 161(C), pages 93-108.
    9. Muhammad Nadeem, 2021. "Corporate Governance and Supplemental Environmental Projects: A Restorative Justice Approach," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 173(2), pages 261-280, October.
    10. Ashley E. Hardin, 2024. "The More You Know: The Impact of Personal Knowledge on Interpersonal Treatment at Work," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 35(5), pages 1908-1929, September.
    11. Thomas W. H. Ng & Lorenzo Lucianetti & Dennis Y. Hsu & Frederick H. K. Yim & Kelly L. Sorensen, 2021. "You Speak, I Speak: The Social‐Cognitive Mechanisms of Voice Contagion," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(6), pages 1569-1608, September.
    12. Yijiao Ye & Xinyu Liu & Long-Zeng Wu & Xuan-Mei Cheng & Ho Kwong Kwan, 2025. "Desperate Times Call for Desperate Measures: The Impact of Job Insecurity on Workplace Cheating Behavior," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 199(4), pages 761-775, July.
    13. Slade Shantz, Angelique & Zietsma, Charlene & Kistruck, Geoffrey M. & Cruz, Luciano Barin, 2024. "Exploring the relative efficacy of ‘within-logic contrasting’ and ‘cross-logic analogizing’ framing tactics for adopting new entrepreneurial practices in contexts of poverty," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 39(1).
    14. Leavitt, Keith & Zhu, Luke (Lei) & Klotz, Anthony & Kouchaki, Maryam, 2022. "Fragile or robust? Differential effects of gender threats in the workplace among men and women," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).
    15. Oliver P. Hauser & Francesca Gino & Michael I. Norton, 2018. "Budging beliefs, nudging behaviour," Mind & Society: Cognitive Studies in Economics and Social Sciences, Springer;Fondazione Rosselli, vol. 17(1), pages 15-26, November.
    16. Ethan R. Burris & Elizabeth J. McClean & Jim R. Detert & Tim J. Quigley, 2023. "The Agency to Implement Voice: How Target Hierarchical Position and Competence Changes the Relationship Between Voice and Individual Performance," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 34(5), pages 1695-1715, September.
    17. Pallikara Rameshan, 2021. "Crisis Leadership of Covid-19 Fightback: Exploratory Anecdotal Evidence on Selected World Leaders," IIM Kozhikode Society & Management Review, , vol. 10(2), pages 136-159, July.
    18. Eva Baarle & Steven Baarle & Guy Widdershoven & Roland Bal & Jan-Willem Weenink, 2024. "Sexual Boundary Violations: Exploring How the Interplay Between Violations, Retributive, and Restorative Responses Affects Teams," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 191(1), pages 131-146, April.
    19. Peter Belmi & Kelly Raz & Margaret Neale & Melissa Thomas-Hunt, 2024. "The Consequences of Revealing First-Generational Status," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 35(2), pages 667-697, March.
    20. Corinne Bendersky & Kathleen L. McGinn, 2010. "Perspective---Open to Negotiation: Phenomenological Assumptions and Knowledge Dissemination," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 21(3), pages 781-797, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:kap:jbuset:v:202:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1007_s10551-025-05927-9. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.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.