Catching up or putting them down? An investigation of employee divergent reactions to coworker conscientiousness

IF 3.5 2区心理学 Q1 PSYCHOLOGY, SOCIAL

Personality and Individual Differences Pub Date : 2025-02-17 DOI:10.1016/j.paid.2025.113106

Qingxiong Weng, Yanfen Wang, Xiujuan Wang, Huanyu Qin

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Research on conscientiousness has primarily focused on the consequences of employees possessing higher conscientiousness. However, it is equally important to understand how employees react to others' higher conscientiousness (e.g., coworkers). Drawing from the social comparison theory, we attempt to reveal employees' emotional and behavioral reactions to their coworkers' higher conscientiousness. Using 210 employee-coworker dyadic data collected from China, we found that coworkers' higher conscientiousness leads focal employees to experience either relative deprivation or inspiration, which is shaped by the extent of the focal employees' zero-sum mindset. Furthermore, we found that these relative deprivation and inspiration emotions motivate focal employees to engage in social undermining and help-seeking behavior toward their conscientious coworkers. These findings enhance the understanding of the specific reactions of employees to others' higher conscientiousness.

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来源期刊

Personality and Individual Differences PSYCHOLOGY, SOCIAL-

CiteScore

8.50

自引率

4.70%

发文量

577

审稿时长

41 days

期刊介绍： Personality and Individual Differences is devoted to the publication of articles (experimental, theoretical, review) which aim to integrate as far as possible the major factors of personality with empirical paradigms from experimental, physiological, animal, clinical, educational, criminological or industrial psychology or to seek an explanation for the causes and major determinants of individual differences in concepts derived from these disciplines. The editors are concerned with both genetic and environmental causes, and they are particularly interested in possible interaction effects.