Knowledge sharing of employees who are envied by their workmates: A resource perspective

Abstract

Drawing on conservation of resources theory, we examined the effect of workplace envy on the work behaviors and experiences of employees who are envied by others. From the resource perspective, we proposed that ego depletion would mediate the relationship between being envied and knowledge sharing, and that the envied employees’ competitive orientation would moderate this mediation. We empirically tested the model with 280 employee–supervisor dyads in China in a two-wave survey. Results show that being envied was negatively related to employees’ knowledge sharing, and that the envied employees’ ego depletion significantly mediated this negative relationship. Further, envied employees’ competitive orientation moderated the indirect mediating effect, such that the negative influence of ego depletion on knowledge sharing was enhanced for those envied employees whose orientation was highly competitive. Our results show the critical role of resource supply and demand on social influence.