Title: High Performer Victimization in Work Teams: The Roles of Psychological Pain and Interpersonal Relationships
Stream: Industrial Organization and Organization Theory
Presentation Type: Oral Presentation
Authors:
Ke-Ling Chen, National Chengchi University, Taiwan
Chien-Chi Kuo, National Chengchi University, Taiwan
Abstract:
While high performers make disproportionally valuable contributions to their work teams and organizations, previous research has revealed that these employees are also more prong to experiencing interpersonal aggression casted by their co-workers. The present study draws on social comparison theory to examine psychological pain—a mixed feeling of frustration, inadequacy, and pain of the peer members as the explanatory mechanism of the victimization of high performers in the work team regarding the victim precipitation approach. Data were collected by a three-staged survey from 200 employee and colleague dyads of 60 work groups containing one supervisor and three to four subordinates in Taiwan. Through social relational analyses, results indicated that high performers are more likely to be the targets of workplace victimization, and that psychological pain of peers’ accounts for the phenomenon. In addition, the present study probed the boundary conditions of the high-performer victimization phenomenon on both individual- and dyadic-level by exploring the moderating effects of peer performance and the dyadic social support quality. The findings of this study particularly identified the upward social comparison process of the person being outperformed as a source triggering psychological pain in his mind, which subsequently leads to victimizing the high performer as a behavioral manifestation of losing self-evaluation. The existence of moderation effects further suggested means to ameliorate high-performer victimization. Further suggestions on management practices and future research directions were provided.
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