Envy at Work

Menon, T., Thompson, L. Envy at work. Harvard Business Review, Apr2010, Vol. 88 Issue 4, p74-79, 6p. Retrieved April 10, 2010 from: http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.waterfield.murraystate.edu/ehost/detail?vid=2&hid=3&sid=0075228c-c450-499b-822d-a2cf3fcaffac%40sessionmgr13&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=buh&AN=48736762

This article summarizes a study on the causes and effects of envy in the workplace and the authors give suggestions for what managers can to do to prevent or remedy this problem. Envy is the distress people feel when others are successful and if it persists, it can damage relationships, disrupt teams, and undermine an organization’s overall performance. They found in their research that it is possible to prevent envy from consuming oneself and to even use it as an advantage. When people become obsessed with envy, they start to over think and overreact to everything and can lose their focus on their own performance. Two damaging effects of envy the authors discuss are disparagement and distancing. The envious person starts to belittle the other’s accomplishments and also distance themselves from the ones they envy, creating a less collaborative atmosphere. “The desire to remain at arm’s length from successful colleagues leads to missed opportunities and organizational inefficiency”. The suggestions the authors make to remedy envy in the workplace are: pinpoint what makes you envious, don’t focus on other people; focus on yourself, and affirm yourself. To manage envy in a team they suggest that managers: share power, make what is scarce plentiful, give enviers and their targets different spheres of influence, and beware of linguistic triggers. The authors elaborate more on each of these suggestions. This is important information for managers to understand because envy can, at worst, destroy a business and, at best, make the work atmosphere less productive than it would be otherwise, so manager should learn how to recognize envious behaviors and know how to avoid and remedy it in his or her firm.