Challenge or Threat? Exploring the Dual Effects of Temporal Social Comparison on Employee behaviors

Abstract

The extant literature has indicated that comparison with high-performers could lead to negative emotions and behaviors among colleagues (including superior). In contrast, other research also suggested that this comparison can effectively motivate low-performance employees to work hard. However, social comparison theory points out that besides social comparison with others, individuals also compare with their past selves in the temporal dimension, that is, temporal comparison. Therefore, in this study, we apply the temporal dimension of the social comparison to explore the impact of an actor’s temporal social comparison with a target (whose performance development in the past period is better than the actor’s) on the actor’s psychological state and behavior. A scenario experiment and a three-wave field study show that the performance temporal social comparison can lead to social undermining in the workplace (leveling-down) and effectively promote the actor’s self-improvement(leveling-up) simultaneously. Based on the cognitive appraisal theory of stress, we have further tested the challenge-hindrance stresses' significant mediating effects. We further find that general self-efficacy (GSE) is an essential individual characteristic that affects the actor’s pressure perceptions. The effect on challenge stress will be more substantial when the actor’s GSE is higher, whereas hindrance stress will be more substantial when GSE is lower. Meanwhile, GSE is also moderating the indirect effects of performance temporal social comparison on different behaviors. Overall, our findings make significant contributions to social comparisons theory development and provide critical managerial implications for high-potential talent management.