Keeping Rivals Down: The Effect of Social Comparison Dynamics on Workplace Behavior

Abstract

Social comparisons help individuals to evaluate their performance and influence workplace behavior especially when companies use competitive reward systems in which employees’ performance is evaluated relative to others. As yet dynamics respectively temporal changes in a comparison dimension were not considered in social comparisons although they affect self-evaluation and social judgment. The effect of dynamic social comparisons on individuals’ behavior toward a comparison target was analyzed in an online- experiment with N = 179 participants from the United States. In the experimental condition the comparison target’s outcome was dynamic showing an increase. In the control conditions it remained constant or was static with information given only for the current situation. When the comparison target’s trajectory is dynamic participants show less interpersonal organizational citizenship behavior and engage in more social undermining than in the control conditions. Adding the temporal dimension to the study of social comparison, thus, contributes to explain negative workplace behavior. For companies this implies that employees who work against successful colleagues whose performance shows a strong upward trajectory counteract their employer’s efforts to attract and retain excellent candidates.