Workplace Envy as a Determinant of Organizational Politics and Emotional Manipulation: Role of Workplace Ostracism

Abstract

Objective: This research aims to analyze relations between workplace envy and organizational politics and emotional manipulation and the moderating role of workplace ostracism in the banking sector. Methodology: This study aims to explore the ways these elements interact in organizational settings through a sample of 270 employees working in banks. Workplace envy was positively significantly correlated with organizational politics and emotional manipulation, implicating that the greater the level of envy, the greater the engagement in political and manipulative behaviors at work. Findings: The results, however, were not supportive of the hypothesized moderating effect of workplace ostracism: the presence of ostracism, therefore, did not significantly influence the influence of envy on organizational politics and emotional manipulation. These results pointed out the enormous influence of envy in creating a negative workplace, but on the other hand, ostracism alone did not enhance these effects. Implications: This work contributes to the discovery and understanding of the emotional mechanisms in organizations and emphasizes the influence of effective leadership and management responses to address and exploit these dynamics constructively. Practical implications of the study involve interventions for developing emotional intelligence and organizational transparency in such a way as to neutralize the negative effects of envy and foster an organizational culture of support and productivity.