The Effects of Feeling Envied on Employees’ Psychological Safety and Work Engagement: The Role of Workplace Friendship

Abstract

Despite the increasing interest of feeling envied in recent studies, understanding of its outcome is still limited. Based on the theory of social information processing, this study aims to examine how feeling envied affects work engagement through psychological safety, and how the effect of feeling envied is moderated by workplace friendship. Two rounds of surveys were conducted, and a sample of 340 participants was collected in China. The results show that feeling envied reduces employees’ psychological safety, which in turn impacts their work engagement. Further, the negative effect of feeling envied is mitigated under a higher level of workplace friendship. This study contributes to the literature by further explaining the theoretical mechanism regarding the outcomes of feeling envied. The results can provide managers helpful suggestions to alleviate the negative outcomes of feeling envied.