Schadenfreude, envy and derogation towards observed organisational (in)justice

Although human beings are expected to be sympathetic when seeing others suffer and happy when seeing others gain, some research has found the opposite. Based on the zero-sum framework (Von Neumann & Morgenstern, 1944) and appraisal theory (Lazarus, 1991b; Lazarus & Smith, 1988), this study examines how contextual and individual factors intensify or mitigate observers’ malicious reactions towards colleagues’ experience. Using a 2 (competition vs. non-competition) × 2 (abusive supervision vs. respectful supervision) between-subject design, we examines the roles of competition at work and individuals’ self-esteem in observers’ malicious reactions (i.e., schadenfreude, envy, and derogation) to observed (in)justice (i.e., abusive/respectful supervision). 316 employees from the United States participated in the experiment. Results demonstrated that competition at work promotes schadenfreude, envy and explicit derogation to observed (in)justice, and self-esteem has both functional and dysfunctional effects. This study suggests that competition at work as a critical contextual factor and observer self-esteem as an important individual difference that impact malicious reactions to observed (in)justice under competition.