Understanding Why and When Coworkers Undermine Employees Who Have Friends in High Places

This research examines why and when coworkers undermine employees who have social capital through high-level friends (i.e., friendship contact status). Drawing on appraisal theory, we theorize that coworkers envy—and subsequently undermine—such employees when they hold unfavorable core evaluations of the employees and perceive these employees’ friendship networks as sparse. For coworkers, unfavorable core evaluations of an employee signal that the person is undeserving of high-level friends, and sparse employee friendship networks signal a lack of guardian protection that increases coworkers’ own dominance-based control potential. These three components—high employee friendship contact status, low core evaluations (low employee deservingness) and low friendship network density (high coworker dominance-based control potential)—jointly drive the envy that fuels coworker undermining. We tested our theory and hypotheses across three studies. Study 1 supports our premise that coworkers negatively appraise employees’ high friendship contact status. Study 2 shows that coworkers’ core evaluations of employees and perceived friendship network density jointly moderate the effects of employee friendship contact status on coworker envy and undermining. Study 3 confirms that envy and undermining arise in response to high friendship contact status only when appraised employee deservingness is low and coworker dominance-based control potential is high. Our work highlights the liabilities of social capital, the role of perpetrator predation in workplace mistreatment, and how appraisal processes drive envy in organizations.