The mechanisms and work group context in the victimization of high performers

Abstract

This study develops and tests a social context model of the victimization of high performing employees with a focus on (1) unfavorable social comparison mechanisms that occur between high performers and other fellow employees and (2) work group contextual factors that may exacerbate or mitigate these social comparison mechanisms. Multisource data collected at two time points support the proposition that high performers are more likely to be targets of victimization because of unintentional instigations (i.e., fellow group members' envy and competition), but not because of intentional instigations (i.e., high performers' condescending behaviors). Next, this study generally supports the proposition that collective identity and justice climate mitigate unfavorable social comparison mechanisms and high performance victim phenomenon whereas climate of concern for employees, social interaction, and transformational leadership did not mitigate these phenomena.