Your Success At Work Brings Me Joy Or Depression : Factors Influencing The Affective Experiences Of Positive Empathy And Envy In Meeting Co-Worker’s Success

Envy - pain at another person’s good fortune - has thus far been considered to be the primary reaction of employees in meeting co-worker’s success, hampered in part by lack of empirical evidence in other affective experiences. This is the first empirical multiple case study that aimed to examine different affective experiences in meeting co-worker’s success. The population central in this study are 34 employees selected from different organizational levels within three different organizations, collecting 90 incidents via the critical incident technique. Results show that employees can also experience positive empathy - render the happiness and joy of others necessary to you - as a significant, primary response in meeting co-worker’s success. Additionally, the focus of success, contextual factors, and event factors determine the different affective pathways to malicious envy, benign envy, or positive empathy. These intervening factors and moderators are integrated into a single model and theory to provide an understanding of how the three affective experiences influence organizations, work relations, and employees. This study builds a foundation for both additional studies and organizational management to enhance positive empathy as a strategy to increase team effectiveness, interpersonal relationships, overall well-being, individual thriving, and minimize the feeling of envy.