Using implementation intention strategy to mitigate malicious envy in leader-follower relationships
Creators: name: Mohler, Luisa
Publisher: name: ZHAW Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften
Year: 2024
Subjects: 150: Psychologie
658.4: Leitendes Management

description: Envy, particularly malicious envy, is a significant challenge within organizational settings due to its negative impact on employee well-being, team dynamics and overall organizational success. Despite its primarily destructive nature, envy is a universal emotion triggered by unfavorable upward social comparison. The increasing focus on psychological health in organizations underscores the need to understand and manage negative emotions like malicious envy effectively. 

While existing literature points out that external factors such as appropriate leadership styles can mitigate malicious envy, the potential moderating role of internal factors such as implementation intention strategies has not been thoroughly investigated. This study addresses this gap by examining how implementation intentions can mitigate the adverse effects of malicious envy within leader-follower relationships, focusing specifically on humane-oriented and self-protective leadership styles. Both styles originate from the GLOBE framework, and their effects on both benign and malicious envy have been previously studied. 

Using a quantitative laboratory experimental approach, the study employed a 2x2 factorial design with two experimental and two control groups. Participants completed an online survey, where they were first assigned to either read and internalize implementation intentions or not. They were then presented with one of two scenarios, featuring either a humane-oriented or self-protective leadership style. For the questionnaire, the Benign and Malicious Envy Scale (BeMaS), developed by Lange & Crusius (2015), was utilized to measure levels of envy. Data from 525 participants were analyzed using statistical methods, including two-way ANOVA and regression analysis, to determine the effects of leadership styles and the moderating role of implementation intentions on malicious envy. 

The findings indicate that implementation intentions increase malicious envy among followers under humane-oriented leadership but mitigate it under self-protective leadership, though these results lack statistical significance and should be interpreted cautiously. Overall, followers using implementation intentions experience significantly lower levels of malicious envy with humane-oriented leaders compared to self-protective leaders. Lastly, the strategy appears to be less effective at mitigating envy under self-protective leadership, although this difference is not statistically significant. 

This study offers valuable insights into how implementation intentions can be utilized as internal resources to mitigate malicious envy within organizational teams. The results have broad implications for leaders and human resource management, suggesting that the structured approach of implementation intentions can enhance employees’ psychological health, performance, teamwork, and the overall organizational success. Further research is needed to explore the long-term effects of these strategies, their applicability in different organizational contexts, and their impact on various leadership styles.