The Effect Of Envy, Social Undermining, Perceived Social Support On Interpersonal Rumination

Interpersonal rumination defined as repetitive cognitive rehearsal about a specific past interpersonal offense that focuses mental attention on the negative experiences and outcomes of that event(Wade, N. G., Vogel, D. L., Liao, K.Y., & Goldman, D. B., 2008)[1].Relevant theoretical and empirical studies show that interpersonal rumination may be influenced by several social factors. Social undermining is defined in a work context as behavior intended to hinder, over time, a worker’s ability to establish and maintain positive interpersonal relationships, work-related success, and favorable reputation(Duffy, Ganstier, & Pagon, 2002)[2]. Envy is referred as individuals experience a negative feeling when they recognize that other people have the superiority they lack, which show the complex emotion of inferiority, enmity and hate.Based on Fairness Theory and Response Styles Theory, this study aims to explore the influence of envy on interpersonal rumination, specifically mediating effect of social undermining and perceived social support.Questionnaires have been applied as methodology in this study and questions have been designed based on translated Supervisor and Coworker Undermining Scales(Duffy, 2002) [2] and Rumination about an Interpersonal Offense Scale(Wade et al., 2008)[1]. A total of 279 employees with various occupations like bankers, doctors, enterprise staffs and officers were investigated from Heilongjiang, Shandong and Guangdong as responders for the EFA. A total of 378 employees were from Heilongjiang, Shandong, Guangdong, Zhejiang and Jiangsu as responders for the CFA. A total of 252 employees from 23 teams were as reponders for the Multilevel Analysis. Also the methods of correlation analysis, EFA, CFA, multilevel analyzing were used to analyze the data.The results have indicated that: The Chinese version of Rumination about an Interpersonal Offense Scale and Social Undermining Scale had good reliability and validity.(2) Interpersonal rumination is positively correlated with envy and social undermining. Envy is positively correlated with social undermining. Perceived social support is negatively correlated with envy, social undermining and interpersonal rumination.(3) On the multi-level, the team envied would influence interpersonal rumination via social undermining on individual level, thus 2-1-1 mediation model could be verified.(4) On the multi-level, the team envy would influence interpersonal rumination via social undermining on multi-level, thus 2-2-1 mediation model could be verified.(5) On the multi-level, the team envy would influence interpersonal rumination via social undermining and perceived social support on multi-level.According to the research results aforementioned, the following advices are suggested:(1) In order to reduce employees’ interpersonal rumination, leaders should take measures to change the team and individual mental state of envy; spread the positive energy and make harmonious atmosphere.(2) Social undermining is one of the important factors could affect interpersonal rumination. So employees should pay attention to their way of communication; try to adopt some positive relationship models and minimize their undermining behaviors.