envy at work

Organizational Behavior

Article Review

Presented By: Group 8Chiranjeeve Bansal - 177Himanshu Kukreja - 178

Nalin Roy - 179Shanky Sharma - 180

Lipika Arora - 181Ashish Kumar - 182

ENVY ATWORK

ENVY : If left unchecked, this deadly sin can sabotage any company’s performance and our OWN. The feeling of discontented or resentful aroused by someone’s else qualities or luck. OR Defined as distress people feel when others get what they want.

UNIVERSAL

VULNERBILITY AT EACH LEVEL

INTENSIFIES AT THE TIME OF ECONOMIC CRISIS

PREVENTIVE

INTRODUCTION

CAUSES :  Dissatisfaction Comparison to others Low self esteem

EXPRESSIONS:

Resentment towards others. Competition in relationships. Depression Verbal criticism of others. Idolizing others. Also envy damages relationships, disrupts team and undermines organizational performance. Most of all it harms the one who feels it. Spreads negativity throughout the organization.

A TALE OF TWO COLLEAGUES

Marty(Stronger Performer) and Scott(charming personality and strong social networking) who were considered as heart and soul of their team in an elite consultancy firm.They were good friends, inspired and balanced each other and were inseparable.

Marty made Scott as his rival and grew disengaged from organization.

Marty, once considered as Superstar now lacked passion and performed poorly. distanced himself from teammates. refused to mentor younger analyst. Personal and professional relationship got spoiled.

ENVY

DAMAGING SIDE EFFECTS

Manifestations of ENVY

DISPARAGEMENT : When people have qualities we envy but cannot easily acquire, then we tend to ignore those qualities and treat them as worthless. We feel better by belittling the achievements or qualities of the person we envy.

DISTANCING : People also tend to distance themselves from person they envy. It is difficult for enviers to learn from and working with others. Enviers experience this more intensely with people who are close to them. This leads to missed opportunities and organizational inefficiency.

AN INTERESTING INFERENCE

People want to learn more about ideas that come from other companies than about ideas that originate with rivals in their own organization.

Reason: When we copy idea from an outsider, we’re seen asEnterprising and when we borrow an idea from a colleague, we mark that person as an intellectual leader.

Note: External ideas cost more in time (which is often spent reinventing the wheel) and in money (when consultants are hired).

Fresh Choice managers initially desire the inventive menus and lively decor and atmosphere of their competitor zoopa. Wanted to use the same idea, as used by zoopa. Zoopa managers were considered as “bright”, “creative” and “energetic” by Fresh Choice managers.

After aquiring zoopa,

Fresh Choice managers started feeling threatened, and began to criticize their Zoopa peers. Zoopa managers now considered as “burnt out”, “sloppy”. Fresh Choice managers resisted learning from Zoopa mangers. Most of Zoopa managers left the company.

DIFFERENT

COMPANIES

STOPPING THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL

German word “schadenfreude” : delighting in other’s misery hasbeen included in English dictionary WhereasPali word “mudita” : rejoicing in the good fortune of others has not been included.

To lay the groundwork of MUDITA Simple techniques are there to replace envy with more Productive habits of mind.

1. Pinpoint what makes you envious : recognize the circumstances and qualities in others that trigger your envy. When you accurately identify the things that set you off,you can begin to tame envious feelings before the turn into counterproductive responses.

2. Do not focus on other people; focus on yourself : Comparing yourself too mch with others leads to envy, especially when you are ungenerous toward yourself. Try measuring your present self against your past self.

3. Affirm yourself : Though recognizing your accomplishments

can help you check envy, but you still might not rejoice in other’s successes. Then you just remind yourself of your

strengths and successes.

HOW TO MANAGE ENVY ON YOUR TEAM

As a manager you need to deal with envy directed not only at your top people but at yourself also.

Within a team,you might have to recognize and reward your team members for their performances, this will inevitably generate envy. There are few techniques to manage this.

1. Share power : By sharing the glory with subordinates and rewarding them with responsibility and credit earns you a reputation for developing motivated future leaders and also promotion for building up others.

2. Make what is scarce plentiful : Giving time to each of the team member for discussion results in more collaborative meetings. Also sharing resources with other teams will also help tame down envy in an organization.

3. Give enviers and their targets different spheres of influence : Allot different tasks to both envier and its target. It will allow two men to learn from each other, their work will not be directly comparable because they are working in different departments.They can not be evaluated using the same metrics.

4. Beware of linguistic triggers :

Be careful about your use of language. Praising someone too much is not right, it seems as if you overlook the importance of other fellows. Instead of singling out innovators, encourage collaborative practices and reward creative thievery.

CONCLUSION

Envy can cause real damage both to your career and to organization’s success. Denying and concealing envy will make the problem worse. It can be controllable. By confronting your feelings and replacing negative habitsof thinking with more productive ones, you will become more open to others, more receptive to change and more fulfilled at work.

By practicing new habits you can turn an undignified and Harmful emotion into means of improving both your own Performance and your teams.

THANK YOU