The relationship of envy and counterproductive work behaviour with moderating effects of gender and traits.

Abstract

This research seeks to investigate the relationship between envy and Counterproductive Work Behaviour (CWB) in the workplace, taking into consideration the moderating effects of trait affects, as well as gender. A convenience sample of 150 working adults in Singapore were asked to provide self-reports on their type of trait affect using the Positive Affect Negative Affect Scale (Watson et al., 1988), their level of envy as well as their frequency of engaging in the various CWBs. By means of regression, this research found that envy and CWB is positively correlated. Furthermore, results indicated that envy is associated more positively with interpersonal CWB than organizational CWB. However, there are no significant findings for the moderating effects of both trait affects and gender on the relationship between envy and CWB. Implications, limitations and future research directions are also discussed in this paper.