ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Personality and Social Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1582051
The Moderating Role of Perceived Injustice in the Relationship Between Being Envied and Social Undermining in Public Sector Organizations
Provisionally accepted
- 1Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
- 2Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
- 3Najran University, Najran, Saudi Arabia
- 4Assiut University, Assiut, Asyut, Egypt
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Purpose: Social undermining in the workplace-subtle behaviors that hinder success and damage professional relationships-has been widely studied. However, the role of envy in driving social undermining, particularly from the perspective of the person being envied, remains underexplored. This study examines how being envied influences social undermining behaviors and tests whether perceived injustice moderates this relationship within Tehran's public sector.A cross-sectional design with purposive sampling was employed. A web-based questionnaire was completed by 342 full-time Iranian civil servants. Data were analyzed using path analysis and bootstrapping procedures to test direct and moderated relationships.Results: Being the target of envy was positively associated with social undermining, and this relationship was significantly strengthened under conditions of high perceived injustice. Furthermore, higher levels of social undermining correlated with increased psychological distress and lower life satisfaction.The findings demonstrate the destructive impact of envy and perceived injustice on employees in Iranian governmental organizations. Organizations should implement fairness-enhancing policies and interventions to mitigate envy-driven undermining and safeguard employee well-being.
Keywords: Social undermining, envy, Perceived injustice, Disruptive behavior, Workplace mistreatment
Received: 23 Feb 2025; Accepted: 21 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Yarivand, Alshahrani, Hammad and Malakouti. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Hend Faye Alshahrani, Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
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