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Media type:
E-Article
Title:
Social Comparisons and Deception Across Workplace Hierarchies: Field and Experimental Evidence
Contributor:
Edelman, Benjamin;
Larkin, Ian
Published:
Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS), 2015
Published in:
Organization Science, 26 (2015) 1, Seite 78-98
Language:
English
DOI:
10.1287/orsc.2014.0938
ISSN:
1047-7039;
1526-5455
Origination:
Footnote:
Description:
We examine how unfavorable social comparisons differentially spur employees of varying hierarchical levels to engage in deception. Drawing on literatures in social psychology and workplace self-esteem, we theorize that negative comparisons cause senior employees to seek to improve reported relative performance measures via deception. In a first study, we use deceptive self-downloads on the Social Science Research Network, the leading working paper repository in the social sciences, to show that employees higher in a hierarchy are more likely to engage in deception, particularly when the employee has enjoyed a high level of past success. In a second study, we confirm this finding in two scenario-based experiments. Our results suggest that longer-tenured and more successful employees face a greater loss of self-esteem from negative social comparisons, and they are more likely engage in deception in response to reported performance that is lower than that of peers.