Can envy motivate your workforce

15/01/2012

Envy is a sin, right? Well, if hard work and high performance can be considered virtues then maybe envy should be re-evaluated!

A study by Niels van de Ven and colleagues suggests that a form of envy: "benign envy”, where the other person’s achievements engender a desire to go one better, can be a powerful spur to improve performance.

The study engendered a number of different emotions in the participants. Feelings ranged from malicious envy to admiration to benign envy. It was clear that participants who experienced envy rather than admiration were more likely to perform better at tasks.

Envy was not necessarily comfortable, being associated with higher levels of alertness and occasionally anxiety. Admiration produced a more relaxed state of mind; but envy produced the results.

The study points to the importance of managing emotions at work and the need to reconsider old prejudices around certain emotions and states of mind: it may be that a controlled use of envy (let’s face it most of us live in competitive work environments) can be a good thing.

However, the sensitive use of such emotions (motivators) should always be governed by an ability to see the world from the other’s point of view. And this means understanding and using Business Emotional Intelligence.

So what makes your colleagues envious ? What makes you jealous or envious? Do you find certain negative emotions (envy, jealousy, sadness, anger etc) act as an inhibitor or activator in your work? How would you know and how could you find out?
Let us know what you think (news@brentfield.com) or follow the discussion on linkedin

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van de Ven, N., Zeelenberg, M., and Pieters, R. (2011). Why Envy Outperforms Admiration. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin DOI: 10.1177/0146167211400421

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