Social Comparisons and Deception Across Workplace Hierarchies: Field and Experimental Evidence

Benjamin Edelman () and Ian Larkin ()
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Benjamin Edelman: Harvard Business School, Boston, Massachusetts 02163
Ian Larkin: Anderson School of Management, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095

Organization Science, 2015, vol. 26, issue 1, 78-98

Abstract: 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.

Keywords: decision making; psychological processes; motivation; ethics; status (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:inm:ororsc:v:26:y:2015:i:1:p:78-98

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