The roles of informational unfairness and political climate in the relationship between dispositional envy and job performance in Pakistani organizations

Drawing from conservation of resources and trait activation theory, this study unpacks the relationship between employees' dispositional envy and job performance, considering the mediating effect of informational unfairness and the moderating effect of political climate. Multisource, time-lagged data from employees and their supervisors in Pakistani organizations show that an important reason that dispositional envy may diminish job performance is that employees develop beliefs that their organization is unfair in its information provision. This mediating role of informational unfairness is particularly salient to the extent that employees perceive that the organizational decision-making climate is marked by dysfunctional politics. The study informs organizations how they can mitigate the risk that persistent feelings of envy lead to negative performance outcomes-that is, by avoiding work climates that are highly political in nature.