Social Policy and Labour Law Journal
Social Policy and Labour Law Journal
The dynamics of adult work life are deeply influenced by early relational experiences, as suggested by Attachment Theory. The workplace, characterized by inherent competition, conflict, and pressure, is fertile ground for negative emotions like envy, which can severely compromise organizational health. This study addresses a significant gap in organizational behavior literature by investigating the interconnected roles of malicious envy, altruistic behavior (a key dimension of Organizational Citizenship Behavior – OCB), and anxious attachment style within a single, integrated model. While previous research has explored bivariate relationships (e.g., envy and OCB, or attachment and emotion), the mediating mechanism of anxious attachment in the envy-altruism link remains largely unexplored. Specifically, this research examines how envious feelings among bank employees affect their willingness to engage in altruistic actions, and the extent to which an anxious attachment style—a vulnerability characterized by fear of rejection and need for approval—mediates this relationship. The banking industry, with its intense competition, high performance pressure, and emphasis on social dynamics, serves as a particularly relevant context for this investigation.
Attachment Theory posits that an individual’s adult interpersonal behaviors, including interactions in the workplace, are profoundly shaped by their early emotional bonds with primary caregivers. Anxious attachment, a specific form of insecure attachment, is characterized by a persistent fear of rejection and abandonment, a negative self-perception, and a profound, insatiable need for approval from others. In a competitive environment like the banking sector, this psychological vulnerability increases an individual’s susceptibility to negative emotions and social comparison.
Workplace envy is commonly separated into benign and malicious forms. Malicious envy is the destructive form, fueled by perceiving another’s success as a personal threat and generating a desire for the rival to lose their advantage, often resulting in hostility, destructive competition, and counterproductive work behaviors. Altruistic behavior, conversely, is defined as a voluntary, helpful action directed towards colleagues or the organization without expectation of external reward, representing a critical dimension of Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB). This study is grounded in the premise that malicious envy actively undermines OCB by reducing the employee’s willingness to assist co-workers.
The conceptual model proposes that employees with an anxious attachment style are more likely to interpret the success of colleagues as a threat to their self- worth and their chances of gaining approval, thereby intensifying their experience of malicious envy. This intense, negative emotional response of envy then acts as the psychological mechanism that subsequently drives the reduction in their altruistic behavior, as they become unwilling to support the ‘threats’ (successful colleagues) or the organization perceived as favoring them.
This quantitative study collected data through an online survey from 190 employees working in both public and private banks across Turkey. The measures used to operationalize the variables included the Experiences in Close Relationships Inventory-II (ECRI-II) to assess attachment style, the Benign and Malicious Envy Scale (BeMaS) to measure envy, and the Organizational Citizenship Behavior Scale (with a specific focus on the altruism dimension). The collected data was analyzed using sophisticated statistical techniques, including correlation and mediation analysis (PROCESS Macro).
The correlation analysis provided a clear pattern of relationships among the key variables. The results indicated:
Envy was negatively related to altruism.
Envy was positively related to anxious attachment.
Anxious attachment was negatively associated with altruism.
The core contribution of the research lies in the mediation analysis, which confirmed that the anxious attachment style partially mediated the relationship between envy and altruism. These findings indicate that employees with higher levels of anxious attachment tend to experience envy more strongly when faced with workplace competition, and this heightened envy, in turn, significantly undermines their tendency to exhibit altruistic behaviors towards their colleagues and the organization.
This study makes a distinct theoretical contribution by providing one of the few models to comprehensively examine the interplay between envy, altruism, and anxious attachment, particularly within the demanding banking context. The findings underscore the critical role of employees’ underlying relational psychology in shaping their workplace behavior. The insecurity inherent in anxious attachment acts as a psychological vulnerability, intensifying the experience of malicious envy and leading to detrimental organizational outcomes in the form of reduced altruism.
From a practical perspective, the research offers clear, actionable recommendations for human resource management. Organizations, especially those in highly competitive industries, should actively cultivate an environment of trust and psychological safety to mitigate the harmful, competitive effects of envy. Furthermore, HR practices such as mentoring, emotional awareness training, and targeted programs designed to strengthen attachment security are suggested as effective strategies to weaken the negative link between anxious attachment, envy, and altruism, thereby promoting a more supportive, collaborative, and altruistic organizational culture. These interventions can help employees better manage their intense emotional responses to competition and foster the organizational citizenship behaviors essential for long-term organizational effectiveness.
