TY - JOUR
T1 - Antecedents and consequences of the frequency of upward and downward social comparisons at work
AU - Brown, Douglas J.
AU - Ferris, D. Lance
AU - Heller, Daniel
AU - Keeping, Lisa M.
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported in part by grants from the Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council to the first and third authors. We thank Shawn Komar for his assistance with the design of the web survey and Joanne V. Wood, Paul Goodman, and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on earlier versions of this paper.
PY - 2007/1
Y1 - 2007/1
N2 - The current paper examines the dispositional and situational antecedents, as well as the attitudinal and behavioral consequences, of the frequency of upward and downward social comparisons. We predicted social comparison frequency would be influenced by uncertainty-related antecedents, and that social comparisons in organizations would be characterized by contrast, not assimilation, effects. A large and occupationally diverse sample of 991 employed adults was surveyed at three separate points in time over a 12-16 week period. Our results, based on structural equation modeling, indicated that (a) role ambiguity, task autonomy, and core self-evaluations were significant predictors of upward social comparison, (b) upward social comparison was significantly negatively related to job satisfaction and affective commitment, (c) downward social comparison was significantly positively related to job satisfaction and affective commitment, and (d) upward and downward social comparisons had significant positive and negative indirect effects on the frequency of job search behaviors, respectively. The findings are discussed in terms of their general implications for understanding the importance of directional social comparison processes in organizational settings.
AB - The current paper examines the dispositional and situational antecedents, as well as the attitudinal and behavioral consequences, of the frequency of upward and downward social comparisons. We predicted social comparison frequency would be influenced by uncertainty-related antecedents, and that social comparisons in organizations would be characterized by contrast, not assimilation, effects. A large and occupationally diverse sample of 991 employed adults was surveyed at three separate points in time over a 12-16 week period. Our results, based on structural equation modeling, indicated that (a) role ambiguity, task autonomy, and core self-evaluations were significant predictors of upward social comparison, (b) upward social comparison was significantly negatively related to job satisfaction and affective commitment, (c) downward social comparison was significantly positively related to job satisfaction and affective commitment, and (d) upward and downward social comparisons had significant positive and negative indirect effects on the frequency of job search behaviors, respectively. The findings are discussed in terms of their general implications for understanding the importance of directional social comparison processes in organizational settings.
KW - Core self-evaluations
KW - Job attitudes
KW - Job search
KW - Upward and downward social comparison
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=33845647611&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.obhdp.2006.10.003
DO - 10.1016/j.obhdp.2006.10.003
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AN - SCOPUS:33845647611
SN - 0749-5978
VL - 102
SP - 59
EP - 75
JO - Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes
JF - Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes
IS - 1
ER -
