关键词: 同事被授权, 程序公平感, 职场排斥, 观察学习, 社会比较

Abstract: The role and significance of empowerment are increasingly highlighted in the activation of employees and their autonomy. As a differentiated leadership behavior, empowerment by leaders brings unique resources and asymmetric preferential treatment to employees, which can be perceived by colleagues as observers and directly affects their work performance. However, current studies have mainly focused on the employees who are empowered, and few have focused on the colleagues as observers. It is important to recognize and discuss the emotional changes and subsequent behavioral reactions caused by colleagues being empowered from the perspective of observers.
Based on social comparison theory, this research discusses the effect of the interaction between colleagues being empowered and procedural justice on envy and admiration of colleagues. The mediating effect of envy and admiration on the above interaction items and workplace ostracism and observational learning is explored, and a mediated moderation model is constructed. The hypotheses are tested in an experimental study (N = 238), a field sample (N = 306) and an experience sampling method (N = 1258). In Study 1, a between-participant scenario experimental design was used to manipulate procedural justice and colleagues being empowered, 238 participants from China who passed the attention test were retained. Participants were randomly assigned to a scenario to eliminate the effect of their own differences on the experimental results. In Study 2, empirical data from 306 employees in China were collected using a three-wave questionnaire survey. At Time 1, employees reported procedural justice and colleagues being empowered and provided their own demographic information. At Time 2, employees reported envy and admiration towards their colleagues. At Time 3, employees reported workplace ostracism and observational learning. In Study 3, we conducted a field study using an experience sampling method to collect data from employees in northeastern China. The survey process included an initial one-time entry survey and daily surveys administered over two weeks. One week before the start of the daily surveys, employees reported their leader-member exchange social comparison, colleagues’ guanxi and their own demographic information. During the two-week daily surveys, employees reported procedural justice, colleagues being empowered, envy and admiration at 11 am, and reported workplace ostracism and observational learning at 5 pm. The final sample included 1258 usable observations from 137 employees.
We applied analysis of variance, confirmatory factor analysis, path analysis, bootstrap method and Monte Carlo simulation to analyze the data. There are three findings. First, when procedural justice is low, colleagues being empowered and procedural justice interaction have a positive impact on envy; when procedural justice is high, colleagues being empowered and procedural justice interaction have a positive impact on admiration. Second, envy has a positive impact on workplace ostracism, and admiration has a positive impact on observational learning. Third, envy and admiration play a mediating role in the interaction terms of colleagues being empowered and procedural justice on workplace ostracism and observational learning, thus showing a mediated moderation model.
This research has the following four implications. First, the research enriched the research perspective of empowerment from the perspective of the observer party. Second, the research integrated the contrast effect and assimilation effect caused by colleagues being empowered, which enriched the research framework of social comparison theory. Third, the boundary conditions of the two social comparison effects caused by colleagues being empowered were expanded. Final, the mediating mechanism of the effect of colleagues being empowered was revealed.

Key words: colleagues being empowered, procedural justice, workplace ostracism, observational learning, social comparison