What Role Does Envy Play in Organizations?

I've come across a very interesting article on the Internet about envy. The paragraph below is excerpted from it.

"The role of envy as a catalytic emotion suggests that envy in organizations might more generally lead to sensemaking that reframes the situation, to positive action which elevates the envier, or to negative action which brings down the envied person. The latter two possibilities highlight the difference between two forms of envy that have been identified both in social constructionist research (Armon-Jones, 1986) and in more traditional psychology (Bedeian, 1995). First, action taken to achieve or obtain that which is envied would be associated with what has been referred to as ‘nonmalicious envy’ (Parrott, 1991). The focus of non-malicious envy is on rectifying the envier’s deficiency in some way (Neu, 1980). In contrast, action taken to diminish what the envied person enjoys, by depriving them rather than by improving the position of the envier, is rooted in ‘malicious envy’ (Parrott, 1991)."

Read the full article here.