human relations
Frustration-based outcomes of
entitlement and the influence of
supervisor communication
human relations
63(11) 1639–1660
© The Author(s) 2010
Reprints and permission: sagepub.
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DOI: 10.1177/0018726710362923
hum.sagepub.com
Paul Harvey
University of New Hampshire, USA
Kenneth J Harris
Indiana University Southeast, USA
Abstract
Psychological entitlement is a relatively stable tendency toward inflated self-perceptions
and unrealistic expectations concerning praise and rewards. This study investigates two
behavioral outcomes of entitlement – political behavior and co-worker abuse – and
the mediating role of job-related frustration. We also examine the impact of supervisor
communication (i.e. evaluative and informative communication) on the relationship
between psychological entitlement and frustration. Results of a study of 223 employees
suggested that entitlement was positively associated with both political behavior and
co-worker abuse, and that frustration partially or fully mediated both relationships.
Additionally, results suggested that relatively high levels of supervisor communication
reduced job frustration for less-entitled employees but exacerbated the frustration
reported by those with stronger entitlement perceptions.
Keywords
co-worker abuse, political behavior, psychological entitlement, supervisor communication
By both anecdotal and research-based accounts, workplace entitlement is an important
concern for managers in many modern organizations (e.g. Campbell et al., 2004; Harvey
and Martinko, 2009; Robinson, 2007). Media reports of entitlement issues have become
common (e.g. Roosevelt, 2009) and research has shown an increase in narcissistic behaviors associated with a sense of entitlement (Twenge and Foster, 2008; Twenge et al., 2008).
Corresponding author:
Paul Harvey, Department of Management, Whittemore School of Business and Economics, University of New
Hampshire, 15 Academic Way, Durham, NH 03824, USA.
Email: [email protected]
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It has been argued that a certain level of entitlement is normal and reasonable in a
developed society (Boyd and Helms, 2005). Members of many modern countries feel
entitled to a basic education and protection from dangers such as fire and theft, for example. Of concern to many managers and researchers is the more pronounced phenomenon
of heightened psychological entitlement. This construct describes a stable tendency toward
highly favorable self-perceptions and a tendency to feel deserving of high levels of praise
and reward, regardless of actual performance levels (Campbell et al., 2004; Naumann et al.,
2002; Snow et al., 2001).
Heightened entitlement perceptions can cause problems for both employees and their
managers. Although much of the existing research on the topic has been conducted outside the workplace context (e.g. Exline et al., 2004; Schwartz and Tylka, 2008; Snow et
al., 2001), where workplace entitlement has been studied results have suggested that
psychologically entitled employees demonstrate a propensity toward unethical behavior
and conflict with supervisors, high pay expectations, low levels of job satisfaction, and
high levels of turnover intent (Hamilton, 2003; Harvey and Martinko, 2009; Kets de Vries,
2006; Levine, 2005). In several non-employee (i.e. student) samples, Campbell et al.
(2004) found that psychological entitlement was associated with organizationally relevant outcomes such as low agreeableness, emotional stability, and empathy. Moeller et al.
(2009) also observed tendencies toward self-centered behaviors. They found a positive
association between psychological entitlement and self-image goals and a negative association between psychological entitlement and self-reported desire to be compassionate
toward others.
Beyond this research, there is little knowledge of the specific effects of psychological
entitlement in the workplace and the ways in which supervisors can effectively manage
entitled employees. This study addresses both of these issues by examining other-directed
outcomes of psychological entitlement and the effect of one broad managerial behavior,
communication, on these outcomes. An additional goal is to build on existing entitlement
research that has begun to investigate the cognitive aspects of entitlement (Harvey and
Martinko, 2009) by examining the mediating role of frustration in the nomological network of psychological entitlement.
Psychological entitlement in the workplace
Much of the existing research on psychological entitlement exists in the social psychology literature and has utilized several construct definitions. A synthesis of existing definitions (Campbell et al., 2004; Naumann et al., 2002; Snow et al., 2001) suggests that
psychological entitlement is a relatively stable and global trait that occurs when individuals expect a high level of reward or preferential treatment regardless of ability or
performance levels. Naumann et al. (2002) explained that entitlement often stems from
social contracts (see also Lewis and Smithson, 2001), in which individuals feel entitled
to certain outcomes owing to their participation in a social relationship (e.g. employee
of a company). More broadly, Snow et al. (2001) conceptualized psychological entitlement as a general belief among individuals that important events in their lives should
turn out favorably.
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Psychological entitlement is associated with inflated self-perceptions that are often
not objectively justifiable (Snow et al., 2001). Campbell et al. (2004) found a positive
association between psychological entitlement and self-esteem, generally defined as
individuals’ perceptions of their own value (Rosenberg et al., 1995), and the confidence
constructs of self-sufficiency and vanity. Importantly, Campbell et al. (2004) also
explained that psychological entitlement is a global tendency toward these biased selfperceptions that exists across contexts. Thus, a person with an inflated sense of entitlement might experience a variety of jobs with different challenges and skill demands and
feel that they are valuable contributors to each, even if their actual performance varies.
This suggests that entitlement can be thought of as a psychological process that causes
employees to perceive their world in a way that consistently promotes self-esteem, confidence, and other positive, if unrealistic, self-perceptions.
Applied to a workplace setting, this type of entitlement can logically be linked to a number
of undesirable outcomes. Employees who feel entitled to praise and annual raises regardless of
their performance, for example, are likely to react negatively if they do not receive these outcomes (Harvey and Martinko, 2009). Similarly, the inflated self-perceptions associated with
entitlement can promote resistance to negative feedback (Campbell et al., 2004; Meltz, 2007).
A particularly difficult challenge faced by managers of psychologically entitled employees
is the problem of unmet expectations concerning rewards for a given level of performance.
As Naumann et al. (2002) noted, these unmet expectations stem from the discrepancy
between psychologically entitled employees’ inflated assessments of their own performance
and the relatively objective assessments of evaluators. Given this tendency toward inflated
expectations that are based on unfounded self-worth perceptions, unmet expectations can be
viewed as part and parcel of psychological entitlement. In a commentary, Robinson (2007)
argued that the chronic sense of unmet expectations associated with entitlement promotes
low levels of life satisfaction. Instead of being happy with the rewards and privileges an
individual receives (e.g. raises, gifts, vacations), he argued that a strong sense of entitlement
promotes chronic feelings of disappointment in these outcomes and an associated inability
fully to enjoy life experiences. In a more applied sense, this logic can be extended to suggest
that psychological entitlement causes employees who receive rewards that are commensurate with their efforts and abilities to feel unappreciated and, ultimately, unmotivated.
A study by Harvey and Martinko (2009) provided empirical evidence of some of the negative implications of entitlement in the workplace. Their results suggested that entitlement is
associated with heightened levels of turnover intentions and supervisor conflict and, as the
preceding paragraph would suggest, reduced job satisfaction. Their study also indicated that
the relationship between entitlement and these outcomes was mediated, in part, by self-serving attribution styles. More specifically, psychologically entitled individuals were shown to
possess attributional biases that caused them to take credit for desirable outcomes while
deflecting blame for negative outcomes to others, a tendency that has been linked to anger,
frustration, and numerous negative workplace behaviors (e.g. Douglas and Martinko, 2001).
The present study seeks to develop further our knowledge of the effects of psychological entitlement on negative workplace outcomes. Next, we develop the hypothetical
model shown in Figure 1, followed by the results of a study designed to test the hypothesized relationships.
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Human Relations 63(11)
Political
behavior
Psychological
entitlement
Job-related
frustration
Supervisor
communication
Co-worker
abuse
Figure 1 Hypothesized model
A model of entitlement-driven emotions and behaviors
in the workplace
As shown in Figure 1, we predict that high levels of psychological entitlement will
promote job-related frustration among employees. This frustration is expected to manifest itself in undesirable behaviors targeted at co-workers and supervisors. It is argued
that supervisors can influence the relationship between entitlement and frustration
through evaluative and informative communication. In developing this moderation argument we present two contrasting viewpoints on whether heightened communication will
exacerbate or attenuate the impact of entitlement on job frustration. We begin by developing the entitlement-frustration and moderation arguments and then discuss the rationale behind the mediated portion of the model.
Psychological entitlement and job frustration
Frustration is a generalized negative emotion that forms in response to undesirable outcomes, such as perceived mistreatment and the impediment of goal attainment (Thomas,
1976; Weiss et al., 1999), and may or may not be targeted at a specific entity or individual
(Clore and Centerbar, 2004).
There are at least two theoretical perspectives that can be used to predict a relationship between psychological entitlement and job frustration. The first is affective events
theory (Weiss and Cropanzano, 1996), which states that significant workplace events
help to shape employees’ job-related emotions and attitudes. This approach suggests that
individuals evaluate personally relevant workplace events (i.e. those that impact goal
attainment and personal values) and, based on a cognitive appraisal of the causes, consequences, and context of the event, form emotional responses to the events.
Although a strong sense of entitlement does not, in itself, constitute a workplace
event, existing research on psychological entitlement leads us to predict that entitled
employees will perceive a relatively large number of negative personally relevant workplace events and to analyze them in a way that produces job-related frustration. These
frustration-inducing events might include being passed over for promotions in favor of
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co-workers that psychologically entitled employees feel are less deserving, or receiving
smaller raises or less positive feedback than the employees feel they are entitled to
receive. Although these outcomes might be appropriate in terms of an employee’s actual
value to the organization, they are likely to be perceived as inadequate by a psychologically entitled employee, promoting frustration. This is owing to the inflated self-perceptions
and unrealistic expectations that characterize psychological entitlement (Harvey amd
Martinko, 2009; Naumann et al., 2002). As noted above, those with a strong sense of
entitlement typically feel that they are owed higher levels of rewards and praise than
objective reality would indicate, promoting unmet expectations (Naumann et al., 2002).
As such, they are likely to inaccurately perceive that their rewards and feedback are
inadequate, resulting in perceptions of mistreatment and frustration.
Attribution theory provides a second perspective on this relationship. As Harvey and
Martinko (2009) observed, psychological entitlement is associated with a tendency to
blame others for negative outcomes. These attributions are associated with anger and
frustration because they signal to the perceiver that another person or entity has caused
an impediment to goal attainment or another desired outcome (Harvey et al., 2008;
Weiner, 1985). Conversely, a person who attributes a negative outcome to internal causes
(e.g. their own lack of ability) is likely to experience self-focused negative emotions such
as guilt or shame (Weiner, 1985). Because psychologically entitled individuals appear to
have a tendency toward the attribution styles associated with external frustration-inducing
attributions (Harvey and Martinko, 2009), we expect that they will experience these
emotions more frequently than others.
Hypothesis 1: Psychological entitlement is positively associated with job-related frustration.
Supervisor communication as a moderator
In this section, we investigate the influence that supervisor communication might have
on the negative emotional effects of psychological entitlement. Frequent communication
between supervisors and employees is generally seen as favorable, provided the communication is delivered in an appropriate manner (e.g. Ilgen et al., 1979). In the context
of employees with a strong sense of entitlement, however, a complex picture emerges. As
we discuss in this section, contradictory arguments can be made concerning the interaction of employee entitlement and supervisor communication.
We focus on two aspects of supervisor-driven communication that appear to be relevant to interactions with psychologically entitled employees. The first is the frequency of
evaluative communication. Frequent performance feedback can apprise employees of
the correctness and sufficiency of their behavior (Annett, 1969) and might therefore
influence a psychologically entitled employee’s ability to form inflated performance perceptions. The second dimension we consider is the amount of informative job-related
information (i.e. supervisors’ expectations, plans, and ideas) conveyed in the communication. This aspect is relevant because it can potentially help to reduce ambiguity and
align expectations between managers and employees (Behrman et al., 1981; Callister et al.,
1999; Ilgen et al., 1979). These are distinct aspects of supervisory communication, in that
evaluative communication confers feedback about the individual employee whereas
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informative communication confers situational information. We conceptualize them as
two components of the broader notion of overall supervisor communication for two reasons.
First, there is evidence suggesting that supervisor communication often delivers both
types of information simultaneously (e.g. Beehr et al., 1990; Penley and Hawkins, 1985).
Second, we expect that both forms of communication exert a similar, complementary
influence on the entitlement-frustration relationship, as we discuss next.
Communication as a frustration buffer The aforementioned attributional perspective on
entitlement developed by Harvey and Martinko (2009) can be interpreted as supporting
the argument that supervisor communication will attenuate the relationship between
entitlement and job frustration. Their study indicated that psychologically entitled
employees have self-serving attributional biases that promote anger and frustration
because of the tendency to attribute negative outcomes to other people (e.g. Douglas and
Martinko, 2001; Harvey et al., 2008). A technique for managers to negate this tendency
is to reduce performance ambiguity (Martinko and Gardner, 1987). Providing employees
with feedback about their performance and contributions to positive and negative workplace outcomes (i.e. evaluative communication) can reduce the likelihood that employees will form biased and inaccurate perceptions. This is because there is less causal
uncertainty and, therefore, less room for bias in the interpretation of events (e.g. Behrman
et al., 1981). Thus, providing frequent feedback about performance might cause psychologically entitled employees to form a more objective understanding of their responsibility
for negative outcomes, making it difficult for them to externalize blame and experience
the resulting frustration.
The second dimension of supervisor communication, informative job-related
communication, might be useful in reducing situational ambiguity and the occurrence of
unmet expectations by aligning the expectations of supervisors and employees. By communicating their plans and perspectives, relational communication theory suggests that
supervisors can reduce uncertainty and help employees understand what is expected of
them (Harris and Kacmar, 2005; Millar and Rogers, 1976). This information can make it
difficult for psychologically entitled employees to form expectations that are inconsistent with their supervisor’s because it removes the ambiguity that allows inflated expectations to form. Thus, it is possible that frequent supervisor communication concerning
expectations and other job-related information will help reduce the frustration stemming
from unrealistic entitlement-driven expectations.
Based on these arguments, the two dimensions of supervisor communication identified here might work together to reduce the frustration associated with unmet expectations by removing situational ambiguity and the frustration associated with the
externalization of blame by reducing performance ambiguity.
Communication as a frustration amplifier It can also be argued that frequent evaluative
and informative communication from supervisors will have the opposite effect and
increase the job-related frustration reported by psychologically entitled employees.
Although this perspective may appear less intuitive, there is evidence suggesting that
psychological entitlement is a perceptual tendency that is powerful enough to distort the
messages conveyed in supervisor communication and undermine some or all of its
intended benefit.
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Although Harvey and Martinko (2009) observed that psychological entitlement was
associated with self-serving biases that can, in theory, be mitigated through increased
evaluative and informative communication, they also found evidence that entitled
employees engage in cognitive filtering as a mechanism for protecting inflated selfperceptions. They suggested that this finding might explain how psychologically entitled
employees are able to ignore or misperceive information that is inconsistent with their
entitled worldview. It follows that frequent evaluative/informative communication from
supervisors might not have the desired effect of promoting objective perceptions and
reducing frustration if psychologically entitled employees only assimilate those aspects
of communicated messages that reinforce their existing perceptions.
For example, if a supervisor communicates expectations (i.e. informative communication) and employees only focus on those expectations that they have met when performing self-evaluations, the employees might experience frustration when their supervisor
communicates unfavorable opinions regarding the ‘forgotten’ expectations. Similarly,
research has shown that psychological entitlement is associated with a tendency to reject
criticism (e.g. Campbell et al., 2004). Psychologically entitled employees might then
become frustrated when they receive negative evaluative communication that they do not
feel is accurate. Further, if, as Harvey and Martinko’s (2009) findings suggest, psychologically entitled employees only internalize positive feedback and ignore or refute negative feedback, they will likely continue to form unrealistic reward expectations and
experience frustration when they are not met.
This reasoning is consistent with Snow et al.’s (2001) argument that individuals with
a strong sense of entitlement tend to turn away from those who communicate information that is inconsistent with an entitled worldview. The authors found that psychologically entitled individuals were more likely than others to terminate counseling sessions
prematurely for this reason. As with counseling, frequent communication with a supervisor might convey information that a psychologically entitled employee finds objectionable. For example, this communication might convey that the supervisor expects a level
of effort that is greater than the level entitled employees feel they should be expected to
exert. Because employees cannot typically cut off communication with their supervisors
as the participants in Snow et al.’s (2001) study could, however, they might view the
communication as a source of unavoidable frustration.
The notion that psychologically entitled people selectively process information in a
manner that supports their inflated self-perceptions also suggests that they might perceive high levels of supervisor attention, in the form of frequent evaluative and informative communication, as a reaffirmation of their value (i.e. they are receiving extra
attention because they are special). Although this would not be expected to increase
frustration levels per se, it is possible that the extent of unmet expectations would be
greater, and frustration levels higher, when objective evaluations and rewards are administered if employees allow their self-perceptions to become further inflated by high overall levels of supervisor communication.
Contrary to the buffering perspective presented above, these arguments suggest that
evaluative and informative communication may increase, rather than decrease, entitlementdriven frustration. These competing perspectives on the interaction of supervisor communication and psychological entitlement lead us to acknowledge that our hypothesis is
exploratory in nature. In evaluating both lines of reasoning, however, the potential for
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psychological entitlement to distort and filter information received from supervisors
leads us to predict that both informative and evaluative supervisor communication will
work to exacerbate the positive relationship between entitlement and frustration more
frequently than it will attenuate the relationship.
Hypothesis 2: Supervisor communication, consisting of evaluative and informative content,
moderates the relationship between psychological entitlement and job-related frustration, such
that the positive relationship is strongest when supervisor communication is highest.
Outcomes of entitlement-driven frustration
We now examine the outcome portion of the model shown in Figure 1. Based on the
argument that employees with a strong sense of entitlement have a propensity to experience frustration, we draw on the principles of affective events theory (Weiss and Cropanzano,
1996) and research on frustration to argue that individuals with strong entitlement perceptions will engage in political and abusive behaviors as a result of job-related frustration.
Political behavior Owing to the self-serving biases associated with psychological entitlement, those with a strong sense of entitlement typically blame others when they experience negative outcomes or criticism (Harvey and Martinko, 2009). This perceptual
tendency can promote the belief among psychologically entitled employees that they
work with flawed people, policies, and processes that create problems for them. As such,
psychologically entitled employees are expected to see the workplace as a source of
frustration, as noted in Hypothesis 1.
Affective events theory (Weiss and Cropanzano, 1996) suggests that frustration and
other emotions influence workplace behaviors (e.g. Rosen et al., 2009). In the case of
entitlement-driven frustration, we predict that these behavioral responses might take the
form of political work behaviors, which can be used to influence the distribution of organizational rewards through techniques that fall outside the realm of formal procedures.
These behaviors can include ingratiation, self-promotion, and doing favors (Farrell and
Petersen, 1982; Ferris et al., 1994; Liden and Mitchell, 1988). Such behaviors are often
viewed as acceptable methods for promoting individual and organizational goals (e.g.
Ferris et al., 2000), but can also be used to influence reward distributions in inequitable
ways (see Dulebohn and Ferris, 1999). We argue that psychological entitlement can promote political behavior that the entitled employee sees as justifiable, but would likely be
viewed less favorably by objective observers.
The logic of this prediction primarily rests on two premises. The first is that negative
emotions such as frustration serve an adaptive purpose by creating an awareness that an
undesirable event or situation has occurred (e.g. Lang, 1998). By this logic, the unpleasant nature of negative affective states provides a stimulus to correct the problematic situation, allowing the perceiver to alleviate the negative emotion (e.g. Kemper, 1966). The
second premise is that political behavior can serve as a means to remedy a situation that
is perceived to be problematic and frustration-inducing.
We have argued that the tendency of psychologically entitled employees to experience
overly positive self-perceptions and overestimate their contribution to positive outcomes
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will promote an inaccurate belief that their organizational rewards are insufficient, triggering
frustration. Consistent with the aforementioned signaling function of negative emotions,
this frustration can motivate employees to attempt to correct the perceived problem and
reduce their frustration levels. Although there are numerous methods available to
employees to achieve these goals, political behaviors appear likely because they are
often effective and normatively acceptable methods for obtaining workplace goals
(e.g. Ferris et al., 2000). As noted, political behaviors can have desirable outcomes, such
as allowing an employee to receive benefits that they have earned but might not receive
in their absence. If the decision to engage in political behaviors is triggered by entitlement-driven misperceptions of mistreatment, however, such behaviors can be seen as
undesirable in that they represent an attempt to gain more favorable treatment and
rewards than the employee has actually earned.
Based on these arguments, we predict:
Hypothesis 3: Psychological entitlement is positively associated with political behavior (H3a),
and this relationship is mediated by job-related frustration (H3b).
Co-worker abuse We have argued that employees with strong entitlement perceptions
have a propensity to experience frustration and we further argue that this frustration can
promote abusive behaviors toward co-workers. Such behaviors can take the form of
insults, displaced aggression, and broken promises, among others (e.g. Greenberg and
Barling, 1999; Salin, 2003).
These abusive behaviors might be directed at co-workers for two reasons. First, unlike
supervisors who have the hierarchical power to sanction conflict behaviors, co-workers
often do not have this power and are therefore relatively ‘safe’ targets (Tepper et al.,
2006). Second, we expect that psychologically entitled employees will form inaccurate
perceptions of inequity when evaluating their peers’ organizational rewards, promoting
resentment toward co-workers. This is owing to the inflated sense of self-worth and selfserving perceptual biases associated with psychological entitlement (Campbell et al.,
2004; Harvey and Martinko, 2009), which might cause employees to feel that they are
under-rewarded compared with peers who perform at a similar or higher level (e.g.
Adams, 1965).
Several streams of research lead us to believe that entitlement-driven frustration will
mediate this relationship. Affective events theory suggests that negative event-driven
emotions help to shape behavioral responses (Weiss and Cropanzano, 1996) and frustration, in particular, has been linked to other-directed behaviors such as sabotage (Ambrose
et al., 2002). As discussed in the previous section, negative emotions such as frustration
can motivate behavioral techniques for remedying a perceived problem and improving
one’s emotional state (e.g. Kemper, 1966). In the specific case of co-worker abuse, these
behaviors may serve as a means of retaliation against peers who are perceived to have
stunted progress toward a goal, or simply as a way of venting and reducing frustration
levels. Consistent with this notion, Thomas’s (1976) conflict model suggests that frustration is a key predictor of interpersonal conflict. This is because frustration often arises
when individuals perceive that some person or entity has prevented the attainment of
desired goals or outcomes (Thomas, 1976), motivating them to engage in conflict
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behavior with these individuals. Additionally, attribution theory (Weiner, 1985) argues
that when negative emotions, such as frustration, are formed in response to perceived
wrongdoings by others, a behavioral response targeting those individuals often results.
Based on these arguments, we predict that:
Hypothesis 4: Psychological entitlement is positively associated with abusive co-worker behaviors (H4a), and this relationship is mediated by job-related frustration (H4b).
Method
Sample
Two hundred and twenty-three employees from a variety of organizations participated in the
study. Full-time employees were recruited as participants with the assistance of students at
two US universities. Students enrolled in introductory management courses were asked to
recruit up to three participants each, creating a potential sample size of 318 subjects. This
equates to a response rate of 70.1 percent, although this rate only reflects the number of collected responses in comparison with the number of potential responses and does not reflect
the number of individuals who declined participation and were replaced by someone
else. As such, the true response rate may have been lower. The average age of the sample
was 42.8 years and the gender composition was 45 percent male and 55 percent female.
Participants reported an average of 10.1 years of tenure at their current employers.
Students were offered nominal course credit for their assistance in recruiting participants. To guard against completion of surveys by individuals who did not meet our criteria for participation (i.e. full-time status working at least 30 hours per week and not a
current student in the classes where the surveys were being collected), participants were
required to provide a workplace phone number and consent to a brief round of follow-up
questions. These questions were designed to confirm a basic familiarity with the survey
(e.g. ‘Which types of questions did you find most relevant to your current job’) and consistency between the work details provided on the surveys (i.e. job title, length of tenure)
and those provided in the follow-up conversations. Because of the size of the sample it
was not practical to screen all participants in this way. Instead we selected a random
sampling of 25 individuals to contact, all of whom gave satisfactory responses.
Measures
Unless otherwise noted, all of the following variables were measured using a five-point
scale (1 = ‘strongly disagree’, 5 = ‘strongly agree’).
Psychological entitlement Entitlement was measured using Campbell et al.’s (2004) nineitem measure (a = .85). A sample item was ‘I feel entitled to more of everything.’
Job-frustration Peters et al.’s (1980) three-item scale was used to measure frustration
(a = .85). A sample item was ‘Overall, I experience very little frustration on this job’
(reverse scored).
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Political behavior Treadway et al.’s (2005) six-item scale was used to measure political
behavior (a = .93). A sample item was ‘I let others at work know of my accomplishments.’
Co-worker abuse Because we were unaware of an existing measure of co-worker abuse,
we developed a six-item scale for this study (a = .79) that followed the logic and general
wording of six items from Tepper’s (2000) abusive supervision scale. Because this was
not an established scale, we performed an exploratory factor analysis on the six items.
All items loaded onto a single factor with an eigenvalue of 3.01 with factor loadings
ranging from .65 to .75. The scale consisted of the following items: ‘I give co-workers
the silent treatment at the workplace’, ‘I make negative comments about others at the
workplace’, ‘I express anger at others at the workplace when I am mad for another reason’, ‘I am rude to others at the workplace’, ‘I break promises I make to others at the
workplace’, and ‘I put others down in front of others at the workplace.’
Supervisor communication Two scales were used to create a two-dimensional measure of
supervisor communication. As described above, these dimensions represent the evaluative and informative components of supervisor communication. To measure informative
communication, Harris and Kacmar’s (2005) four-item scale was used. A sample item
was ‘My immediate supervisor lets employees know what is expected of them.’ To measure evaluative communication, three-items adapted from the job diagnostic survey
(Hackman and Oldham, 1975) were used. A sample item was ‘How often does your
supervisor point out problems in your work?’ Responses were recorded using a sevenpoint scale (1 = ‘never’, 7 = ‘constantly’). The reliability of the scales was acceptable
(informative scale: a = .90; evaluative scale: a = .84; combined scale: a = .73), and a
factor analysis using principal axis factoring and oblique rotation indicated the presence
of two distinct factors with eigenvalues greater than 1.0 that explained a combined 76.48
percent of variance. Each of the items loaded onto the appropriate factors with no crossloadings greater than .15. Because the response format differed between the two scales,
responses were standardized before being aggregated into a single scale.
Controls The potential effects of several factors on the mediating and outcome variables
were controlled in the study. The demographic variables of age and gender (males = 1,
females = 2) were controlled, as studies have indicated that males and females differ in
their self-reports of emotions (Fischer et al., 2004), as do people of different ages
(Kunzmann et al., 2005). Research also suggests that these variables can impact the likelihood of abusive behavior (Martinko et al., 2005). Gender has also been linked to political tendencies (Treadway et al., 2005).
We also controlled for the number of co-workers participants regularly interacted
with, given that employees with more co-workers might have more opportunities to
engage in political or abusive behaviors. The influence of organizational level, measured
as levels above entry level, on political behaviors and co-worker abuse was also controlled, based on the assumption that employees at higher political levels might engage
in more or less of these behaviors depending on the culture of their specific company.
Finally, negative affectivity (NA) was included as a control variable, given its influence on negative emotions such as frustration and the variables predicted to stem from
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frustration. More specifically, it is likely that individuals with high levels of NA, who
experience higher levels of negative emotions in general (Watson and Clark, 1984),
would report higher levels of frustration than participants with lower NA levels regardless of entitlement levels. Similarly, those with low NA might report relatively low frustration levels, irrespective of psychological entitlement. Because we are predicting that
frustration will promote higher levels of the two outcome variables, political behavior
and co-worker abuse, nuisance variance in frustration could distort our overall results
and necessitated controlling for the influence of NA. Four items adapted from Watson
and Clark’s (1994) scale were used (a = .91) to measure this variable. A sample item
included ‘I often feel distressed.’
Results
Before testing the hypothesized relationships we tested for common method variance
using Harmon’s one-factor test. The five study variables (including the two-dimensional
supervisor communication variable) and NA were included in this analysis (the objective
control variables – age, gender, organizational level, and number of co-workers – were
not included). The test involves performing a factor analysis using principal axis factoring on the study variables and determining whether a single factor explains a majority of
the variance. The analysis was performed using varimax rotation and results indicated
the presence of seven factors explaining a combined 66.32 percent of variance. Because
no single factor emerged and because the first (method) factor did not explain a majority
of variance (12.01%), it was concluded that common method variance did not have a
significant impact on our results (Williams et al., 1989). Additionally, the relatively low
correlations between our study variables shown in Table 1 provide another piece of evidence that common method variance did not significantly affect our results (Spector, 2006).
Table 1 Means, standard deviation, and correlations among study variables
Mean SD
1
2
1. Gender
1.54 .50
2. Age
42.74 11.74 -.08
3. Negative affect
2.38 .81 .00 -.11
4. Number of
15.71 21.78 -.09 .04
co-workers
5. Organizational level 3.75 1.51 .10 -.03
6. Psychological
2.56 .64 -.02 -.25**
entitlement
7. Job frustration
2.80 .90 -.09 -.06
8. Supervisor
3.74 .81 .04 -.18*
communication
9. Political behavior
2.85 .66 -.17* -.08
10. Co-worker abuse 1.51 .46 -.07 -.23**
3
4
5
-.03
.08
-.01
.59** .06
-.02
.03
.10
-.08
6
7
8
9
.03
.11
.05
.13*
-.01 -.05
.23** .18** -.17** .32** .23** .04
.33** .14* .06
.23** .38** -.02 .35**
Note: N = 223; *p < .05; **p < .01.
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Harvey and Harris
Means, standard deviations, and descriptive statistics are shown in Table 1. Structural
equation modeling was performed with AMOS software (Arbuckle and Wothke, 1999)
to examine the hypothesized relationships. As Edwards and Lambert (2007) explained,
techniques such as this are helpful in testing for moderation as they allow for the simultaneous estimation of all direct and indirect effects in a statistical model. Before interpreting individual paths, several alternative models were estimated (Anderson and
Gerbing, 1988). These included a structural null model, a fully mediated model, a partially mediated model in which both direct and mediating paths from entitlement to the
outcome variables were included, and a direct effects model in which the mediating
paths were constrained to zero. Model comparison results are shown in Table 2 and
suggest that the partially mediated model fit the data best. As such, this model, shown in
Figure 2, was retained for analysis.
Hypothesis 1 predicted that psychological entitlement would promote job-related
frustration. As Figure 2 indicates, a significant positive association was observed between
these variables (b = .12, p < .05), supporting this hypothesis.
Table 2 Chi-square difference test for alternative models
Model
∆Χ2
Description
Hypothesized Full mediation – paths from
entitlement to political
behavior and co-worker abuse
restricted to zero
Alternative 1 Structural null model
Alternative 2 Direct effect – mediational
paths restricted to zero
Alternative 3 Partial mediation
d.f. RMSEA CFI NFI ∆Χ2 diff d.f. diff
821.55** 582 .04
1064.54** 601 .06
856.68** 583 .05
798.29** 580 .04
.93 .80
.86 .74 242.99 19**
.92 .79 35.13 1**
.94 .80
23.26 2**
Note: N = 233; **p < .01.
Political
behavior
.30**
Psychological
entitlement
.12*
.20*
Supervisor
communication
Job-related
frustration
.25**
.48**
Co-worker
abuse
Figure 2 Retained model with path loadings (**p < .01, * p < .05; controls and non-significant
paths omitted for clarity)
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Human Relations 63(11)
Hypothesis 2 predicted that the aforementioned relationship would be moderated by
supervisor communication, such that more evaluative and informative communication
would strengthen the impact of entitlement on frustration. To test this relationship, the
interaction term (calculated by multiplying standardized entitlement and supervisor
communication scores) was entered into the path analysis along with both individual
(standardized) variables. Results suggested a significant interaction effect (b = .20, p < .05),
shown graphically in Figure 3. As the graph indicates, the relationship between entitlement and frustration was only positive when supervisor communication was high (one
standard deviation above the mean). Simple slope analysis indicated that slope of this
relationship was significant (t = 2.68, p < .01), suggesting that high levels of supervisor
communication were beneficial to employees with a low level of psychological entitlement but increased frustration among those with a high level of entitlement, and supporting Hypothesis 2. A non-significant association between entitlement and frustration was
observed in situations where supervisor communication was low (slope: t = 1.54, ns).
Thus, while high levels of supervisor communication appear to exacerbate frustration
among psychologically entitled employees, lower levels of communication appear to
affect more and less entitled employees similarly.
An examination of the contrast between high and low levels of participant entitlement
(i.e. one standard deviation above and below the mean, respectively) further illustrates
the differing effects of supervisor communication. Those with low psychological entitlement levels reported higher levels of job-related frustration when supervisor communication was low as opposed to high, whereas those with high entitlement levels demonstrated
the opposite tendency.
3.5
Job-related frustration
3
Low supervisor
communication
2.5
High supervisor
communication
2
1.5
Low
High
Psychological entitlement
Figure 3 The interactive influence of psychological entitlement and supervisor communication
on job frustration
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Harvey and Harris
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As noted, the scores for the evaluative and informative dimensions of communication
were aggregated to form a single variable based, in part, on the assumption that both
would exert a similar impact on the psychological entitlement-frustration relationship.
Post-hoc analyses were performed using the individual dimensions as moderators to test
this assumption. As expected, the interactive relationships of both individual dimensions
took the same form as the two-dimensional interaction shown in Figure 3.1
In Hypothesis 3, it was argued that job-related frustration would mediate the relationship between psychological entitlement and political behavior. As Figure 2 indicates, a
positive association was observed between entitlement and political behavior (b = .30,
p < .01), supporting Hypothesis 3a. Results also suggested that the mediating paths
between psychological entitlement and frustration (b = .12, p < .05) and between frustration and political behavior (b = .25, p < .01) were significant, indicating a partially mediated relationship (Kenny et al., 1998) and providing partial support for Hypothesis 3b. A
Sobel test was performed to gauge the significance of this mediation effect (Sobel, 1982)
and supported the conclusion that job frustration mediated the relationship between psychological entitlement and political behavior (z = 1.68, p < .05).
Finally, in Hypothesis 4 we predicted that psychological entitlement would promote
co-worker abuse and that frustration would mediate this relationship. As Figure 2 indicates, the paths between entitlement, job-related frustration (b = .12, p < .05), and abusive co-worker behavior (b = .48, p < .01) were simultaneously significant. The direct
path between psychological entitlement and co-worker abuse became insignificant when
these mediating paths were included, suggesting full mediation (Kenny et al., 1998) and
supporting Hypotheses 4a and 4b. A Sobel test was performed and indicated that job
frustration significantly mediated the relationship between psychological entitlement
and co-worker abuse (z = 1.94, p < .05).
Discussion
Although there appears to be a growing awareness of psychological entitlement as a managerial challenge among practitioners and academics, little is known about the construct
in the organizational sciences. The purpose of this study was to expand our knowledge of
the behavioral outcomes of workplace entitlement and the role of job-related emotions,
particularly frustration, in these relationships. In examining behavioral outcomes, we
focused specifically on other-directed actions (i.e. abusing co-workers and engaging in
political behaviors). The study also expands existing research by exploring the possibility
that organizational leaders can mitigate or exacerbate the effects of entitlement through
evaluative and informative communication. In this section we discuss our findings and
their implications, along with limitations and suggestions for future research in this area.
Psychological entitlement and frustration
Our first two hypotheses built on the notion that psychologically entitled individuals possess
unrealistically positive self-images that continuously spawn unreasonable, and frequently
unmet, expectations (Campbell et al., 2004; Naumann et al., 2002; Snow et al., 2001). These
unmet expectations, combined with the tendency to attribute blame for negative outcomes
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Human Relations 63(11)
to external factors (Harvey and Martinko, 2009) were expected to promote frustration. Our
results were consistent with this hypothesis, providing support for the somewhat ironic argument that individuals with strong entitlement-driven self-perceptions can feel more frustrated and dissatisfied with their work lives than employees with a more objective view of
their relative worth and their contributions. This is a paradoxical situation, given that positive self-perceptions are generally thought to have the opposite effect on employees (Pierce
and Gardner, 2004), and suggests that psychological entitlement promotes a potentially
unproductive form of positive self-perception.
Having found evidence of an association between entitlement and frustration, we
examined whether supervisor communication could influence the effects of entitlement.
We presented conflicting arguments concerning the nature of this interaction. On the one
hand, we reasoned that high levels of evaluative and informative communication from
supervisors could help entitled employees develop a more objective perspective on their
value to the organization and the fairness of their treatment. Conversely, we argued that
entitlement perceptions could cause employees to perceive supervisor communication in
a way that amplifies frustration. Results suggested that supervisor communication
reduced job-related frustration among employees with low levels of entitlement, but
increased frustration among psychologically entitled employees.
These results suggest that psychological entitlement is associated with relatively high
levels of job-related frustration and that evaluative and informative supervisor communication is ineffective in reducing this frustration. This finding gives us some insight
about how managers might choose, or in this case not choose, to deal with entitled subordinates. We discuss this issue in greater detail later in this section.
Frustration-driven outcomes of entitlement
Consistent with affective events theory (Weiss and Cropanzano, 1996) and attribution
theory (e.g. Weiner, 1985), we argued that the frustration experienced by entitled employees would drive behavioral responses. In our third hypothesis, we argued that frustration
would mediate the relationship between psychological entitlement and political behaviors. Results suggested a partially mediated relationship, suggesting that some but not all
of the variance in political behavior associated with psychological entitlement is owing
to job-related frustration.
In our final hypothesis, we also predicted that frustration would mediate the positive
relationship between psychological entitlement and abusive co-worker behaviors.
Results supported this argument, suggesting that entitled employees in our sample
engaged in abusive behaviors such as insulting and spreading rumors about co-workers
in response to job-related frustration. We expect that this frustration stems from perceived inequities in the rewards received by co-workers to whom psychologically entitled employees feel superior, although we recognize that this argument is exploratory in
that comparative equity perceptions were not measured in the study.
Implications for research and practice
This study, along with a small number of others in the management and social psychology
literatures, suggests that psychological entitlement is a predictor of undesirable workplace
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Harvey and Harris
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emotions and behaviors. If we accept the growing body of anecdotal and research
evidence indicating that entitlement and related phenomena such as narcissism are on the
rise (e.g. Robinson, 2007; Roosevelt, 2009; Twenge et al., 2008), then it behooves
researchers to learn more about the construct in order to prescribe managerial solutions.
We suggest that an important step in this regard is a greater understanding of the cognitive processes associated with psychological entitlement. In order to understand how to
manage psychologically entitled employees, it is helpful to understand first how such
employees respond to interactions with supervisors and how these responses differ from
those of less entitled employees. In the present study, we argued and found support for
the notion that entitled employees are prone to experiencing relatively high levels of jobrelated frustration and that relatively high levels of supervisor communication can
increase, rather than decrease, this frustration. Building on this finding, we suggest that
future research can explore techniques for managing psychologically entitled employees
that do not rely, at least not solely, on high levels of communication concerning managers’ opinions and expectations. In our opinion, this research could take either of two
broad directions. One is to examine alternatives to communication that might help supervisors manage psychologically entitled employees. The other avenue is to consider whether
the effectiveness of supervisor communication can be improved by the addition or presence of other managerial tactics or situational variables. For example, although this conjecture is purely speculative, it may be that managers with high levels of charisma are
better able to communicate with psychologically entitled employees than other managers
owing to their likeability and persuasive abilities (e.g. Jacobsen and House, 2001).
We also suggest that additional research on the emotional components of psychological entitlement will be helpful in understanding the cognitive aspects of entitlement and
for prescribing managerial interventions. We have found evidence indicating that at least
some behavioral outcomes of entitlement are driven by job-related frustration, but a
number of additional emotional states may be involved. For example, there is some evidence that schadenfreude, a positive emotional state experienced in response to another
person’s misfortune, promotes undesirable workplace behaviors (Feather and Sherman,
2002). Social comparison theory (Festinger, 1954) can be used to argue that psychologically entitled employees are especially prone to this emotional state as it helps improve
self-perceptions in relation to others. If true, this could have implications for the effectiveness of psychologically entitled employees in team and group settings where a tendency toward schadenfreude would be undesirable.
Another potentially fruitful area for future research is to extend beyond the findings
presented here by investigating the effects of different supervisor communication styles on
psychologically entitled employees and the outcomes of entitlement. Whereas we examined the level of evaluative and informative communication, future research can investigate the influence of different tones (e.g. adversarial, supportive) and contexts (e.g. verbal,
written, positive, negative) of communication. We feel that an understanding of how psychologically entitled employees react to these variations is important for developing sound
recommendations for supervisors seeking to manage entitled subordinates.
A within-subjects approach to examining the moderating effects of supervisor communication on entitlement-driven outcomes might also be useful for developing a more
dynamic understanding of this interaction. Whereas we used a between-subjects approach
that examined differences in reactions to high and low levels of supervisor communication,
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Human Relations 63(11)
it would be informative to examine how employees with different psychological entitlement
levels react to communication levels that fluctuate between high and low levels. This
would provide an opportunity for replication in a way that allows researchers to examine
the stability of employees’ reactions to communication levels by comparing the consistency of reactions to any given communication level over time.
In terms of practical implications stemming from this study, we found evidence suggesting that supervisor communication exacerbated the effect of frustration and, by
extension, frustration-driven outcomes of entitlement. This finding suggests that while
communication can be helpful in reducing job-related frustration among less entitled
employees, it appears to have the opposite effect on psychologically entitled individuals
(see Figure 3). As such, managerial efforts for dealing with psychological entitlement
through communication and feedback may be unsuccessful.
Our results also highlight the importance for managers to be on guard against political
maneuvering by psychologically entitled employees and to protect other subordinates
from abusive behaviors targeted at co-workers. These implications, and the associated
findings in this study, suggest that psychological entitlement, if left unchecked, can
do more than just cause employees to experience unmet expectations and frustration.
Instead, our findings suggest that psychological entitlement can provide false justification for political behaviors and jeopardize the well being of co-workers by increasing the
frequency of abusive behaviors.
Limitations and conclusion
In interpreting the results of this study it is important to note several limitations. First, the
cross-sectional, single-method nature of the study limits the assessment of causality and
introduces the possibility of common method bias, although the aforementioned Harmon
one-factor test and relatively low variable correlations (Spector, 2006) did not suggest this
was a significant issue. We also recognize that the use of students to assist in the collection
of data, while facilitating the development of a generalizable sample from a range of organizations, removed a level of control over the collection process. One consequence of this,
noted above, was our inability to calculate a true response rate that incorporated the number of individuals who declined to participate when approached by recruiters.
Additionally, this study required participants to divulge information about sensitive
behaviors, such as co-worker abuse, and it is likely that social desirability concerns influenced their responses. For instance, it is likely that responses to sensitive items were
skewed toward the low ends of their scales, artificially reducing variance and potentially
muting the strength of the observed relationships. Finally, it should be noted that the
relationships we examined are probably influenced by additional cognitive and situational variables that were not explicitly identified or measured here.
In conclusion, while we have attempted to contribute to the need for a better understanding of psychological entitlement in the workplace we recognize that there is more to learn.
We suggest that future research continue to investigate the psychological entitlement construct and help to identify the missing pieces of the nomological network. As this research
progresses and the causes, consequences, and cognitive processes associated with psychological entitlement become more fully understood, it is our hope that a set of effective tools
for both managing and mitigating psychological entitlement in the workplace will emerge.
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Harvey and Harris
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Funding acknowledgement
This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or
not-for-profit sectors.
Note
1 Results of the post-hoc analyses are available upon request from the corresponding author.
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Paul Harvey is an Assistant Professor of Management at the University of New Hampshire Whittemore
School of Business and Economics. He has a PhD in organizational behavior from Florida State
University. His research focuses on perceptual and emotional predictors of workplace behavior and
has appeared in a variety of journals such as Academy of Management Review, Decision Sciences,
Journal of Organizational Behavior, and Leadership Quarterly. [Email: [email protected]]
Kenneth J Harris is an Assistant Professor of Management at Indiana University Southeast. He received
his PhD from Florida State University in Organizational Behavior. His research focuses on
leadership, politics, political skill, and entitlement and has been published in a number of journals
including Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Organizational Behavior, Leadership
Quarterly, and Human Relations. [Email: [email protected]]
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