High Performers Are Covertly Victimized, Unless They’re Altruistic

In a study set in a Midwestern field office of a U.S. financial services firm, high-performing employees were more likely than average workers to report that colleagues covertly victimized them through such behaviors as sabotage, withholding resources, and avoidance, says a team led by Jaclyn M. Jensen of DePaul University. High performers’ average score on a 1-to-5 victimization-frequency scale (from “never” to “once a week or more”) was 3.37, with the greater the performance gap in the workgroup, the greater the victimization. The effect was most pronounced for high performers who were selfish and manipulative; those who were altruistic and cooperative suffered less victimization as their performance increased, the researchers say.