Despite organizations encouraging employees to improve their job performance to enhance organizational performance, the understanding of the consequences of high performance from the perspective of social comparison remains limited. Drawing on social comparison theory, we develop a framework explaining how upward performance social comparison leads to political behaviors through anxiety. Furthermore, we examine the amplifying effect of social comparison orientation (SCO) on the relationship between upward performance social comparison and anxiety. We introduce the downward leader–member exchange social comparison (downward leader–member exchange social comparison [LMXSC]) to buffer the magnifying effect of SCO. We test the three-way interaction among upward performance social comparison, SCO, and downward LMXSC using the data collected from a three-wave survey (Study 1) and a scenario-based experiment (Study 2), and our hypotheses are supported. Our results reveal an interesting dilemma. Employees' high performance is naturally beneficial for organizations, but those with high SCO and fewer advantages in leader–member exchange social comparison may feel more anxious and engage in political behaviors in response to upward performance social comparison. Our research has practical implications, such as monitoring social comparisons and political behaviors in the workplace and helping employees reduce anxiety.

中文翻译：

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如何、何时以及为何高工作绩效并不总是好的：三向交互模型

尽管组织鼓励员工改善工作绩效以提高组织绩效，但从社会比较的角度对高绩效后果的理解仍然有限。借鉴社会比较理论，我们开发了一个框架，解释向上绩效的社会比较如何通过焦虑导致政治行为。此外，我们还研究了社会比较取向（SCO）对向上绩效社会比较和焦虑之间关系的放大效应。我们引入向下领导者-成员交换社会比较（向下领导者-成员交换社会比较[LMXSC]）来缓冲SCO的放大效应。我们使用从三波调查（研究 1）和基于场景的实验（研究 2）收集的数据测试了向上绩效社会比较、SCO 和向下 LMXSC 之间的三向交互作用，并且我们的假设得到了支持。我们的结果揭示了一个有趣的困境。员工的高绩效自然对组织有利，但那些SCO高、在领导-成员交换社会比较中优势较少的人可能会感到更加焦虑，并采取政治行为来应对向上的绩效社会比较。我们的研究具有实际意义，例如监测工作场所的社会比较和政治行为以及帮助员工减少焦虑。