Conceptual analysis models how rival setbacks trigger schadenfreude in strategic leaders, suggesting this emotion drives risk aversion and unethical pro-organizational behaviors.
Key Points
To establish a theoretical framework explaining how schadenfreude develops in strategic leadership and how this competitor-focused emotion influences subsequent strategic decision-making.
Synthesized organizational identification and social comparison theory to formulate a conceptual framework.
High organizational identification combined with downward social comparisons promotes schadenfreude, an effect mediated by organization-based self-esteem and amplified when competing against high-status rivals.
Strategic leader schadenfreude is proposed to increase unethical pro-organizational behaviors, foster selective information sharing with close colleagues, and heighten risk aversion in strategic decision-making.