Revenge within Organizations: Examining Moderators of the Relationship between Negative Emotions and Revenge Cognition

The purpose of this study was to discuss the relevant factors of revenge cognition within organizations. Therefore, the dependent variable in this study is victim’s revenge cognition, while the independent variables are victim’s degree of negative emotions and the length of bilateral contact. Moreover, this study also takes victim’s degree of negative reciprocity belief, victim’s degree of self-esteem, and the length of bilateral contact into confounding factors to discuss the moderating effects of the relationship between victim’s degree of negative emotions and revenge cognition.
The study developed two types of questionnaires, which are almost the same with slightly different scenarios, to conduct the research. Questionnaire A was designed for short-term bilateral contact while questionnaire B was designed for long-term. The sample of the present research includes 133 people who are currently in a certain organization. Regression analysis and ANOVA were used to analyze the data.
The result showed that victim’s degree of negative emotions was positively related with revenge cognition, while the length of bilateral contact was negatively related with revenge cognition. In addition, this study also found that victim’s degree of negative reciprocity belief exerted the moderating effect on the relationship between victim’s degree of negative emotions and revenge cognition, whereas victim’s degree of self-esteem and the length of bilateral contact did not.