When social undermining is seen in the work environment the behavior is used to hinder the co-worker's ability to establish and maintain a positive interpersonal relationship, success and a good reputation.
[2] According to Duffy, Ganster, and Pagon, 2002, the definition of social undermining in a workplace is, behavior intended to hinder over time and not allowing a person to establish or maintain positive interpersonal relationships.
Vinokur found that those who alleged to have social undermining in the workplace reported to have poorer mental health and experienced less well-being.
[4] The study shows that undermining has a significant role in worker-supervisor and co-worker relationship and that it leads to various different outcomes such as feelings of irritability, anxiety, depersonalization, and depression.
indicate that "this rift plays a role in determining the magnitude of the employee's reaction to the event by making the deprived state more salient".
The study conducted by Gant et al. addressed African American workers' perceptions of co-workers and supervisors.
[9] The research by Duffy, Gangster, Shaw, Johnson, and Pagon[3] addressed the fairness theory introduced by Folger and Cropanzano 1998.
[5] The fairness theory suggests that when individuals face negative situations (such as being undermined by coworkers or supervision) they make cognitive comparisons known as counterfactual thoughts; i.e., they compare what actually happened to what might have been.
[10] The results show that social undermining is closely related to attitudes and behavior regarding one person being or feeling "singled out".
Research has shown that "abusive supervision is a subjective assessment made by subordinates regarding their supervisors" behavior towards them over a period of time.
[13] For example, abusive supervision includes a "boss demeaning, belittling, or invading privacy of the subordinate.
The findings from this study show that abused subordinates' family members reported a higher incidence of undermining in their home.
Workplace abuse may be spawning negative interpersonal relations in the home, which may contribution to a downward spiral of relationships in both spheres.
The undermining can arise from displaced aggression which is "redirection of a [person's] harm doing behavior from a primary to a secondary target" (Tedeschi & Norman, 1985, p. 30).
Greenbaum and colleagues found that some employees tend to focus on a bottom-line outcome, which may be related to their tendency to engage in social undermining behavior.
Creating more social support can improve treatment outcomes of a patient depending on the type of stress level the person is enduring.
Research conducted by Horwitz et al. (1998)[full citation needed] found that spouse undermining was almost twice as large as the effect for support.
For example, a spouse that shows behaviors of withdrawal, avoidance and being overly critical can cause psychological distress in a relationship.
This in turn causes stress that increases the depressive symptoms on individuals that have endure high levels of social undermining.
This can happen, because the support that a person can get from their spouse compared to a close friend is more exclusive and generally involves more frequent and emotionally intense interactions (Cutrone 1996;[full citation needed] Vinokur & Vinokur & Vinokur- Kaplan, 1990)[full citation needed] and depending on their relationship that can influence the social support or even the social undermining that affect the relationship.
This can give more attention to coping resources and it takes away from other stressors which causes the couple to have fewer chances resolving their problems.
[citation needed] Market, Stanforth, and Garcia found that social undermining used by family members, friends and coworkers can affect daily activities.
[19] They suggest that although the support and undermining are inversely and strongly correlated they do not form the same factor but constitute empirically distinct constructs.
The study looked at the effect of financial strain, social support, and undermining on poor mental health the results found that it was not statistically significant.
Vinokur and Ryn (1993)[19] found that social support and undermining were shown in longitudinal design even when prior levels of mental health and the contribution of another critical stressful factor.
The results of the study found that girls tend to report higher family stress and negative affect than boys.