“I want it all and I want it now!” An examination of the etiology, expression, and escalation of excessive employee entitlement

A review of entitlement

“…In particular, Fisk (2010, p. 102) argues that ''excessive entitlement is a pervasive and pernicious social issue,'' aligning with other authors who suggest it results in lost productivity and increased conflict (Harvey & Harris, 2010;Harvey & Martinko, 2009). However, to date, there is comparatively little theoretical (Brouer et al, 2011) or empirical research (Fisk, 2010;Harvey & Dasborough, 2015;Harvey & Harris, 2010;Harvey & Martinko, 2009;Hochwarter et al, 2007;Hochwarter et al, 2010) that has considered entitlement in the workplace. Even so, the work completed in industrial and organizational psychology reflects the application of varying frameworks and a diverse range of measures of the construct of entitlement.…”

“…As indicated in our review, research on entitlement in the workplace has been subject to some confusion and progressive work on construct definitions and measures (see Table 1). As outlined before, research on entitlement in the workplace has been strongly influenced by the psychological literature with the majority of conceptualizations of workplace entitlement, including job entitlement (Derber, 1978); equity sensitivity theory (Huseman et al, 1985(Huseman et al, , 1987; and workplace or employee entitlement (Fisk, 2010;Harvey & Harris, 2010;Harvey & Martinko, 2009;Hochwarter et al, 2007;Hochwarter et al, 2010;van Dijk & De Cremer, 2006) treating employee entitlement as a stable and global personality trait. Recent research has largely utilized Campbell et al's (2004) definition of psychological entitlement as being characterized by expectations for special treatment or rewards without regard to performance or reciprocity (Brouer et al, 2011;Harvey & Harris, 2010;Harvey & Martinko, 2009;van Dijk & De Cremer, 2006), although Naumann et al (2002) suggest that situational differences may also significantly influence entitlement.…”

“…Researchers have argued that interest in the phenomenon of employee entitlement is increasing in academia and across organizations (Brouer, Wallace, & Harvey, 2011;Fisk, 2010;Harvey & Harris, 2010;Harvey & Martinko, 2009). Broadly, researchers define employee entitlement as an individual's belief in deserving preferential treatment or reward (Campbell, Bonacci, Shelton, Exline, & Bushman, 2004;Harvey & Martinko, 2009;Raskin & Terry, 1988).…”

Enabling organizational cultural change using systemic strategic human resource management – a longitudinal case study

“…At a strategy meeting in 1998, the executive team decided to intervene in the culture of the organization to try and shift it from what they assessed as an existing 'entitlement' culture toward a desired 'performance' culture. An 'entitlement' culture is noted in the literature (Bardwick 1998;Juechter, Fisher and Alford 1998;Fisk 2010) as one where people feel entitled to certain benefits from an organization without regard for their performance level. On the other hand, a 'performance' culture is one where employees want to contribute their best for the organization in return for appropriate benefits, and is noted as a desired state of alternative corporate culture by a number of authors (Atchison 1999;Figura 2000;Pearse 2000).…”

Motivated reasoning during recruitment.

“…However, they are not consistent with typical hiring and compensation practices, usually featuring outcomes contingent on contributions and achievements. Employees' entitlement beliefs thus pose major problems for managers (Fisk, 2010) and warrant investigation of the sources of these beliefs.Although discussions of entitlement beliefs often center on millennials (Bisceglia, 2014;Twenge, 2006), some managers report equal or greater problems with entitlement beliefs in older employees (Mueller, 2012). Indeed, data suggest that millennials' sense of entitlement may not differ substantially from that of their older colleagues (Baird, 2015;Roberts, Edmonds, & Grijalva, 2010).…”