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Organisational ranking and the concept of allocated ‘place’ in organisational hierarchy are powerful yet relatively unexplored dynamics in organisational life. While the intensity of our awareness of organisational rank will vary individually, we all carry an instinctive sense of our own and others' place in the hierarchical order. There can be strong and punitive reactions, often resulting in envious attacks, to a perceived disturbance in this implicit ranking order, yet there is little overt discussion or exploration of these concerns that nonetheless play a considerable role in below surface organisational dynamics.
This paper seeks to explore two main areas in relation to the envious attack: first, our concerns with organisational ranking, making the link between these preoccupations, and the prevalence of envious attacks in organisational life - what happens when someone ‘doesn't know their place’. There is also, second, an examination of how shame intersects with the manifestation of envy and a delineation of how the envious attack can be understood, not solely as a malign attack on goodness or creativity, but within the psychodynamic framework of an organisational defence against anxiety - in this case, the anxiety of the experience of shame and perceived deficit. The envious attack is conceptualised as an unconscious or conscious defence against unbearable feelings of shame and deficit.