High performers are key assets to organizations. While research has explored the social consequences of the presence of high performers from their peers’ perspective, little attention has been given to how they respond to these social interactions. Drawing upon the dominance-prestige framework of social rank and cognitive appraisal theory, we hypothesize that high performers experiencing social undermining from peers are more likely to engage in dominance-based status striving, whereas those encountering social support are more inclined to pursue status through prestige-based strategies. Using a multi-source, longitudinal survey of 196 employees and 49 leaders in a Chinese semiconductor firm, our results reveal that employee relative performance is positively associated with interpersonal dominance through dominance-based status striving when high levels of social undermining are perceived. Additionally, prestige-based status striving is positively linked to knowledge sharing, but no support was found for the interaction between relative performance and perceived social support in relation to prestige-based status striving. This study offers novel insights into the interpersonal dynamics of high performers, emphasizing how their status striving behaviors are shaped by peer reactions and highlighting the nuanced ways in which high performers navigate social influence and organizational hierarchies.
