Supervisor ostracism and defensive silence: a differential needs approach

Impact of internal identity asymmetry on employee's behaviors and feelings: A mediating role of psychological distress

Individuals may experience internal identity asymmetry when they feel misidentified and believe their colleagues do not recognize their work-related identities. This research examines the impact of internal identity asymmetry on their behavior and emotional outcomes at the workplace in Pakistan. Data was collected through a survey and received responses from 393 participants at different levels of management in various sectors of Pakistan. A partial least square-based structural equation modeling technique has been used to validate the proposed research model and develop hypotheses. The findings indicate that psychological distress has a positive indirect effect on both outcomes, such as individual work performance and well-being during personal and professional base asymmetries time. The result indicates that employees face psychological distress while experiencing internal identity asymmetries, which may decrease the performance and well-being of the employees. Findings highlight the importance of coping strategies in improving the performance and well-being of employees. Managers can be supportive in maintaining a positive workplace environment where individuals can have a more accurate self-perception and a better understanding of their colleagues' perspectives. This, in turn, enables them to adopt appropriate coping strategies to enhance both performance and well-being.

The Relationship Between Workplace Ostracism and Organizational Dehumanization: The Role of Need to Belong and its Outcomes

This research investigates whether experiencing workplace ostracism is positively related to employees' perceptions of organizational dehumanization, and examines one underlying mechanism of this relationship (i.e., thwarted need to belong), as well as its consequences for both employees and organizations. First, a cross-sectional study (N = 256) highlighted that workplace ostracism positively relates to organizational dehumanization which, in turn, is related to employees' well-being (i.e., increased depression), attitudes (i.e., decreased job satisfaction) and behaviors toward the organization (i.e., increased turnover intentions, decreased loyalty behaviors toward the organization). Second, an experimental study manipulating workplace ostracism using vignettes (N = 199) showed that workplace ostracism has a positive impact on organizational dehumanization, which subsequently relates to employees' decreased job satisfaction, increased turnover intentions, and decreased loyalty behaviors. Finally, a third cross-sectional study (N = 423) revealed that employees' thwarted need to belong mediates the relationship between workplace ostracism and organizational dehumanization, which is ultimately associated with employees' increased depression, decreased job satisfaction, increased turnover intentions, and decreased loyalty behaviors. Theoretical contributions, directions for future research and practical implications are discussed.

Workplace ostracism and employee wellbeing: A conservation of resource perspective

Introduction

As a common phenomenon of workplace ostracism in corporate management, it is urgent to clarify how it affects employee well-being.

Methods

Based on Conservation of Resource Theory, this study investigates the mechanisms of workplace ostracism on employee well-being and examines the mediating role of emotional exhaustion and the moderating role of team forgiveness climate by surveying 282 employees from 68 companies in mainland China.

Results

The results show that (1) workplace ostracism negatively affects employee well-being; (2) emotional exhaustion plays a mediating role between workplace ostracism and employee well-being; (3) team forgiveness climate weakens the negative effect of workplace ostracism on emotional exhaustion and negatively moderates the indirect effect of workplace ostracism on employee well-being through emotional exhaustion.

Discussion

It tries to provide theoretical basis and practical guidance for eliminating the negative effects of workplace ostracism and focusing on employee well-being.

Decent work and employee performance: a conservation of resources perspective

Purpose

Drawing on conservation of resources theory, this study explores the relationships of decent work (DW) with in-role performance (IRP) and organizational citizenship behavior toward the organization (OCBO) by focusing on the mediating role of career satisfaction (CS) and the moderating role of supervisor ostracism (SO).

Design/methodology/approach

Hypotheses were tested using latent moderated structural equations method with two-wave data from 376 employees in a South China industrial park.

Findings

DW is positively associated both directly and indirectly, via the mediation of CS, with IRP and OCBO; the positive relationship between DW and CS is negatively moderated by SO.

Practical implications

The findings show that employee performance can be improved by implementing discernible DW activities that foster CS, but that this effect can be weakened by SO. It is, therefore, critical to create a DW environment for employees and lessen the incidence of SO in the organization.

Originality/value

This research enriches the literature by addressing the previously unexplored relationship between DW and employee performance by focusing on the mediating role of CS and the moderating role of SO.

Why do academics hide knowledge after coworker ostracism? A moderated mediation model based on relational identification and perceived harming intention

Purpose

Coworker relationships are important in every organization and especially in higher educational institutions (HEIs); however, ostracism is one of the factors that deteriorate these relationships. This study aims to analyse the impact of coworker ostracism on coworker directed knowledge hiding through the mediating role of relational identification and the moderating role of perceived harming intention.

Design/methodology/approach

A total of 241 teaching faculty members working in HEIs of Lahore were surveyed. By using the bootstrapping technique, mediation and moderated mediation analysis was conducted via PROCESS models 4 and 7.

Findings

The results concluded that perceived harming intention moderates the indirect relationship between coworker ostracism and coworker-directed knowledge hiding through relational identification with coworkers. Such that when more harmful intention is perceived the impact of coworker ostracism on coworker-directed knowledge hiding through reduced relational identification would be stronger.

Practical implications

This study offers managerial implications for HEIs management and faculty for reducing coworker ostracism, improving relational identification and training about attribution techniques to minimize the impact of ostracism on knowledge hiding.

Originality/value

This study has complimented and augmented the research strand of ostracism and knowledge hiding research from emphasizing lateral workplace relationships. Intertwining the Conservation of Resources Theory with Attribution theory a novel insight into the above-stated association is illuminated through the mediating role of relational capital and moderating role of perceived harming intention.

Relations outside the workplace matter! A nexus of coworker ostracism, relational capital, alternate belongingness and knowledge hiding

Purpose

The current study aims to investigate the impact of coworker ostracism on coworker-directed knowledge hiding through the mediating role of relational social capital and moderating role of alternate belongingness in Pakistani higher educational settings.

Design/methodology/approach

A time-lagged study was carried out in which data from teaching and non-teaching faculty (N = 217) from the higher education sector of Lahore, Pakistan, were collected through multi-stage sampling. The collected data were analysed using moderated mediation analysis (PROCESS model 4 and 7).

Findings

The results revealed that ostracism from coworkers has an unfavourable impact on relational social capital that in turn promotes knowledge hiding. Nonetheless, if ostracized employees had sources to fulfil belongingness needs outside the work settings, this negative association was strengthened.

Originality/value

The authors have taken the role of belongingness outside the workplace in explaining the coworker ostracism and knowledge hiding relationship in higher educational settings and identified the explanatory role of relational social capital.

The impact of organizational ostracism on knowledge hiding: analysing the sequential mediating role of efficacy needs and psychological distress

Purpose

Drawing on the conservation of resources theory and need-threat model, this study aims to analyse the mediating role of efficacy needs (EN) and psychological distress (PD) on the relationship between workplace ostracism (WO) and knowledge hiding (KH) behaviour of employees.

Design/methodology/approach

Time-lagged data were collected from 225 employees working in the mobile telecommunication sector through online survey instruments prepared in light of past literature. SmartPLS3 was used to analyse the data.

Findings

The results obtained confirm the initial hypothesis that there exists a positive relationship between WO and KH. Furthermore, the results also established the sequential mediating roles of EN and PD between WO and KH behaviour of employees.

Originality/value

This study adds to the literature suggesting that WO represents a real threat to companies that aim to foster knowledge-sharing behaviours. Moreover, it reveals that EN and PD are two underlying mechanisms behind the baseline relationship.

Who is likely to hide knowledge after peer ostracism? An exchange-based perspective of contact quality and need to belong

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to uncover how peer ostracism (POS) elicits knowledge hiding directed towards ostracizing peers through the intervening role of peer contact quality (PCQ). Moreover, the authors aim to highlight the role of the need to belong (NTB) as a first-order boundary condition in direct and indirect hypothesized paths.

Design/methodology/approach

The research opted for a three-wave time-lagged survey design. The data were obtained from the 234 teaching and non-teaching employees working in Higher Educational Sector in Pakistan through random sampling. Mediation and moderated mediation analysis was done by using PROCESS Models 4 and 7.

Findings

The results embraced the mediation, moderation and moderated mediation hypotheses. It was noted that POS creates negative exchange relationships. As a result, the ostracized employees withhold knowledge from the predating peer. NTB served as a buffering agent between POS and PCQ, as well as, in the indirect POS, PCQ and peer-directed knowledge hiding relationship.

Practical implications

This research serves as a guideline for management and faculty of Higher Educational Institutions for minimization of POS to promote effective collegial contact quality and curb knowledge hiding.

Originality/value

Although the research in workplace ostracism and knowledge hiding is not new, yet how this association emerges from the viewpoint of peers is not known. This study has added to the literature by answering who is more likely to reciprocate ostracism from peers by having poor quality contact and directing knowledge hiding towards the predator. By this, the authors have added to the limited stream of moderated mediation mechanisms underlying ostracism and knowledge hiding behaviour. In addition, the authors have drawn attention to the importance of peer relationships in higher educational settings.

Consequences of Workplace Ostracism: A Meta-Analytic Review

Workplace ostracism, which is regarded as “social death,” is rampant in organizations and has attracted significant research attention. We extend the understanding of workplace ostracism by conducting a meta-analysis of studies of the relationships between workplace ostracism and its consequences. We also explore the moderating effects of national culture (i.e., collectivism vs. individualism) and the mediating effects of organization-based self-esteem (OBSE). The results of a meta-analysis of 95 independent samples (N = 26,767) reveal that exposure to workplace ostracism is significantly related to individuals’ attitudes, well-beings, and behaviors. Moreover, the effects of workplace ostracism on belongingness, job satisfaction, emotional exhaustion, organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) toward individuals (OCBI), organizational deviance, and interpersonal deviance are stronger in individualist contexts than in collectivist contexts. However, the relationships between workplace ostracism and organizational identification and OCB are stronger in collectivist contexts than in individualist contexts. Our meta-analytical structural equation modeling also provides evidence of the mediating effects of OBSE on the relationships between workplace ostracism and organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and job performance. The implications and limitations of our study and future research directions are also discussed.

Qualitative Study on the Toxic Triangle Integration of Leadership Ostracism

Leadership ostracism widely exists in all types of organizations, yet specific study regarding this trend is limited. With this study, we explore the influencing mechanisms of leadership ostracism through case interview based on literature analysis and grounded theory. Results show that leadership ostracism is the integration of a triadic interaction process between subordinate performance, leadership characteristics, and organizational environment. Based on Padilla's destructive leadership toxic triangle model, we constructed a toxic triangle model of leadership ostracism. Through comparison, we found that these two triad models overlap in the areas of narcissism and power consciousness of supervisors, the self-concept of subordinates, and the management system of situational factors, indicating that leadership ostracism is itself a type of destructive leadership. In addition, the uniqueness, and differences in leadership ostracism are reflected in the model, including stereotypes, and results orientation of supervisors, political skills, job performance, and cognitive style of subordinates, the power distance, Chaxu climate, and organizational politics of the situational elements. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed in the research field that provides prospects for future orientation.

Coping with workplace ostracism through ability-based emotional intelligence

Purpose

With a basis in the conservation of resource (COR) theory, this study examines the relationship between workplace ostracism and job performance while also investigating the mediating role of defensive silence and the moderating role of emotional intelligence.

Design/methodology/approach

The study uses a multisource, three-wave data collection technique to gather data from employees and their peers working in Pakistan's service sector organizations. Data are analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) (v 3.2.7) to assess the measurement model and the structural model.

Findings

The findings reveal that the perception of workplace ostracism provokes self-avoidance strategy, defensive silence, which attenuates job performance. However, defensive silence's mediating role is mitigated if employees can draw from their emotional intelligence ability, which induces a self-regulation mechanism that curbs workplace ostracism's negative consequences.

Practical implications

The study demonstrates how employees in collectivist, high-power distance cultural settings may strategically choose silence by exercising emotional intelligence to enhance job performance.

Originality/value

This study is one of the few efforts that examined defensive silence in non-Western cultural settings. This is also the first study that examined emotional intelligence's role in the proposed moderated mediation framework.

Silence and proactivity in managing supervisor ostracism: implications for creativity

Purpose

Anchored in a social control theory framework, this study aims to investigate the mediating effect of defensive silence in the relationship between employees' perception of supervisor ostracism and their creative performance, as well as the buffering role of proactivity in this process.

Design/methodology/approach

The hypotheses were tested using three-wave survey data collected from employees in North American organizations.

Findings

The authors found that an important reason for supervisor ostracism adversely affecting employee creativity is their observance of defensive silence. This mechanism, in turn, is less prominent among employees who show agency and change-oriented behavior (i.e. proactivity).

Practical implications

For practitioners, this study identifies defensive silence as a key mechanism through which supervisor ostracism hinders employee creativity. Further, this process is less likely to escalate when their proactivity makes them less vulnerable to experience such social exclusion.

Originality/value

This study establishes a more complete understanding of the connection between supervisor ostracism and employee creativity, with particular attention to mediating mechanism of defensive silence and the moderating role of proactivity in this relationship.

Prevention of occupational injuries and accidents: A social capital perspective

Prior research has consistently established the pragmatic nature of literature regarding occupational injuries and accidental happenings faced by nursing professionals. However, current realities require a subjective approach to identify preventative measures that could influence occupational health and safety in healthcare sectors. A qualitative design followed a descriptive approach to assess unbiased opinions towards occupational obstructions that lead to accidental happenings. This study used the social capital framework in particular as a support resource to eliminate its detrimental effects on nurse's capacity to serve their patients. The findings extended the fundamental understanding of social capital from social ties to workplace and personal ties as potential mechanisms of support. Healthcare organizations need to redefine their control policies to provide the ultimate support to their care agents. A social capital model offers nursing practitioners and nursing managers an approach for building evidence-based policies with implications for nurse's safety, education and training.

Leadership Ostracism Behaviors From the Target's Perspective: A Content and Behavioral Typology Model Derived From Interviews With Chinese Employees

Leadership ostracism denotes a severe work stressor, potentially entailing more serious negative effects than other types of workplace ostracism. However, scholars have paid relatively little attention to ostracism carried out by leaders, leaving the phenomenon insufficiently accounted for in the literature. Hence, the present study aims to explore the content and typology of leadership ostracism behavior by in-depth interviews and inductive analyses based on grounded theory, in order to give a thorough presentation and description of the leadership ostracism concept as perceived and construed by Chinese subordinates. Respondents were invited using a snowball sampling technique, and the final sample consisted of 26 individuals employed in different Chinese firms. Based on the reported experience of the interviewees, 11 concrete leadership ostracism behaviors emerged from the data. Further analyses revealed a leadership ostracism behavioral typology model reflecting five core categories, i.e., general ignoring, neglect, exclusion, differential treatment, and undermining. These findings appear to partly replicate and partly expand on previous conceptualizations of workplace ostracism, indicating that leadership ostracism may reflect a distinct variant of the phenomenon, eligible to be studied in its own right. The present study also discusses certain culture-specific aspects of leadership ostracism that can be taken into consideration in future studies.

Workplace ostracism and discretionary work effort: A conditional process analysis

Drawing on affective events theory (AET) and workplace incivility spiral, this study tested a conditional process model to explain, when and how, affective workplace events (workplace ostracism and workplace incivility) affect employees’ emotions and work effort. Data for this cross-sectional study were collected via an online survey from 251 employees at three public sector universities in Quetta, Pakistan. Results indicated that both ostracism and incivility encumber work effort, and that one way via which ostracism negatively affects work effort is by provoking targets’ negative affect (NA). Results also revealed that workplace incivility exacerbated positive relationship of ostracism and NA such that this relationship was stronger when incivility was high and weaker when incivility was low. Moreover, the indirect effects of ostracism on work effort were also contingent on workplace incivility. Practical implications are discussed at the end.