Dealing With Negative Workplace Gossip: From the Perspective of Face

Exploring Mianzi consciousness congruence and its impact on unethical pro-organizational behavior

BACKGROUND

In Chinese culture, the concept of Mianzi holds significant importance in interpersonal interactions. Mianzi represents one's social standing, dignity, and reputation, influencing behaviors and decisions within various contexts. Mianzi consciousness manifests in two primary forms: proactive and defensive. Proactive Mianzi consciousness involves efforts to enhance one's social image, while defensive Mianzi consciousness focuses on protecting one's existing reputation. Analyzing the impact of the two Mianzi consciousness dimensions on individuals' attitudes and behaviors is effective for understanding interpersonal dynamics in China. This study specifically examined the relationship between high Mianzi consciousness congruence and unethical pro-organizational behavior (UPB). UPB refers to actions taken by employees that are intended to benefit their organization but are unethical or morally questionable. By investigating how congruence in proactive and defensive Mianzi consciousness influences the likelihood of engaging in UPB, this research aimed to uncover the underlying social and psychological mechanisms driving such behavior.

METHODS

Employing polynomial regression and response surface analysis method, this study developed a model that combines the proactive Mianzi consciousness and the defensive Mianzi consciousness into different Mianzi management strategies and tested the relationship between high Mianzi consciousness congruence and UPB.

RESULTS

Sample data collected at two time points one month apart supported all hypotheses. Specifically, the findings revealed that high levels of Mianzi consciousness congruence (i.e., all-around type in Mianzi management strategies) positively relate to UPB, and verified the mediation effect of external work locus of control and the moderation effect of relational psychological contract.

CONCLUSION

This research advanced a novel, synergistic perspective on the role of social Mianzi and contributed to the localized UPB research, thus helping to find a path to prevent UPB from occurring in the Chinese sociocultural context.

Negative workplace gossip and turnover intention among Chinese rural preschool teachers: The mediation of ego depletion and the moderation of bianzhi

INTRODUCTION

In China, the high turnover rates of teachers have become one of the biggest obstacles to the development of rural preschool education. Objective: Based on the social information processing theory and the strength model of selfcontrol, this study examined the relationship between negative workplace gossip and turnover intention and the role of ego depletion and bianzhi in this relationship.

METHODS

The questionnaire method was applied, and 411 rural preschool teachers in Hubei Province, China, participated in the survey.

RESULTS

The correlation results showed that negative workplace gossip was positively correlated with ego depletion, and ego depletion was positively correlated with turnover intention. After controlling for age, negative workplace gossip positively predicted turnover intention. The mediation analysis indicated that ego depletion played a mediating role in the relationship between negative workplace gossip and turnover intention. Moreover, the mediation effect was moderated by bianzhi. Negative workplace gossip had a stronger effect on the ego depletion of teachers without bianzhi than on that of teachers with bianzhi.

CONCLUSION

The current research is the first to clarify that ego depletion mediates the relationship between negative workplace gossip and turnover intention, and the mediation effect is moderated via bianzhi. These findings expand our understanding of the influential factors and formation mechanisms of turnover intention. In practice, this study provides a novel perspective for policymakers and administrators to reduce the turnover intention among rural preschool teachers in China.

Why and how targets’ negative workplace gossip exhort knowledge hiding? Shedding light on organizational justice

Purpose

Extant scholars identified negative workplace gossip as a social stressor that negatively influences employees’ behavior and attitude. Despite the burgeoning interest in workplace stressors, limited studies have explored how the detrimental consequences of targets’ perceived negative workplace gossip spur their emotions and behaviors. Grounding on conservation of resources and ego depletion theories, this study aims to investigate why and how targets’ negative workplace gossip may contribute to trigger knowledge hiding. Specifically, the authors explore the underlying mechanism of personal ego depletion and boundary conditions of organizational justice to shed new light on the above process.

Design/methodology/approach

Using two time-wave survey, the authors collected 340 sample data from employees working in high-tech companies of China. Hierarchical regression analysis was used to examine hypothesized relationships of moderated mediation model.

Findings

The empirical results revealed that negative workplace gossip exacerbates knowledge hiding by increasing personal ego depletion. Furthermore, through testing moderated mediation model, the results showed that organizational justice (i.e. distributive and procedural justice) with the low presence moderates the stronger strength of the linkage between negative workplace gossip and personal ego depletion, and likewise, it also moderates the stronger effect of negative workplace gossip on knowledge hiding via personal ego depletion.

Practical implications

This study recommends several guidelines for managers and practitioners to mitigate negative gossip by strengthening organizational justice.

Originality/value

This study first enriches novel understanding in the literature between negative workplace gossip and knowledge hiding by using a new emotional mechanism (i.e. personal ego depletion). This research also contributes new insights by incorporating contextual boundary conditions (i.e. organizational justice) that have not been yet researched on negative gossip and knowledge hiding linkage.

Brokering or Sitting Between Two Chairs? A Group Perspective on Workplace Gossip

Brokerage is a central concept in the organization literature. It has been argued that individuals in broker positions—i.e., connecting otherwise disconnected parts within a firm’s social network—can control the flow of information. It would imply their increased relevance in workplace gossip. This allegation, however, has not been addressed empirically yet. To fill this gap, we apply social network analysis techniques to relational data from six organizations in Hungary. First, we identify informal groups and individuals in broker positions. Then, we use this information to predict the likelihood with which positive or negative gossip is reported. We find more gossip when the sender and receiver are part of the same group and more positive gossip about in-group rather than out-group targets. Individuals in broker positions are more likely the senders and targets of negative gossip. Finally, even if both the brokers and the boss(es) are the targets of their colleagues’ negative gossip, the combination of the two categories (bosses in broker positions) does not predict more negative gossip anymore. Results are discussed in relation to the theoretical accounts on brokerage that emphasize its power for information control but fail to recognize the pitfalls of being in such positions.

Have You Heard That-"GOSSIP"? Gossip Spreads Rapidly and Influences Broadly

This study examines the impact of negative workplace gossip (NWG) on employee political acts (PA) and the role of ego depletion (ED) as a mediator. We also examined the indirect impact of NWG on PA through ED controlled by emotional intelligence (EI). A three-wave time-lagged study (paper-pencil based) was performed with 277 employees from various private organisations in Islamabad, Pakistan. The current data were gathered in three phases to reduce common method bias. Study results indicate that NWG positively affects employees' PA. The authors also found ED as a potential mediator in the association between NWG and PA. In addition, the results also indicate the indirect effect of NWG on targets' PA via ED is reduced by targets' EI, with the result that this connection is weak when targets' EI is high. Because this research is limited to a single region of Pakistan, particularly Islamabad, its findings cannot be comprehensive. Future studies should use a larger sample size to accomplish the same study. Future studies may include more organisations (that is, Public) to conduct a comparative analysis of the public and private sectors. This article, based on the affective events theory (AET), argues that EI should be utilised to mitigate the effects of NWG. Along with our significant and relevant theoretical contributions, we provide novel insights into the body of knowledge on how managers may prevent or minimise such PA. The current study results support all direct and indirect hypothesised connections, with important implications for theory and practice. A review of the existing literature indicates that EI may be associated with a reduction in employees' ED; however, EI has not been used as a moderator in mitigating the influence of NWG, ED, and PA in the past.