The Antecedents And Consequences Of Workplace Ostracism

Workplace ostracism is one of the most popular deviant behaviors in the field of organizational management.Distinct from other workplace deviant behaviors,workplace ostracism refers to the extent to which an individual perceives that he or she is ignored or excluded by others at work.Its uniqueness lies in that ostracism is the neglect or rejection of positive interactions,which is a common occurrence in the workplace.Quite literally,being ostracized is a painful and threatening experience.In the past 10 years above,research has shown that workplace ostracism has a negative impact on employees’ psychological states,emotions,attitudes,behaviors and performance,and its harmful effects even extend from the work to the home.Given its power,it is no surprise that ostracism is a popular research topic,and the study of ostracism in the workplace has particularly grown and achieved abundant research outputs in recent years.This dissertation conducts a bibliometric review and provides an objective visualization of the development of workplace ostracism at home and abroad(using the scientific visualization tool Cite Space and R),and theoretical review also shows that some potential antecedents and consequences of workplace ostracism remains unknown.In terms of antecedents,research just investigated a scattered body of the antecedents,such as five personality traits,job characteristics,leadership and so on.Regarding “why and how does workplace ostracism happen?” is still poorly understood.In terms of consequences,scholars have relatively rich studies on the negative effects of workplace ostracism.However,regarding “how do employees cope with workplace ostracism? And do different coping styles have a negative and positive dual path effect? Research on this research question has not yet provided a definitive answer.In response to the above two major research questions,this dissertation examines the antecedents,consequences,and mechanisms of workplace ostracism beginning with “Who gets ostracized?”,“How does workplace ostracism occur?” and “How to cope with workplace ostracism?”.First,who gets ostracized? This dissertation further investigates from the perspective of personality traits whether the Dark Triad are more likely to be ostracized by others at work.Second,how does workplace ostracism occur? This dissertation explores how dark personality traits trigger workplace ostracism,that is,investigating the mediating role of self-serving cognitions and the moderating role of collectivism orientation.Last,how to cope with workplace ostracism? This dissertation focuses on the avoidance and approach effects of workplace ostracism on work-related outcomes,that is,exposure to workplace ostracism elicits work-related rumination(i.e.,affective rumination and problem-solving pondering),which will have a negative and positive impact on employees’ work engagement and help-seeking behavior,and the moderating role of task mastery.This dissertation conducted three studies,including an experimental study(i.e.,study 1)and two multi-wave field studies(i.e.,study 2 and study 3).In study 1,we test for the causal effect of perceived target Machiavellianism,narcissism,psychopathy on ostracism intentions.Participants were recruited online via We Chat and the final sample consisted of 328 participants.In study 2 and study 3,we collected three waves of data through snowball sampling on We Chat.At Time 1,463 participants participated and completed measures of Machiavellianism,narcissism,psychopathy,self-serving cognitions,collectivism orientation,and reported demographic information.At Time 2(one month later),345 participants continued the second questionnaire survey,completing measures of workplace ostracism,affective rumination,problem-solving pondering,task mastery and reporting demographic information,and finally got 239 valid questionnaires with a response rate of 51.62%;At Time 3(two months later),330 participants continued the third questionnaire survey,completing measures of work engagement and help-seeking behavior and reporting demographic information,and finally got 203 valid questionnaires with a response rate of 58.84%.For the collected valid data,this dissertation uses SPSS 22.0and Mplus 8.0 to conduct statistical analyses and test research hypotheses.Results show as following:(1)Individuals with higher levels of Machiavellianism,narcissism,and psychopathy were more likely to be ostracized by others.(2)Machiavellianism had significant positive direct effects on workplace ostracism,while narcissism and psychopathy had no significant positive direct effects on workplace ostracism.self-serving cognitions mediated the relationships between Machiavellianism,narcissism,psychopathy and workplace ostracism,that is,employees with Machiavellianism,narcissism,and psychopathy often showed self-serving cognitions,which leaded to the occurrence of workplace ostracism.And collectivism orientation moderated the positive relationship between self-serving cognitions and workplace ostracism,such that relationship was weaker when employees’ collectivism orientation was high rather than low.(3)Workplace ostracism had a significant positive impact on affective rumination and problem-solving pondering.Affective rumination had a significant negative impact on work engagement,and problem-solving pondering had a significant positive impact on work engagement and help-seeking behavior.Affective rumination mediated the relationship between workplace ostracism and work engagement.And task mastery moderated the positive relationship between workplace ostracism and problem-solving pondering,such that the relationship was stronger when task mastery was high rather than low.And the indirect effect of workplace ostracism on help-seeking behavior via problem-solving pondering was significant when task mastery was high rather than low.In addition,task mastery moderated the positive relationship between workplace ostracism and affective rumination,such that the relationship was stronger when task mastery was high rather than low.And the indirect effect of workplace ostracism on work engagement via affective rumination was significant when task mastery was high rather than low,yet contrary to the hypothesis.This dissertation makes several important theoretical contributions to the literature.First,this research firstly investigated the influence of three dark personality traits(i.e.,Machiavellianism,narcissism,and psychopathy)on workplace ostracism,which not only extends the literature on the relationship between personality traits and workplace ostracism,but also enriches the literature on the relationship between personality and workplace deviant behaviors.Second,this research further deepens the internal mechanism of dark personality traits on workplace ostracism,and identifies the mediating role of self-serving cognitions and the moderating role of collectivism orientation,which not only contributes to the literature of self-serving cognitions and collectivism orientation,but also help us gain a better understanding about the antecedents of workplace ostracism.Third,this research reveals the “black box” of negative and positive effects of workplace ostracism,which enables us to have a more comprehensive understanding of the effects of workplace ostracism,and highlight the need to consider the potential bright side of workplace ostracism.In the workplace,ostracism is a pervasive phenomenon and a painful source of stress in relationships.In this paper,to clarify the antecedents,consequences,and internal mechanisms of workplace ostracism,some implications for practice lie in making us know and understand the whole process of workplace ostracism more clearly and putting forward constructive suggestions,which can help reduce workplace ostracism in organizations and create a more harmonious workplace atmosphere.