This paper aims to investigate how workplace ostracism acts as a motive behind customer service sabotage. We examine the role of stress as a meditating variable along with the moderation of perceived organizational support (POS) on the said association by using conservation of resources and equity theory. 217 nurses from hospitals of southern Punjab region in Pakistan participated in the study. Data was collected through survey and structured questionnaires. SPSS and AMOS were used to analyze data with latest techniques of (...) bootstrapping and process macros. The results showed that stress mediated between the association of workplace ostracism and service sabotage behavior. Perceived organizational support was confirmed as a moderator between this relationship. POS buffered the harmful effects of ostracism and stress on customer service, as POS demonstrates to personnel that they are cherished and respected by the organization which lessens the strength of perceived stress due to workplace ostracism. Organizational leadership should take advantage from stress-alleviating effect of POS, which is important in producing adequate levels of work-performance. (shrink)

Workplace ostracism is a prevalent and painful experience. The majority of studies focus on negative outcomes of ostracism, with less work examining employees’ potential adaptive responses to it. Further, scholars have suggested that such responses depend on employee attributions, yet little research has taken an attributional perspective on workplace ostracism. Drawing on sociometer theory and attribution theory we develop and test a model that investigates why and under what circumstances ostracized employees engage in adaptive responses to ostracism. Specifically, we argue (...) that ostracized employees feel greater levels of shame and, in turn, are motivated to engage in greater ingratiation behavior toward their ostracizers. However, we predict that perceptions of ostracizers’ competence and warmth shape different attributional processes, which influence the degree to which the ostracized employee experience shame and, in turn, is motivated to engage in ingratiation behavior. Results of a three-wave, time-lagged survey support our prediction that shame mediates the relationship between coworker ostracism and ingratiation behavior. Moreover, results support our three-way interaction, such that coworkers who report higher levels of ostracism and who perceive their coworkers as more (vs. less) competent and more (vs. less) warm report higher shame, and, in turn, ingratiation behavior. Theoretical and practical implications, as well as avenues for future research, are discussed. (shrink)

This study investigates why and when employees’ observations of supervisors’ ostracism of coworkers elicit their own feelings of guilt. In this connection, observers’ silence might function as a mediator, and leader–member exchange quality could moderate the process. The tests of these predictions rely on two studies, undertaken in Pakistan: a temporally separated field study using three-wave data (N = 219) and a scenario-based experiment (N = 118). The combined results indicate that employees feel guilty for remaining silent when they witness (...) supervisor ostracism of other colleagues. The positive relationship between such observations of supervisor ostracism and silence behavior is more pronounced among employees who enjoy high-quality relationships with their supervisor. In addition to establishing key theoretical insights, this article alerts organizations to a critical mechanism (silence to avoid upsetting supervisors) by which employees’ observations of how supervisors ostracize others can escalate into their own sense of guilt. (shrink)

Integrating victim precipitation theory with the belongingness perspective of work meaningfulness, this study investigates the interplay among employee perceived overqualification, peer overqualification, and peer ostracism and examines how peer ostracism, in turn, leads to subsequent reduced work meaningfulness. In Study 1, a time-lagged field study of 282 employees, we found that employees who felt overqualified, while working with peers who were less overqualified, experienced more ostracism, which was associated with reduced levels of work meaningfulness. These findings were replicated in Study (...) 2, using time-lagged multi-source data collected from 300 employees working in 51 teams. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings and identify directions for future research. (shrink)