Perceived organizational politics and workplace gossip: the moderating role of compassion

Abstract

Purpose This study aims to examine perceived organizational politics (POP) as an antecedent to workplace gossip. While the commonly held belief is that POP is consequential to the existence of negative workplace gossip, an alternate hypothesis can be that POP may predict positive workplace gossip as well. The study further explores the role of compassion as a boundary condition in the relationship of POP with negative and positive valences of workplace gossip. Design/methodology/approach Using purposive sampling technique, the data were collected through time-lagged (two-wave) surveys from employees working in private (Study 1, n = 366) and public (Study 2, n = 206) sector organizations across India, and analyzed using SPSS AMOS 27 and PROCESS Macro (Model 1). Findings The results of Study 1 and Study 2 revealed that POP correlated positively with negative as well as positive workplace gossip. Further, it was found that compassion moderated the relationship of POP with negative workplace gossip but failed to moderate in the case of positive workplace gossip in both the studies. Practical implications This study makes practitioners aware of the ubiquity of the phenomenon of workplace gossip and encourages them to embrace gossip in the workplace rather than banishing it altogether. Originality/value This study delineates the link between POP and the valences of workplace gossip that remains unexplored in the literature. The study also takes into account the intervening role of compassion in the aforementioned relationships. The striking results of the study open new realms of research possibilities not only in the field of workplace gossip, but POP and compassion as well.

Cost of organizational citizenship behaviors: serial mediation model of citizenship fatigue

“…Employees who are forcibly asked to devote extra energy enhance citizenship fatigue among employees (De Clercq et al, 2021). According to the COR theory, employees continually want to acquire new resources, as they have limited resources (Khan et al, 2023e;Moon and Morais, 2022). If they are unsuccessful, then they are more likely to suffer unfavorable consequences (Chen et al, 2023;Haider and Yean, 2023).…”

“…From the COR perspective, when employees invest their valuable resources, they tend to have the feeling that their resources are not lost or that further depletion of resources is prevented (Khan et al, 2023e;Zhang et al, 2023); thus, negative consequences are reduced. Similarly, individuals who have such personality traits will face lower levels of citizenship fatigue, as they either work excessively or compulsively (Ong and Kou, 2023), and such a personality aspect serves as a resource for them (Alqhaiwi and Luu, 2023), which prevents the negative consequences of work-family conflict.…”

The background of restaurant employees’ revenge intention: supervisor incivility, organizational gossip, and blaming others

“…In response, employees become more likely to gossip (Houmanfar and Johnson, 2004). Empirical research has shown that organizational gossip is associated with anger and shame (Zong et al , 2023), perceived organizational politics, compassion (Khan and Chaudhary, 2023), employees’ mental health and psychological capital (Cheng et al , 2023). Organizational gossip has a negative relationship with organizational identity (Xie et al , 2022) and threat to self-respect and a positive relationship with supervisor civility and psychological distress (Ye et al , 2022).…”

“…Thus, employees who are harmed by gossip can be expected to reciprocate through revenge. Empirical research on organizational gossip has focused on the effects such as perceived organizational politics (Khan and Chaudhary, 2023), such premises as revenge, organizational citizenship behavior (Martinescu et al , 2021), organizational identity (Ye et al , 2019), job engagement and burn out (Georganta et al , 2014). However, almost no studies have examined how employees react to negative gossip.…”

Peeling Away the Layers of Workplace Gossip: A Framework, Review, and Future Research Agenda to Study Workplace Gossip as a Dynamic and Complex Behavior

“…As shown in Table 1, more than half of the reviewed studies explored the consequences of workplace gossip (e.g., [66,127]), and only about a quarter of the studies examined antecedents of workplace gossip (e.g., [44,56]). Most studies used either time-lagged (e.g., [71,103]) or cross-sectional designs (e.g., [69,115]).…”