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

Abstract

PurposeThe 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/approachA 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).FindingsThe 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/valueThe 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.

Exclusion or insult at the workplace: responses to ostracism through employee's efficacy and relational needs with psychological capital

“…Likewise, Jahanzeb et al (2023), Liu et al (2023) and Bhatti et al (2023) proved that ostracized employees from supervisors may think that they do not fulfill the efficacy needs (power and meaningful existence) to be required to accomplish a task as they lack autonomy due to ostracism. From the transactional coping model, separating emotionally from coworkers would theoretically prevent relational needs from the workplace (Fatima et al, 2021(Fatima et al, , 2023. This puts us on the track that the higher the perception of the target nursing staff that Exclusion or insult at workplace goes through the supervisors' and co-workers' ostracisms and considers that they are conscious of their unfavorable attitudes and attempts to address the efficacy and relational needs of the target to respond.…”

“…Researchers have consistently focused on investigating the association between ostracism and relational needs (S€ oy€ uk et al, 2019), such that the individuals who experience social exclusion are likely to detach themselves from the workplace. From the transactional coping model, separating emotionally from co-workers would theoretically prevent relational needs from the workplace (Fatima et al, 2021(Fatima et al, , 2023. The above mentioned research evidences the negative association between co-workers' ostracism and employee relational needs.…”

“…Extant literature has indicated that the presence of co-workers' ostracism intends to dysfunctional the relational needs of the employees at the workplace through different responses, i.e. emotional, psychological and behavioral responses (Ayub et al, 2021;David and Shih, 2023;Dewald-Kaufmann et al, 2021;Tyndall et al, 2018;Wang et al, 2023;Fatima et al, 2023). Therefore, we propose the following hypothesis:…”

Workplace ostracism as an antecedent to workplace envy: the mediating roles of metacognitive resources and dimensions of social perception

“…Ostracism is identified as being ignored or excluded by individuals or groups, being treated as invisible or having one's existence denied by others (Fatima et al, 2022). Examples of ostracism in the workplace include refusing to invite a coworker to lunch or neglecting a coworker's suggestions at meetings (Robinson et al, 2013;Balliet and Ferris, 2013).…”