When and Why Do Good People Not Do Good Deeds? Third-Party Observers’ Unfavorable Reactions to Negative Workplace Gossip

Xing, Zhou; Fan, Lele; Cheng, Cong; Fan, Yancheng

doi:10.1007/s10551-020-04470-z

Cited by 31 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 73 publications

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“…Although the impacts of service-oriented OCB on the observers are indirect effects, they often reflect the “majority effect” in reality, ie, the third parties are usually the majority, but the behavior recipients may be the minority. 15 …”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Paradoxical Effects of the Contagion of Service-Oriented Organizational Citizenship Behavior

Guo¹,

Yu²,

Mu³

et al. 2022

PRBM

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Purpose Previous research on the service-oriented organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) of employees has mainly focused on the examination of its driving factors, and has ignored the consequences that it may bring to the workplace. To bridge this research gap, by shifting the focus to the event observers, a double-edged sword model is constructed in the present study, which helps explain whether, when, and why the service-oriented OCB of coworkers is contagious. Methodology Multi-wave data of 239 employees from seven service-oriented companies in the hospitality industry in central and southwestern China were used to support the proposed model. The time-lag method and critical incident techniques were introduced during the data collection stage. OLS regression and the bootstrapping method were employed for hypothesis testing. Findings Drawing on attribution theory, it is argued that the contagion (vs non-contagion) effects of service-oriented OCB work through the dual cognitive pathways (hypocrisy perception vs serving self-efficacy) of observers, which depend on the self-serving attribution of the observers to the behaviors of their coworkers. Specifically, when the self-serving attribution of observers is high, the service-oriented OCB of their coworkers is positively associated with the hypocrisy perception of the observers, which in turn inhibits their own service-oriented OCB. In contrast, when the self-serving attribution of observers is low, the service-oriented OCB of their coworkers is positively associated with the serving self-efficacy of the observers, which in turn promotes their service-oriented OCB. This framework provides a valuable theoretical explanation perspective and empirical evidence for the exploration of how service-oriented OCB affects observers.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Paradoxical Effects of the Contagion of Service-Oriented Organizational Citizenship Behavior

Guo¹,

Yu²,

Mu³

et al. 2022

PRBM

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“…Our work reveals the impact of abusive supervision on another important group in the workplace, which is not only a useful supplement to the research on abusive supervision from a third-party perspective, but also a positive response to previous scholars’ calls for research from multiple perspectives ( Harris et al, 2013 ; Tepper et al, 2017 ). This perspective has certain practical significance, because although the impact of abusive supervision on third parties is an indirect effect, in reality, it is often a “majority effect,” that is, usually the third party is the majority, and the behavior recipient (employes being abused) may be the minority ( Zhou et al, 2020 ). In short, our theoretical model has certain reference significance for understanding whether, how, and when peer abusive supervision will bring negative impacts to the third party.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cyberloafing to Escape From the “Devil”: Investigating the Impact of Abusive Supervision From the Third-Party Perspective

et al. 2022

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PurposePrevious studies on cyberloafing focus on individual and organization factors, ignoring the situation of employes as the event observers. Drawing on affective events theory (AET), the present study proposed a theoretical model for the relationships among peer abusive supervision, negative affectivity, cyberloafing, and hostile attribute bias, which aims to bridge the above research gap.MethodologyMultiwave data of 355 employes from 8 service-oriented companies in Southwest China supported our model. Time-lag method and critical incident techniques were introduced during the data collection stage. Ordinary least squares (OLS) regression and bootstrapping method were employed for hypothesis test.FindingsThe empirical results indicated that peer abusive supervision was positively related to third party’s cyberloafing, and the third party’s negative affectivity plays a mediating role among the above relationships. In addition, the third party’s hostile attribution bias moderated the mediating role of third party’s negative affectivity. Specifically, the effect of peer abusive supervision on third party’s negative affectivity and the mediating effect of this negative affectivity were stronger when the third party’s hostile attribution bias was higher.OriginalityDrawing on AET, the current study constructed a process model of third party’s cyberloafing reactions to peer abusive supervision, which helps explain the affective mechanism and the boundary conditions of the above “events-affectivity-behavior” path. Our model is a positive response to previous scholars’ calls for research of abusive supervision from multiple perspectives. Meanwhile, the current study explored the antecedent variable of cyberloafing from the perspective of event observers, which provides a theoretical basis for follow-up-related research. Thirdly, this study further expanded the theoretical boundaries of AET.

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“…Therefore, this result, on one hand, verifies the view of previous scholars that self-monitoring, as a personality trait, could be used to effectively deal with workplace gossip (e.g., Xie et al, 2019 ); on the other, it also provides us with insights, that is, it may be able to restrain the targets from engaging in negative gossip. Existing studies on the boundary mechanisms of gossip have generally focused on the following aspects: situational characteristics, e.g., organizational change, uncertainty, and ambiguity (Mills, 2010 ); job social support (Tian et al, 2019 ); work-unit cohesiveness (Loughry and Tosi, 2008 ); civility climates (Li et al, 2019 ), gossip characteristics, e.g., gossip veracity (Dores Cruz et al, 2019a ); statue of target (Ellwardt et al, 2012 ); relationships in gossip triad; content of gossip (Tassiello et al, 2018 ; Giardini and Wittek, 2019 ), cognitions, e.g., traditionality (Wu X. et al, 2018 ); just world beliefs (Zhou et al, 2020 ); reputational concerns (Martinescu et al, 2019a , b ); creative self-efficacy (Zhou et al, 2019 ); trustworthiness (Lee and Barnes, 2020 ); perceived insider status (Kim et al, 2019 ), and emotions, e.g., negative affectivity (Wu L. Z. et al, 2018 ), all of which have made outstanding contributions to the boundary mechanisms of gossip. However, at the same time, we notice that the research on personality traits is still insufficient.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dealing With Negative Workplace Gossip: From the Perspective of Face

Zong

Zhang

et al. 2021

Front. Psychol.

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In this study, we investigate the coping response of individuals who are being gossiped about. Drawing on face research and affective events theory, we propose that employees who are targets of negative gossip will actively respond to the gossip about them via engagement in negative gossip themselves. The findings showed that negative workplace gossip stimulated fear of losing face and led to subsequent behavioral responses, namely, engaging in negative gossip. Moreover, self-monitoring, as a moderating mechanism, mitigated the negative impacts of negative workplace gossip on the targets. We discuss theoretical implications for gossip research and note its important practical implications.

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When and Why Do Good People Not Do Good Deeds? Third-Party Observers’ Unfavorable Reactions to Negative Workplace Gossip

Cited by 31 publications

References 73 publications

The Paradoxical Effects of the Contagion of Service-Oriented Organizational Citizenship Behavior

The Paradoxical Effects of the Contagion of Service-Oriented Organizational Citizenship Behavior

Cyberloafing to Escape From the “Devil”: Investigating the Impact of Abusive Supervision From the Third-Party Perspective

Dealing With Negative Workplace Gossip: From the Perspective of Face

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