Workplace ostracism and employee silence: an identity-based perspective

Abstract

PurposeExtant research has shown that workplace ostracism (WO) elicits counterproductive work behaviors, such as employee silence (ES), culminating in reduced job performance. However, lesser is known about the factors that buffer against this underlying linkage. With an emphasis on conservation of resource (COR) theory and social identity theory, this study investigates the hitherto unexplored moderating roles of moral identification (MI) and organizational identification (OI) in the relationship between WO and ES.Design/methodology/approachThe study employed a time-lagged design to collect multi-source data from 250 employees working in the service sector organizations in Pakistan. Data are analyzed in SMARTPLS (v 3.3.3) to assess the measurement model and the structural model.FindingsResults reveal that WO is positively correlated with ES and negatively correlated with job performance. At the same time, ES mediates the negative relationship between WO and job performance. In addition, MI and OI buffer against the positive connection between WO and ES. The positive association between WO and ES is less pronounced at high levels of MI and OI and vice versa.Practical implicationsThe findings indicate that there is potential value in developing MI and OI, for which several interventions are discussed.Originality/valueThis study is one of the few efforts to outstretch the boundary conditions of ES. Moreover, this is the first study to investigate the role of identity-based perspective in the relationship between WO and ES.

Investigating employee silence in service organizations: A moderation analysis.

“…First, the study presents a valuable contribution to the organizational behavior literature by investigating the occurrence context of employee silence behaviors of employees in the service sector organizations in Pakistan. Although it has been noted that research investigating counterproductive work behaviors has been mounting over the last decade (Jahanzeb et al, 2020; Sahabuddin et al, 2021); however, despite prior studies exploring the antecedents of employee silence behaviors from different perspectives (Jahanzeb et al, 2020), there is a dearth of research that examine the interpersonal antecedents of employee silence (Sahabuddin et al, 2021). For instance, employee silence is a multidimensional construct; however, only a small sample of studies has investigated its interpersonal antecedents to predict all forms of employee silence, that is, acquiescence silence, defensive silence, and prosocial silence (e.g., Ayub et al, 2021).…”

“…Second, in addition to investigating the main effects of workplace ostracism on employee silence, the present study predicted the moderating roles of NRB, organizational identification, and moral identification on the above association. This study answered the call of Jahanzeb et al (2020); Sahabuddin et al (2021) to explore the boundary conditions under which employee silence is more or less likely to occur. As such, the second contribution of this study is to provide meaningful insights into the boundary effects of organizational identification and moral identification in the relationship between workplace ostracism and employee silence.…”

“…Specifically, in the context of workplace ostracism, ostracized employees hold a negative perception of their coworkers who directed workplace ostracism toward them (Zhao et al, 2016). This, in turn, instigates the ostracized employees to demonstrate negative work behaviors in reciprocation in the form of exhibiting counterproductive work behaviors, that is, to covertly take revenge on the person who causes strain (Sahabuddin et al, 2021). That is to say, to vent their negative emotions caused due to workplace ostracism, ostracized employees cause harm to their coworkers by manifesting employee silence behavior.…”

“…Second, the study responds to the call of Sahabuddin et al (2021) to expand the boundary conditions of employee silence, that is, under which employee silence is more or less likely to occur. The study draws on the negative reciprocity beliefs (NRB) and social identity theory (SIT, Ashforth & Mael, 1989; Tajfel & Turner, 1979) to explore the boundary effects of (a) NRB to strengthen the association between workplace ostracism and employee silence and (b) organizational identification and moral identification, to buffer the relationship between workplace ostracism and employee silence.…”

Evaluating the Effect of Organizational Justice on Turnover Intention in the Public Hospitals of Jordan: Mediated-Moderated Model of Employee Silence, Workplace Bullying, and Work Stress

“…People can also become silent and it can also permeate throughout society (Sahabuddin et al, 2021). According to Abdillah, Anita, and Zakaria in 2021 and Qian, Schreurs, and Jawahar in Consumers have a good desire to control their immediate environment and the decisions that have an impact on them (Chou & Chang, 2020).…”