Coping with workplace ostracism through ability-based emotional intelligence

Abstract

Purpose

With a basis in the conservation of resource (COR) theory, this study examines the relationship between workplace ostracism and job performance while also investigating the mediating role of defensive silence and the moderating role of emotional intelligence.

Design/methodology/approach

The study uses a multisource, three-wave data collection technique to gather data from employees and their peers working in Pakistan's service sector organizations. Data are analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) (v 3.2.7) to assess the measurement model and the structural model.

Findings

The findings reveal that the perception of workplace ostracism provokes self-avoidance strategy, defensive silence, which attenuates job performance. However, defensive silence's mediating role is mitigated if employees can draw from their emotional intelligence ability, which induces a self-regulation mechanism that curbs workplace ostracism's negative consequences.

Practical implications

The study demonstrates how employees in collectivist, high-power distance cultural settings may strategically choose silence by exercising emotional intelligence to enhance job performance.

Originality/value

This study is one of the few efforts that examined defensive silence in non-Western cultural settings. This is also the first study that examined emotional intelligence's role in the proposed moderated mediation framework.

Citation

Ayub, A., Sultana, F., Iqbal, S., Abdullah, M. and Khan, N. (2021), "Coping with workplace ostracism through ability-based emotional intelligence", Journal of Organizational Change Management, Vol. 34 No. 5, pp. 969-989. https://doi.org/10.1108/JOCM-11-2020-0359