Workplace ostracism and employee silence: an identity-based perspective
ISSN: 0368-492X
Article publication date: 5 October 2021
Issue publication date: 17 January 2023
Abstract
Purpose
Extant 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/approach
The 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.
Findings
Results 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 implications
The findings indicate that there is potential value in developing MI and OI, for which several interventions are discussed.
Originality/value
This 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.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Funding: This research is supported by the National Social Science Foundation of China, number: 20&ZD127.
Citation
Sahabuddin, M., Tan, Q., Ayub, A., Fatima, T., Ishaq, M. and Khan, A.J. (2023), "Workplace ostracism and employee silence: an identity-based perspective", Kybernetes, Vol. 52 No. 1, pp. 97-120. https://doi.org/10.1108/K-04-2021-0306
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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