TY - JOUR
T1 - Perceptions of Negative Workplace Gossip
T2 - A Self-Consistency Theory Framework
AU - Wu, Long Zeng
AU - Birtch, Thomas A.
AU - Chiang, Flora F.T.
AU - Zhang, Haina
N1 - Funding Information:
Acknowledgments: This article was accepted under the editorship of Patrick M. Wright. The first three authors contributed equally to this manuscript. The authors wish to offer a special note of thanks to Gary Greguras, action editor, and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful guidance and advice throughout the revision process. We would also like to acknowledge a number of other organizational scholars for their valuable insights on earlier versions of this manuscript, in particular, Lance Ferris, Donald Gardner, Robert Liden, and Huiwen Lian. Financial support was received from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (71202001 and 71472116), New Century Excellent Talents in University (NCET-13-0892), Shanghai Pujiang program (13PJC053), the Chen Guang project (12CG44), Shanghai Municipal Education Commission, and Shanghai Education Development Foundation.
PY - 2018/5/1
Y1 - 2018/5/1
N2 - We present and test a self-consistency theory framework for gossip: that perceived negative workplace gossip influences our self-perceptions and, in turn, this influences our behaviors. Using supervisor-subordinate dyadic time-lagged data (n = 403), we demonstrated that perceived negative workplace gossip adversely influenced target employees’ organization-based self-esteem, which, in turn, influenced their citizenship behavior directed at the organization and at its members. Moreover, by integrating victimization theory into our framework, we further demonstrated that negative affectivity, an individual’s dispositional tendency, not only moderated the self-consistency process but also predicted perceived negative workplace gossip. Our study therefore shifts attention to the target of negative workplace gossip and in doing so offers a promising new direction for future research. Implications to theory and practice are discussed.
AB - We present and test a self-consistency theory framework for gossip: that perceived negative workplace gossip influences our self-perceptions and, in turn, this influences our behaviors. Using supervisor-subordinate dyadic time-lagged data (n = 403), we demonstrated that perceived negative workplace gossip adversely influenced target employees’ organization-based self-esteem, which, in turn, influenced their citizenship behavior directed at the organization and at its members. Moreover, by integrating victimization theory into our framework, we further demonstrated that negative affectivity, an individual’s dispositional tendency, not only moderated the self-consistency process but also predicted perceived negative workplace gossip. Our study therefore shifts attention to the target of negative workplace gossip and in doing so offers a promising new direction for future research. Implications to theory and practice are discussed.
KW - negative affectivity
KW - organization-based self-esteem
KW - organizational citizenship behavior
KW - perceived negative workplace gossip
KW - self-consistency theory
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85043288400&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/0149206316632057
DO - 10.1177/0149206316632057
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:85043288400
SN - 0149-2063
VL - 44
SP - 1873
EP - 1898
JO - Journal of Management
JF - Journal of Management
IS - 5
ER -