Perish in gossip? Nonlinear effects of perceived negative workplace gossip on job performance
| Pages | 389-405 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/PR-10-2018-0400 |
| Published date | 21 November 2019 |
| Date | 21 November 2019 |
| Author | Jun Xie,Qihai Huang,Hongli Wang,Minghao Shen |
| Subject Matter | Hr & organizational behaviour,Global hrm |
Perish in gossip? Nonlinear
effects of perceived negative
workplace gossip on
job performance
Jun Xie
Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, Guangzhou, China
Qihai Huang
Keele University, Keele, UK
Hongli Wang
South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, China, and
Minghao Shen
Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, Guangzhou, China
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to investigate the curvilinear relationship between perceived
negative workplace gossip and target employee’s task performance, and the moderating roles of perceived
organizational support (POS).
Design/methodology/approach –Using a sample of 275 supervisor–subordinate dyads in a two-wave
survey, the authors adopted a hierarchical regression analysis to test the hypotheses.
Findings –The results revealed that there is a U-shaped relationship between perceived negative workplace
gossip and task performance. Moreover, POS moderated the curvilinear relationship such that the curvilinear
relationship is more pronounced among those with lower POS.
Research limitations/implications –This study does not explore the mediating mechanism of how
perceived negative gossip affects the target’s task performance. Moreover, as this research was conducted in
a Chinese context, the question of the generalizability of the findings calls for more attention.
Practical implications –When the negative gossip is still in its early stages, managers should realize the
potential threat to target employees and take measures to stop and minimize negative gossiping and
rumormongering. Furthermore, managers should do their best to find the optimal levels of organizational
support for target employees.
Originality/value –This study is among the first effort to understand how perceived negative gossip can
influence the target employees’performance by proposing and demonstrating a nonlinear relationship.
Moreover, by illuminating how POS plays a role in the curvilinear relationship between negative gossip and
task performance, the authors not only complement but also extend the literature on workplace gossip and
organizational support.
Keywords Quantitative, Individual performance, Workplace gossip, Individual behaviour
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
As a specific type of informal communication, workplace gossip is a naturally occurring
organizational phenomenon. According to one study, more than 90 percent of employees
engage in gossip in the workplace (Grosser et al., 2012). Broadly defined, workplace gossip is
“informal and evaluative talk in an organization, usually among no more than a few
individuals, about another member of that organization who is not present”(Kurland and
Personnel Review
Vol. 49 No. 2, 2020
pp. 389-405
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0048-3486
DOI 10.1108/PR-10-2018-0400
Received 12 October 2018
Revised 23 April 2019
21 June 2019
Accepted 9 July 2019
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0048-3486.htm
This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos 71502042 and
71872066), the Project of Guangdong Provincial Humanities and Social Sciences Key Research Base
(Grant No. 18JD07), the Project of Guangdong University of Foreign Studies National and Regional Research
(Grant No. 311-GK182017), Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation (2019A1515010727),
General Program of Humanities and Social Sciences of the Ministry of Education (Y9180140).
389
Perceived
negative
workplace
gossip
Pelled, 2000, p. 429). Although workplace gossip can either be positive or negative in nature
(Foster, 2004), most research has been on negative gossip as “bad is stronger than good”
(Baumeister et al., 2001). Prototypical negative gossip normally presents in a form of
disparagingly evaluating others’reputation, spreading unfavorable news or reporting on
others’socially disapproved behavior in the workplace.
Existing literatu re has addressed gos sip’s contents and functions and its impact on the
gossipers (e.g. Waddington, 2005; Grosser et al., 2010). More recently, research has begun to
investigatethe effects of negative workplace gossip on an individual’swork-relatedbehaviors
from the target’s perspective (Chandra and Robinson,2009). For example, Wu, Birtch, Chiang
and Zhang (2018)found that when becoming the targetof negative gossip, employeesshowed
lower organization-basedself-esteem and engagedless in citizenshipbehavior. Wu, Kwan, Wu
and Ma (2018) showed that the perceived negative workplace gossip led to emotional
exhaustion at work, and thus less proactive behavior.
Despite considerable progress, scholarly work on gossip in organizations remains
incomplete, particularly the effects of perceived negative workplace gossip on the target’s
task performance. Such research is of significance not only because employees’task
performance represents a most important outcome that brings substantial value to work
groups and organizations (Campbell et al., 2017), but also because the arguments linking
negative gossip to employee performance is equivocal. On the one hand, the perception of
being targeted by negative gossip may cause consequences similar to victimization (Aquino
and Bradfield, 2000; Wu, Birtch, Chiang and Zhang, 2018; Wu, Kwan, Wu and Ma, 2018),
such as leading to job stress (Chandra and Robinson, 2009) and impeding the fundamental
psychological need of belonging (Ellwardt et al., 2012), all of which can subsequently
decrease an individual’s in-role performance (Gilboa et al., 2008). On the other hand, when
gossipers share evaluative information about a gossip target, there is an implicit upward or
downward social comparison between the gossiper and the gossip target. Employees face
higher performance pressure when they think that they are being evaluated informally by
others because this informal evaluation is akin to having audience presence at work, an
important factor driving performance pressure at work (Tan et al., 2017). For example,
employees will feel pressured to avoid mistakes and perform their task well if they are
aware that others are keenly observing and will talk about their actions behind their backs.
Thus, when employees perceive to be the target of negative gossip, they experience higher
pressure to perform well, which leads to higher task performance. Taken together, both
positive and negative associations are plausible. However, to the best of our knowledge, the
complex relationship between perceived negative workplace gossip and task performance
has yet to be explored by prior research.
To fill these gaps, the first objective of this study is to examine the potential curvilinear
(U-shaped) relationship between perceived negative workplace gossip and task performance,
based on conservation of resources (COR) theory (Hobfoll, 1989, 2002). According to this
theory, individuals, underpinned by either resource conservation or resource acquisition
motivation, try to acquire, protect and retain resources (including time, physical energy,
emotional energy and attention) to deal with stressful situations (Hobfoll , 1989, 2002).
Specifically,we suggest that, as negative gossip movesfrom low to moderate levels,the target
employee’s task performance may decrease, in line with resource conservation motivation
(Hobfoll, 1998). However, people do not just respond to the stressor by conserving the resource.
They may be proactive to protectagainst the possible future losses of resource (Hobfoll,1998;
Wright and Hobfoll, 2004). As negative gossip moves from moderate to high levels, resource
acquisitionmotivation drives the targetemployee to show high performance, with the hope of
counteracting the destroyedimage and reputation. Consequently, the prospect of both positive
and negativeassociations between perceived negativegossip and task performancespeaks to
the potential of a curvilinear (U-shaped) relationship.
390
PR
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