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When Targets Strike Back: How Negative Workplace Gossip Triggers Political Acts by Employees

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Abstract

This study examines why and when negative workplace gossip promotes self-serving behaviors by the employees being targeted. Using conservation of resources (COR) theory, we find that targets tend to increase their political acts as a result of ego depletion triggered by negative gossip. We also show that sensitivity to interpersonal mistreatment and moral disengagement moderate this process. Specifically, we demonstrate that targets with high levels of sensitivity to interpersonal mistreatment are more likely to experience ego depletion, and that targets with high levels of moral disengagement will find it easier to persuade themselves to engage in political acts. We conducted a three-wave time-lagged survey of 265 employees in Guangdong, China, to test our hypotheses. The results support our theoretical model and indicate that COR theory can be used to explain the impacts of negative workplace gossip. Alongside our important and timely theoretical contributions, we provide new perspectives on how managers can avoid or mitigate these political acts.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the support provided by Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation (Grant No. 2019A1515011464), and 2019 Guangdong Science and Technology Special Fund Project (Grant No. 2019ST002).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Business Administration, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, Chengdu, China

    Bao Cheng

  2. School of Hotel and Tourism Management, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong, SAR, 999077, China

    Yun Dong

  3. School of Management, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China

    Zhenduo Zhang

  4. Cranfield School of Management, Cranfield University, Cranfield, UK

    Ahmed Shaalan

  5. Faculty of Commerce, Tanta University, Tanta, Egypt

    Ahmed Shaalan

  6. Business School, Shantou University, Shantou, China

    Gongxing Guo

  7. School of Management, Xiamen University, Xiamen, China

    Yan Peng

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  1. Bao Cheng
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Correspondence to Yun Dong.

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Cheng, B., Dong, Y., Zhang, Z. et al. When Targets Strike Back: How Negative Workplace Gossip Triggers Political Acts by Employees. J Bus Ethics 175, 289–302 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-020-04648-5

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