Ostracized coworkers and employee voice : the role of political savvy

Abstract

In today’s workplace, the need for social interface among coworkers has increased substantially (Sundstrom, McIntyre, Halfhill, & Richards, 2000). Given that organizations are functions of intricate and interpersonal systems, the severity and pervasiveness of workplace ostracism – defined as the extent to which an individual perceives he or she is being ignored in the workplace – can have devastating effects on both employee and organizational outcomes (Ferris et al., 2008). Leading scholar Kipling Williams (2007) acknowledges that the study of ostracism is far from complete, pointing out the perplexing fact that “ostracized, socially excluded, and rejected individuals are capable or responding in a variety of ways, many of which appear to be quite contradictory”. In addition, studies that investigate potential mitigating factors of the ostracism-outcome relationship remain relatively far and few between, insufficiently providing practical implications in which employees can use to protect themselves and their work outcomes. Following this line of research, this thesis adopts a political approach in understanding how ostracism and the social interactions that make up the work environment – affect employee outcomes such as voice behavior. This study introduces and proposes that political savvy – an integration of political understanding and political skill – allows individuals to deal with political situations in the workplace and continue to engage in voice behaviors, even if it means putting themselves at risk. This thesis aims to contribute to research by: 1) Examining the indirect effects of ostracism on the emerging yet important construct of employee voice, extending both streams of research; 2) Utilizing social information processing theory in adopting a unique point of view that the ostracism of an individual’s coworkers can indirectly affect his/her own work behaviors (versus the majority of research that focus on individuals directly experiencing ostracism), and pointing out theoretical distinctions in the underlying mechanism through which it occurs; and 3) Contending that individuals are not merely passive recipients of the social environment but can utilize their abilities and knowledge to overcome the adverse effects of ostracism. This conceptual model was tested by a study involving a sample of 154 employees and their supervisors from a large biotechnology firm in China. The results showed that employees are less likely to engage in voice behaviors when their coworkers reported having experienced ostracism in the workplace, indicating that even indirectly experiencing negative social interactions in the workplace can adversely affect work outcomes. The study also shows a significant three way interaction effect between political understanding and political skill on the relationship between observing ostracism and employee voice, supporting political savvy as a valuable resource in mitigating ostracism’s negative effects. Organizational implications, recommendations and future research ideas are also discussed.