How Multi-Source Gossip Affects Targets’ Emotions and Strategic Behavioral Responses

Abstract

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Research review of workplace negative gossip

“…Naeem et al (2020) [15] suggest that when employees encounter workplace negative gossip, they may feel attacked or unfairly treated, further intensifying negative emotions. Zong et al (2023) [16] found that employees targeted by gossip may attribute the negative discussions about themselves to their own negative behaviors and characteristics. This internal attribution can have a destructive impact on an individual's sense of self-worth and self-esteem, causing employees to feel ashamed.…”

The background of restaurant employees’ revenge intention: supervisor incivility, organizational gossip, and blaming others

“…In response, employees become more likely to gossip (Houmanfar and Johnson, 2004). Empirical research has shown that organizational gossip is associated with anger and shame (Zong et al , 2023), perceived organizational politics, compassion (Khan and Chaudhary, 2023), employees’ mental health and psychological capital (Cheng et al , 2023). Organizational gossip has a negative relationship with organizational identity (Xie et al , 2022) and threat to self-respect and a positive relationship with supervisor civility and psychological distress (Ye et al , 2022).…”

“…Previous studies have demonstrated that organizational gossip undermines organizational citizenship (Martinescu et al , 2021), impairs job performance (Xie et al , 2019) and increases emotion exhaustion and indifference (Georganta et al , 2014). In addition, organizational gossip causes a decrease in perceived morality and an increase in sanction behaviors (Kakarika et al , 2023), a decrease in helping behavior, an increase in information disguising behavior (Cheng et al , 2023) and in social undermining (Zong et al , 2023), and ego depletion (Khan et al , 2022).…”

Peeling Away the Layers of Workplace Gossip: A Framework, Review, and Future Research Agenda to Study Workplace Gossip as a Dynamic and Complex Behavior

“…Most studies used either time-lagged (e.g., [71,103]) or cross-sectional designs (e.g., [69,115]). Experimental study designs that allowed for causal inferences were scarce (e.g., [17,73]). The few longitudinal studies were mostly qualitative field studies (e.g., [26,60]).…”

“…This focus has underscored workplace gossip as an important organizational behavior. Indeed, workplace gossip has become a popular research topic among scientific scholars and practitioners, with a substantial increase over the past few years in empirical studies (e.g., [14][15][16][17]).…”