Supervisor negative gossip and employees’ thriving at work

ABSTRACT

Drawing on conservation of resources (COR) theory, we examine (a) how supervisor negative gossip affects frontline employees’ thriving at the workplace through positive affect and job self-efficacy and (b) how perceived organizational support (POS) mitigates the adverse effects of supervisor negative gossip on employees. Using a sample of 219 frontline employees from three companies in China, we found that supervisor negative gossip is indirectly and negatively associated with employees’ thriving through reduced employees’ positive affect and job self-efficacy, and that the conditional indirect effect of supervisor negative gossip is stronger in employees who perceive lower levels of organizational support. Our findings extend the literature on the dysfunctional consequences of supervisor negative gossip and highlight the need for leaders to become aware of the impact of negative workplace gossip on employees.

摘要

基于资源保存理论，本研究探讨了主管负面八卦对员工工作繁荣的影响机制。对来自3家中国企业的219名一线员工数据的分析结果表明：主管负面八卦能够通过降低员工的积极情感和工作自我效能感抑制其工作繁荣，组织支持感知能够削弱主管负面八卦对积极情感和工作自我效能感的负向影响以及主管负面八卦对工作繁荣的间接影响。这些研究发现丰富了主管负面八卦的不良后果，并强调了主管关注职场负面八卦对员工影响的必要性。

KEYWORDS:

• Supervisor negative gossip
• positive affect
• job self-efficacy
• perceived organizational support
• thriving at work

关键词:

• 主管负面八卦
• 积极情感
• 工作自我效能感
• 组织支持
• 工作繁荣

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China: [Grant Number 72102214].