Abstract
Interpersonal conflicts between portfolio career workers (hereafter, PCWs) who entered from the external labor market and existing permanent workers are a controversial workplace issue in South Korea. This study examines whether the existing permanent workers’ responses to the newcomers speaking up depend on the type of proactive behavior, that is, whether PCWs speak within extra-role or in-role boundaries. We found that PCWs perceive more workplace ostracism when they are proactive outside their job boundaries and less workplace ostracism when they are proactive inside their job boundaries. Further, their perceptions of ostracism lead to intentions of turnover. These relationships are conditional on the type of employee–organization relationship and the PCWs’ status in a new organization. Data were collected from 261 PCWs in Korea. Bootstrap-based conditional process analyses were utilized to test the hypothesized model. The results show that workplace ostracism mediates the relationship between the two types of proactive behavior and turnover intention, but in contrasting directions. The effect of the two types of proactive behavior on workplace ostracism is stronger for higher levels of reciprocal relationship between organization and employees, while the effect of workplace ostracism on turnover intention is stronger for higher levels of PCWs’ status in a new organization. Thus, the workplace conflicts PCWs face not only represent interpersonal problems within the workplace but also constitute a multilayered phenomenon related to the long-term institutionalized relationships between organizations and employees.
Highlights
This study answers the following questions: First, does the newcomer’s proactive behavior always lead to existing employees’ positive response in terms of interpersonal relations? If not, what type of proactive behavior leads to a negative response? Second, in what kind of boundary conditions would the relationship between proactive behavior and negative response be strengthened? Third, is the existing employees’ negative response strong enough to affect the newcomer’s turnover intention? Fourth, if so, in what kind of boundary conditions would the relationship between existing employees’ negative response and the newcomer’s turnover intention be strengthened?The early resignation of newly hired employees is a major concern for human resources (HR) personnel
We proposed that the extra-role proactive behavior of PCWs, as an antecedent factor of perceived workplace ostracism, exerts a positive effect on workplace ostracism (Hypothesis 1a) and that in-role proactive behavior exerts a negative effect on perceived workplace ostracism (Hypothesis 1b)
We predicted that the positive relationship between extra-role proactive behavior and workplace ostracism is stronger in a social exchange relationship than it is in an economic exchange relationship (Hypothesis 2a) and that the negative relationship between sustained improvement and workplace ostracism is stronger in a social exchange relationship than it is in an economic exchange relationship (Hypothesis 2b)
Summary
This study answers the following questions: First, does the newcomer’s proactive behavior always lead to existing employees’ positive response in terms of interpersonal relations? If not, what type of proactive behavior leads to a negative response? Second, in what kind of boundary conditions would the relationship between proactive behavior and negative response be strengthened (or weakened)? Third, is the existing employees’ negative response strong enough to affect the newcomer’s turnover intention? Fourth, if so, in what kind of boundary conditions would the relationship between existing employees’ negative response and the newcomer’s turnover intention be strengthened (weakened)?The early resignation of newly hired employees is a major concern for human resources (HR) personnel. This study answers the following questions: First, does the newcomer’s proactive behavior always lead to existing employees’ positive response in terms of interpersonal relations? In what kind of boundary conditions would the relationship between proactive behavior and negative response be strengthened (or weakened)? If so, in what kind of boundary conditions would the relationship between existing employees’ negative response and the newcomer’s turnover intention be strengthened (weakened)?. The early resignation of newly hired employees is a major concern for human resources (HR) personnel. Qualified, self-motivating professionals with marketable and well-defined specific skills are prioritized when recruiting PCWs. There are fundamental differences between the public recruitment process intended for college graduates and unannounced recruitment process for experienced applicants in terms of hiring standards, recruitment period, scale, and treatment. The other is to scout for R&D personnel in the field from competitors (e.g., SK Hynix) or hire doctorate graduates in engineering with a specialty in source technology in the same field
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