Abstract
Leadership ostracism denotes a severe work stressor, potentially entailing more serious negative effects than other types of workplace ostracism. However, scholars have paid relatively little attention to ostracism carried out by leaders, leaving the phenomenon insufficiently accounted for in the literature. Hence, the present study aims to explore the content and typology of leadership ostracism behavior by in-depth interviews and inductive analyses based on grounded theory, in order to give a thorough presentation and description of the leadership ostracism concept as perceived and construed by Chinese subordinates. Respondents were invited using a snowball sampling technique, and the final sample consisted of 26 individuals employed in different Chinese firms. Based on the reported experience of the interviewees, 11 concrete leadership ostracism behaviors emerged from the data. Further analyses revealed a leadership ostracism behavioral typology model reflecting five core categories, i.e., general ignoring, neglect, exclusion, differential treatment, and undermining. These findings appear to partly replicate and partly expand on previous conceptualizations of workplace ostracism, indicating that leadership ostracism may reflect a distinct variant of the phenomenon, eligible to be studied in its own right. The present study also discusses certain culture-specific aspects of leadership ostracism that can be taken into consideration in future studies.
Highlights
According to social psychologists, individuals have a strong desire to establish and maintain secure and positive social group memberships, and are driven by a fundamental need to belong (Baumeister and Tice, 1990; Strauss and Corbin, 1990)
As leadership ostracism research is scarce in the literature, even though the leaders’ status in the work group entails particular opportunities and possibilities for carrying out such behavior against subordinates, the main aim of the study is to explore the nature of ostracism as carried out by a leader toward his or her subordinates
Culture-specific social norms may have influenced the results. We hold that this setting is well suited for exploring leadership ostracism, the degree of generalizability to other cultural settings remains unaccounted for
Summary
Individuals have a strong desire to establish and maintain secure and positive social group memberships, and are driven by a fundamental need to belong (Baumeister and Tice, 1990; Strauss and Corbin, 1990). Numerous examinations of ostracism and its effects have been carried out across different research designs in recent years, from laboratory experiments (e.g., Stroud et al, 2000; Eisenberger et al, 2003) to qualitative analyses (e.g., Williams et al, 2000; Zadro et al, 2004; Zadro and Williams, 2006), with most studies concluding that ostracism is both prevalent and harmful (e.g., Williams, 1997, 2001, 2007; Eisenberger et al, 2003; Gunnar et al, 2003) As part of this initiative, research on ostracism has been extended to organizational contexts. In an interview study among employees who felt ostracized in the workplace, Williams (2001) found that the experience increased the targets’ inclination to respond with anxiety and pain, as well as to call in sick or to leave organization altogether
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