Unraveling the role of external social support in coping with negative workplace gossip

Abstract

The positive role of organizational and supervisor support for employees who are coping with being targets of negative workplace gossip has been established. However, to extend understanding of how external social support works in the context of workplace gossip, we investigated social support from family and friends and gender as joint moderators of the relationship between gossip and task performance of the targeted employees. A longitudinal twowave survey research design was utilized. The sample consisted of 231 supervisor–subordinate dyads employed by five large companies in China. Hierarchical regression analyses were conducted, and we uncovered a negative association between negative workplace gossip and task performance. Furthermore, the results demonstrated that external social support had an amplifying effect on the relationship between negative workplace gossip and the task performance of targeted male employees, whereas external social support had a mitigating effect for targeted female employees. This study practically guides managers to address negative workplace gossip more effectively with a consideration of gender differences, and theoretically expands understanding of the impact of social support and its interaction with gender in the context of negative workplace gossip.