When Leaders Ostracize: Bottom- Line Mentality Climate and Emotional Labor as Predictors of Workplace Ostracism
Darrin E. Theriault (PhDGraduate) James A. Meurs (Dissertation Chair) Saurabh Gupta (Committee Second) GrahamH. Lowman (Reader)
Overview Workplace ostracism—when co-workers ignore or exclude each other—is a passive, low-intensity behavior. It is one of several constructs under a larger framework of workplace aggression that harm the individual target and the organization. Ostracism is particularly detrimental because its covert subtlety often leaves targets wondering if they are imagining it. Researchers have focused almost exclusively on the target, leaving an excellent opportunity to focus on the source. This study investigates organizational and intrapersonal factors that predict leaders will ostracize team members. First, it examines whether a company’s exclusive focus on the bottom-line influences leaders to ostracize team members. Second, it investigates two components of emotional labor, surface acting and deep acting, as potential predictors of workplace ostracism. Framed in a leadership context and using an online survey featuring a quasi-experimental design with hypothetical vignettes, the study found several important managerial outcomes. In brief, a bottom-line climate leads to surface acting and ostracism
20 | PhD Summaries
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