Does conformity lead to gains? The effect of workplace ostracism on performance evaluation from a self-presentational view

Subjects: Psychology >> Management Psychology submitted time 2020-12-06

姜平 张丽华

Abstract： In many studies, victims of workplace ostracism are often portrayed as somewhat passive actors experiencing negative outcomes such as demoralization, suspicion, helplessness, and stress. However, this line of research conclusion has recently been questioned. A few studies have shown that social excluded people in specific situations may exhibit more prosocial behaviors and achieve higher task performance. Unfortunately, the mechanism through which these contradictory effects occur has not been fully explained. Furthermore, although there is evidence that social excluded employees will engage in behaviors towards enhancing their standing in the organization, existing research has not fully considered the degree to which this behavior is authentic, in which one’s actions are consistent with one’s inner values and preferences. In order to addressing these theoretical gaps, drawing upon the self-presentational perspective, we hypothesized that employees’ collectivism values strengthen the likelihood that employees will create facades of conformity when suffering from workplace ostracism. We further demonstrated that whether supervisor a collectivist determines how employees’ creating facades of conformity affect subsequent performance ratings. We test these hypotheses in an experimental study and a field sample of supervisor-employee dyads. For the experimental study, we recruited 142 full-time Chinese workers in different industries through the authors’ alumni networks as participants. They were randomly assigned to one of two experimental conditions: the ostracism condition (n = 70) versus the inclusion condition (n = 72). Participants first completed a measure of collectivism values and reported the demographics, then they were asked to read a scenario displayed on the computer, which depicted a situation in which the participant was ostracized (or included) by team members in a hypothetical organization. After reading the scenario, participants finished the manipulation check and indicated to what extent they would be likely to engage in creating facades of conformity. In terms of the field study, we collected 254 dyadic data at three time-spots from a large air company in China. At Time 1, employees assessed perceived workplace ostracism and their collectivism values as well as demographic variables. At Time 2, one months later, employees rated their self-esteem level, and the extent to which they create facades of conformity, conduct self-leadership and impression management strategies. At Time 3, two months later, supervisors provided a performance evaluation of the focal employee and their own collectivism values. We applied confirmatory factor analysis, regression analysis and bootstrap methods via SPSS 22.0 and Mplus7.4 software to analyze the data. Empirical results supported our arguments that workplace ostracism was positively related to facades of conformity. The relationship between workplace ostracism and facades of conformity was stronger when employees were high in collectivism values. When supervisors themselves also hold high collectivism values, employees’ facades of conformity are positively related to supervisors’ evaluations of job performance. Moreover, workplace ostracism has a conditional, positive indirect effect on supervisor’s evaluations of employee performance via employee facades of conformity, such that the indirect effect is positive when both employee and supervisors’ collectivism values are high. With these findings, we make several contributions to the literature and management practice. First, we offered a new explanatory mechanism for understanding the complex relationship between workplace ostracism and employee performance from a self-presentational perspective by examining the mediating role of create facades of conformity. Second, our findings about the moderating effect of employees’ collectivism values provide explanations for the differential reaction to negative workplace experiences such as workplace ostracism as well as its consequence. Third, by exploring the contingent role of leaders’ collectivism values, our study is among the earliest attempts to consider the role of bystanders in the ostracism process. Finally, we enrich the research field of conformity by examining new criteria, thus response to the call of exploring the antecedents and consequences of facades of conformity. "

Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review

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