【公开学术报告】Contrasting Workplace Ostracism and Incivility via Observer Reactions

Topic: Contrasting Workplace Ostracism and Incivility via Observer Reactions

Date & Time: 9:30-11:00am, Thur. 20^th, December 2018

Venue: Room 2101, Tongji Building A

Language: English

Speaker：Dr. Meng CHEN (Pennsylvania State University)

ABSTRACT

Despite attention to its uniqueness, workplace ostracism is considered as a similar construct as workplace incivility because both are low-intensity negative behaviors at work yet with ambiguous intent to harm. It is not clear whether workplace ostracism and workplace incivility should be considered as the same or not because we do not know where their differences manifest. I suggest that one place where their differences will manifest is in the reactions they engender in observers. In particular, because ostracism represents the omission of acts whereas incivility represents the commission of acts, evolutionary/stigmatization and deontic justice frameworks suggest observers should react more negatively to the target of workplace ostracism than to the target of workplace incivility, but more positively to the perpetrators of workplace ostracism than to the perpetrators of workplace incivility. Moreover, because observers of ostracism may also be concerned about themselves being potentially ostracized and thus seek inclusion from others, they are also more likely to conform toward unrelated others in subsequent interactions than observers of incivility. Results from a set of studies generally supported my hypotheses; the theoretical and empirical implications and contributions of the research are discussed.