Reduced self-worth: an investigation of why and when coworker undermining facilitates employee interpersonal deviance

Jing Quan, Jih-Yu Mao, Yujie Shi and Xiao Liang

Nankai Business Review International, 2021, vol. 13, issue 1, 154-170

Abstract: Purpose - This study investigates why and when undermined employees exhibit deviant behavior toward coworkers. Drawing upon social exchange theory, coworker undermining reduces employee organization-based self-esteem (OBSE), which in turn, fosters employee negative reciprocal behavior in the form of interpersonal deviance. In addition, this study examines the moderating role of relational-interdependent self-construal (RISC) in affecting the indirect effect. Design/methodology/approach - Data were collected from a two-wave survey. Participants were 316 employees of a service company in western China. Ordinary least squares regressions were used to test the hypothesized relationships. Findings - Coworker undermining is positively related to employee interpersonal deviance, mediated by decreased employee OBSE. In addition, this indirect relationship is more salient for employees with a higher than lower RISC. Originality/value - This study suggests that employee OBSE serves as an explanation for why coworker undermining leads to employees’ antagonistic consequences. Furthermore, this study highlights the boundary-condition role of RISC in the influence process.

Keywords: Coworker undermining; Organization-based self-esteem; Interpersonal deviance; Relational-interdependent self-construal; Social exchange theory (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eme:nbripp:nbri-07-2021-0046

DOI: 10.1108/NBRI-07-2021-0046

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