The Effect of Social Undermining on Employees’ Emotional Exhaustion and Procrastination Behavior in Deluxe Hotels: Moderating Role of Positive Psychological Capital

The purpose of this study was to determine if social undermining as perceived by frontline employees significantly affects their emotional exhaustion and procrastination behavior and to clarify the moderating role of positive psychological capital. A total of 310 deluxe hotel employees in South Korea participated in this study by completing a self-administered questionnaire. The study results showed that social undermining perceived by deluxe hotel employees positively influenced their emotional exhaustion. In addition, when emotional exhaustion became severe, employees’ procrastination behavior, which harmed their organizations, increased. Additionally, the findings suggest a mediating effect, thereby indicating that employees’ procrastination behaviors may increase when they experience emotional exhaustion resulting from social undermining. When employees perform their jobs with a positive attitude in a work situation, the negative influence of social undermining and emotional exhaustion may be partially offset. Limitations and future research directions are also discussed.

Is Political Skill Always Beneficial? Why and When Politically Skilled Employees Become Targets of Coworker Social Undermining

The benefits of political skill at work have been extensively documented and highlighted. Existing research also reports unexpectedly equivocal and even positive relationships between employee political skill and coworker social undermining, suggesting that politically skilled employees can become targets of coworker social undermining. However, there is a lack of research explaining why and when employee political skill can lead to coworker social undermining. This research, drawing from social rank theory and the theory of rivalry, offers a novel lens to answer these questions. Specifically, I theorize that employee political skill evokes coworker social undermining by affecting coworker perception of status threat, particularly when the coworker views the focal politically skilled employee as a personal rival. Findings from four studies—one correlational two-wave study and three experiments—provide support for these predictions. Further, nonrival competition and interpersonal disliking as alternative potential explanations to the hypothesized moderating effects of rivalry were ruled out. This study provides a theory-driven explanation of an unintended consequence of employee political skill and offers a more balanced understanding of the effects of political skill at work. Theoretical and future research implications are discussed.

Impact of Perceptions of COVID-19 Related Risks on Partner “Social Undermining” of Healthcare Workers Through the Spillover Theory

The health emergency and pandemic at the global level was announced in the early months of 2020 due to the Covid-19 corona virus, and healthcare workers have had to perform their duties in risky circumstances. Consequently, the healthcare professionals are more vulnerable to being infected with the Covid-19 coronavirus. Hence, through the lens of the spillover theory, this study investigates the effect of perceptions of Covid-19 related risks on partner (spouse) “social undermining” via emotional exhaustion. Data was collected in two periods with one-week time lag from 237 healthcare professionals and their partners.Results revealed that perceptions of Covid-19 related risks increased partner undermining via employee emotional exhaustion. This study contributes to the literature of the current pandemic by investigating the impact of perceptions of Covid-19 related risks on healthcare workers’ close relatives. Hospital administrators and policymakers need to develop timely interventions to mitigate or minimize this negative spillover effect. Therefore, practical implications are suggested accordingly.

A moderated mediation model of the association between coworker social undermining and knowledge hiding

Purpose This study aims to test the relationship between perceived coworker social undermining and knowledge hiding behavior among Pakistani doctors working in hospitals. This study further investigates the mediating role of employee cynicism (EC) and the moderating role of family social support between the association of family social support and knowledge hiding. Design/methodology/approach Time lagged approach was used to collect the data from 391 trainee doctors working in large hospitals in Pakistan. Findings The findings suggest that coworker social undermining is significantly related to EC and knowledge hiding behaviors. EC mediates the relationship between EC and knowledge hiding. Furthermore, family social support was found to play a buffer role such that the indirect effect of social undermining on knowledge hiding through cynicism was weak for those who received high family social support and vice versa. Originality/value Knowledge hiding is deleterious to effective organizational functioning. This study adds to knowledge about the relationship between coworker social undermining and knowledge hiding behavior. This research extends the existing research streams of social undermining and knowledge hiding research to one of the underrepresented South Asian context, Pakistan.

From Help to Harm: Increases in Status, Perceived Underreciprocation, and the Consequences for Access to Strategic Help and Social Undermining Among Female, Racial Minority, and White Male Top Managers

This paper explores how social psychological biases impede the social exchange relations of executives who ascend to high-status corporate leadership positions. We theorize that a combination of self-serving attribution biases among executives who gain status and egocentric biases of their prior benefactors cause a systematic difference in perceptions about the relative importance of that help to the beneficiary’s success. This leads to the perception among prior benefactors that the high-status executives have not adequately reciprocated their help. We then extend this argument to explain why perceptions of underreciprocation are heightened when the high-status executive is a racial minority or a woman but reduced when the prior benefactor is a racial minority or a woman. The final element of our theoretical framework examines the social consequences of perceived underreciprocation for corporate leaders. We suggest that the high-status leaders’ access to strategic help is reduced, and they may become the target of social undermining that can damage their broader reputation. The findings support our social psychological perspective on social exchange in corporate leadership, revealing how and why executives who have ascended to high-status positions not only may encounter difficulty obtaining assistance from fellow leaders but also may experience adverse reversals in their social exchange ties such that managers who previously aided them engage in socially harmful behavior toward them.