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Session C - 일반세션: 소셜네트워크, 좌장: 문재윤(고려대)

Workplace Ostracism, Innovative Behavior and Social Network Services

초록

영어

The social context has become an important factor within society. Indeed, researchers are likely to agree that the quality of social interactions can significantly affect an organization’s effectiveness (e.g., [1], [2]). Managing interpersonal relationships are essential components for employee performance especially as teamwork has become universal in organizations. However, workplace ostracism has become an organizational concern due to its frequency and impact [3]. Organization studies have consistently found workplace ostracism to negatively affect workplace attitudes and behaviors such as psychological well-being, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, work performance, and organizational citizenship behavior (e.g., [4], [5], [6]). It should be noted that team work is positively related with innovative behavior [7]. Innovation is being considered by many organizations as one of the important ways of getting competitive edge and organizational success [7]. It is not surprising that most organizational innovations rely on creative ideas and individual employees sharing information and interacting with one another. Thinking new ideas can be influenced by communication according to social cognitive theory. Anyone who is involved in a communication network in a team should have necessary capabilities for collaboration in order to provide new ideas, solutions and support timely. If an organization does not help organizational members who lack communication with their peers, innovative behavior from the team member is hardly expected. The new research stream on social media has found that social networking influences knowledge creation effectiveness. In line with the traditional stream of research on innovative behavior, communication powered by social networking is likely to lower barriers for knowledge exchange in an organization. However, it should be noted that studies relating to use of social networking capabilities in knowledge-creating teams have not put much attention on the effect of workplace ostracism. A social networking site, such as Facebook, Instagram and Google+, provides an easy way to contact people who feel discomfort with direct face-to-face communication. As long as the social networking is relating to self-image and trust, functional features relating to communication are beneficial in fulfilling unmet communication needs. The question is, “What role do social network services in the context of ostracism provide?” Can it alleviate the negative effects? Or does it make the situation worse? The study adopted the formal theory associating between job satisfaction and innovative behavior based on social cognitive theory. We empirically tested the mediating effects of job satisfaction for the relationship between workplace ostracism and innovative behavior and the moderating effects of SNS use for work-related purposes for the relationship between workplace ostracism and job satisfaction. Recently, Chung [8] found interpersonal conflict and person-organization fit to mediate the relationships between workplace ostracism and organizational citizenship behavior and deviant behavior while Wu, Yim, Kwan, and Zhang [9] found ingratiation and political skill to moderate the relationship between workplace ostracism and psychological distress. Robinson et al.’s [10] workplace ostracism model suggested that psychological facets can link workplace ostracism and behavioral outcomes while resources and motivation can mitigate the effects of workplace ostracism. The study findings contribute by investigating beyond the direct effects of workplace ostracism and more importantly, provides insightful ideas on the use of social network services for managing communication problems in knowledge-creating teams. Research has found workplace ostracism to negatively impact workplace attitudes and behaviors such as job satisfaction, organizational citizenship behavior, and job performance. However, research investigating beyond the direct effects of workplace ostracism and findings about boundary conditions for mitigating the negative effects of workplace ostracism are limited in management studies. In this regard, this study explored the mediating effects of job satisfaction on the relationship between workplace ostracism and innovative behavior and the moderating effects of Social Networking Services for work-related purposes for the relationship between workplace ostracism and job satisfaction. The two-wave study was conducted in Korea and found social network service to moderate the relationship between workplace ostracism and job satisfaction and job satisfaction to mediate the relationship between workplace ostracism and innovative behavior. Ostracized individuals lack social interactions with other organizational members resulting in perceptions that their social and emotional resources are taken away. Social interactions can significantly affect work-related resources because today’s work relies on exchanges with other organizational members that provide support and knowledge. When individuals are ostracized, they will not be able to receive an appropriate amount of work-related and non-work-related resources; therefore, negatively affecting job satisfaction. Furthermore, ostracism decouples organizational members with their organization, organizational members, and jobs that allow the individual to become less emotionally attached. Consistent with previous research, the study found workplace ostracism to be negatively related to job satisfaction. Ostracism results in negative experiences allowing individuals to perceive more negative cognitive evaluations and negative affect. In contrast, when an individual is satisfied with one’s job, s/he is likely to concentrate and engage in behaviors that are beneficial toward the organization such as providing more ideas and energy. Positive affect allows employees to be more willing to generate new ideas for work and create new methods for solving problems. Consequently, the study found job satisfaction to mediate the relationship between workplace ostracism and innovative behavior. This finding supports affective events theory, as experiences at work such as workplace ostracism can decrease job satisfaction that influences cognitive based behaviors such as innovative behavior. This study also found SNS at the workplace to mitigate the negative effects of workplace ostracism on job satisfaction. Ostracized individuals tend to be reluctant to directly interact and communicate with other organizational members due to discomfort and the belief that they lack positive interpersonal relationships with others. Since SNSs can provide methods for indirect communication, ostracized individuals may be able to share information with other organizational members without the discomfort of direct social interactions. SNSs at work can help mitigate the negative effects of workplace ostracism by satisfying one’s needs for resources and information. Further, the study found mediated moderation suggesting that ostracized individuals that frequently used SNSs were more satisfied with their jobs that then positively affected innovative behavior. The findings in this study provide supplementary support to previous exploratory studies on the use of SNS at the workplace. Skeels and Grudin [11] questioned whether SNS use in workplace would reduce productivity. They argued that SNSs could increase productivity; however, empirical evidence was not validated. An empirical study on registered nurses using SNSs revealed that professional communication resulted in mixed outcomes as personal content outweighed work-related content. Although this exploratory observation was repeatedly found in various cases, studies are limited in examining how SNSs can be applied to alleviate organizational issues such as workplace ostracism and innovative behavior.

목차

Extended Abstract
 References

저자정보

  • Yang Woon Jung The University of Suwon
  • Taekyung Kim The University of Suwon

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