Workplace Ostracism and Job Performance: The Role of Depressed Mood and Political Skill
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.2112/jbe.v14i1.542Keywords:
workplace ostracism, job performance, political skill, and depressed moodAbstract
Ostracism has become a common hurtful phenomenon in the workplace. Researchers and
practitioners are interested in identifying the range of consequences for employee attitudes and behaviors caused by workplace ostracism. By drawing on the conservation of resources theory, this
paper examines the impact of workplace ostracism on job performance through depressed mood
and the moderating effect of employees’ political skill in buffering the negative consequences of ostracism on job performance. The results show that the indirect impact of workplace ostracism on
job performance through depressed mood becomes weak for individuals with high political skills
and vice versa. The present study contributes to the existing stream of knowledge by providing how
workplace ostracism transforms into poor performance outcomes by investigating the underpinning
mechanism of depressed mood. It also examines an essential but unexplored boundary condition of
political skill that detonates the indirect process for the employees with high political skill compared
to low.