The Effect Of Public Sector Leadership Ostracism On Bystander Behavior And Its Mechanism

As a kind of “silent violence” phenomenon in the workplace,leadership ostracism exists in most organizations in varying degrees.The value of harmony advocated by Chinese culture,and the bureaucratic organizational structure in the Chinese public sector which emphasizes power hierarchy,provides a breeding ground for leadership ostracism.The exclusion,neglect and rejection from direct administrative leader have a negative impact on the emotions,work attitude,physical and mental health of civil servants.It is also contrary to the fair value orientation of the public sector,which damages organizational performance,government image and credibility.Bystanders as a third-party force that cannot be ignored in the group,the bystander’s attitude and coping behavior will directly affect the interaction process between two-sided actors of the ostracism behavior.Bystanders’ helping behavior can inhibit the occurrence of leadership ostracism,while their silence behavior may connive or intensify it.Besides that,once bystanders collaborated in the ostracism behavior,it may escalate the ostracism situation and even evolve into a group cultural phenomenon.We suppose that bystanders should firmly resist leadership ostracism that acts as a kind of negative leadership behavior,however,it is not the fact.Therefore,what choices bystanders will make and what their intrinsic motivations are under leadership ostracism needs further explorations.Our study takes cultural and institutional background of the public sector in the Chinese context,and draws on Western research literature on human resource management to explore the behavioral choice and mechanism of bystanders under leadership ostracism.Drawing on social cognition theory,we developed three empirical studies from different perspectives to examine the internal mechanism and boundary conditions of bystanders’ coping behaviors.In study 1,we drew on self-regulation theory and a model of leadership ostracism and bystanders’ silence behavior was developed.The results showed that:(1)Leadership ostracism was positively correlated with bystanders’ silence behavior;(2)Moral disengagement partially mediated the relationship between leadership ostracism and bystanders’ silence behavior;(3)Power distance positively moderated the relationship between leadership ostracism and bystanders’ moral disengagement,and positively moderated the relationship between leadership ostracism and bystanders’ silence behavior.In study 2,drawing on social exchange theory,we developed a model of leadership ostracism and colleague ostracism.We found that:(1)Leadership ostracism was positively correlated with colleague ostracism;(2)Perceived organizational politics partially mediated the relationship between leadership ostracism and colleague ostracism;(3)Competitive goal interdependence positively moderated the relationship between leadership ostracism and colleague ostracism,positively moderated the relationship between perceived organizational politics and colleague ostracism.In study 3,a model of leadership ostracism and bystanders’ helping behavior was constructed based on empathy theory.The results indicated that:(1)The correlation between leadership ostracism and bystanders’ helping behavior was not significant;(2)The mediating role of bystanders’ empathy between leadership rejection and bystanders’ helping behavior is note supported,but the significant positive correlation between empathy and helping behavior has been confirmed.(3)Co-worker guanxi positively moderated the relationship between leadership ostracism and bystanders’ helping behavior,positively moderated the relationship between empathy and helping behavior.The innovation points of this study are as follows:(1)Distinguish leadership ostracism as a separate source from workplace ostracism,analyze the uniqueness of leadership ostracism and provides new research content for negative leadership behavior.(2)The research extends to bystanders in an ecosystem of leadership ostracism,and provides new perspective for leadership ostracism research.(3)This study reveals and verifies the mediating mechanism and boundary conditions of the effect of leadership ostracism on bystander behavior,and opens the “black box”of the relationship between them.(4)We conduct empirical research on leadership ostracism and bystander behavior in the public sector in Chinese social context,which makes up for the limitations in previous studies,enrich the public sector leadership ostracism and bystander behavior governance approach.In addition,we put forward policy suggestions to strengthen public ethics among civil servants,manage and guide bystander behavior,and create fair and equitable organizational climate.It also provides practice approach to human resource management in the public sector.