An intentionality attribution approach to examine the effects of repeated social exclusion on multiple-goal regulation

Social exclusion refers to being ignored or left out by others in a group, and existing studies demonstrated inconclusive effects of social exclusion on work motivation and performance. Using a multiple-goal paradigm, I hypothesized social exclusion to have negative effects on team goal effort and performance, and positive effects on individual goal effort and performance, via team identification. I also expected these relationships to be stronger among individuals who made high intentionality attributions for being socially excluded, as compared to individuals who made low intentionality attributions. This was because intentionality attributions made individuals believe that their teammates mistreated them on purpose, thus triggering greater discontent and retaliatory motives among excluded individuals. Finally, I hypothesized these relationships to strengthen over time as individuals experienced repeated social exclusion. I conducted a lab experiment on a sample of 117 undergraduates to test my hypotheses. My results demonstrated that excluded individuals reported lower identification with their teams relative to included individuals. The results did not support an indirect effect of social exclusion x intentionality via team identification on both individual and team goal performance after individuals were socially excluded for the first time, but showed that these indirect relationships became significant over time as individuals got excluded repeatedly. My findings offer important insights into how and when social exclusion predicts resource allocation between a team goal and an individual goal, and I discuss the implications and limitations.