Research On The Differentiated Effect Of Workplace Negative Gossip On Hotel Employees

As a deviant behavior in the workplace,workplace negative gossip refers to the informal communication phenomenon of negative evaluation on an absent member of the organization,usually among no more than a few people,especially in the hotel industry,because employees need to pay a high level of emotional labor in customer service.Moreover,due to the relatively fixed and boring work content,hotel enterprises are more likely to appear and spread workplace negative gossip,which needs to be paid attention to at the research level.Previous studies focused on the discussion of the negative effects of workplace negative gossip,but ignored the exploration of its positive effects.According to the social information processing theory,when individuals process workplace negative gossip,different interpretations of it will produce different results,and individual attribution results will play an important role in the process.For hotel employees,when they know the negative gossip about their workplace(gossip target),they will make attribution based on the characteristics and truth of the information and show different emotional and behavioral responses,thus resulting in differentiated results.Based on the social information processing theory as the theoretical framework,from the perspective of attribution,this study adopts the research method combining qualitative and quantitative research to explore the differentiated effects of workplace negative gossip on hotel employees through two studies.Study 1 found that:(1)Workplace negative gossip,as a kind of social information will bring negative emotions,physical and mental stress,job insecurity,self-denial,reduced quality of interaction,job avoidance,self-reflection,self-improvement,job crafting,positive attribution and negative attribution to employees;(2)Positive attribution,self-reflection,self-improvement and job crafting are positive results,negative emotions,physical and mental stress,job insecurity,self-denial,job avoidance and interaction are negative results;(3)Employees will make positive attributions to workplace negative gossip,so as to reflect on themselves and finally achieve self-improvement and job crafting;(4)Employees will make negative attributions to workplace negative gossip,which will bring negative emotions,physical and mental stress and job insecurity,and eventually lead to work avoidance,self-denial and lower quality of interaction.study 2 found that:(1)workplace negative gossip has a differentiated impact,which can positively affect positive attribution and negative attribution;(2)Positive attribution mediates the relationship between workplace negative gossip and self-improvement;(3)Positive attribution and self-reflection play a chain mediating role between workplace negative gossip and self-improvement;(4)Emotional exhaustion plays a mediating role between workplace negative gossip and employees’ workplace procrastination;(5)Negative attribution and emotional exhaustion play a chain mediating role between workplace negative gossip and workplace procrastination.The results of this study will help to expand the understanding of the effect of workplace negative gossip and have implications for management practice.The conclusion of this study is helpful to have an in-depth understanding of the workplace negative gossip and its impact results,and provides reference and inspiration for the management practice of hotel enterprises.