Workplace Ostracism: Its Nature, Antecedents, and Consequences

Workplace mistreatment is a burgeoning topic of interest, with the majority of workers having experienced it in some form. This book explores workplace ostracism and its negative effects on employee and organizational outcomes, such as employee attitudes, behaviors, and well-being. This edited volume defines workplace ostracism and examines how to differentiate ostracism from other type of workplace mistreatment, such as workplace incivility and interpersonal conflict. Among the questions it seeks to answer are: 1) what are the individual, relational, and contextual factors that influence employees’ workplace ostracism experiences; and 2) what constitutes ostracism in stigmatized populations, such as international students, immigrant workers, and older workers. Researchers in organizational behavior, I/O psychology, and the sociology of work will find this book to be a valuable resource.

Cong Liu is Professor of Psychology at Hofstra University, USA. Her current research projects examine workplace mistreatment, such as workplace ostracism, interpersonal conflict, and abusive supervision. She is interested in how cultural values, such as interpersonal harmony values, affect employees’ workplace interactions. Her work has appeared on Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Organizational Behavior, Journal of Management, Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, and Journal of Occupational Health Psychology. She is the associate editor of International Journal of Stress Management.

Jie Ma is Associate Professor in the School of Management at Lanzhou University, China. His research interests include cognitive appraisals of workplace stressors, and positive organizational psychology. His current research projects are concerned about how personal factors (e.g., personality traits, and motivational orientation) affect employee cognitive appraisals of job demands, and how different forms of appraisals differentially impact employee work motivation, wellbeing and work behaviors. His research has been published on Journal of Vocational Behavior, Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, and International Journal of Stress Management.