THE DEVELOPMENT AND TEST OF AN EXCHANGE-BASED MODEL OF INTERPERSONAL WORKPLACE EXCLUSION

• Main Author: Scott, Kristin Damato
• Format: Others
• Published: UKnowledge 2007
• Subjects: Workplace Exclusion|Antisocial Work Behavior|Organizational Deviance|Employee Relations|Construct Validation
• Online Access: http://uknowledge.uky.edu/gradschool_diss/534; http://uknowledge.uky.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1537&context=gradschool_diss

The vast majority of social exclusion research has taken place outside of the workplace (i.e., in social settings). In addition, researchers often use a myriad of terms (i.e., ostracism, exclusion, rejection) when describing and investigating exclusion-related phenomena thus contributing to widespread conceptual confusion with respect to this construct. Moreover, past studies have failed to consider the role of social exchange in determining how individuals may react to being excluded by others particularly in a work setting. I sought to address these issues by conducting three multi-wave studies which develop and test a social-exchange based model of interpersonal workplace exclusion (IWE). Specifically, I created and validated two measures (i.e., coworker and supervisor) of IWE. In addition, I examined the discriminant, convergent and predictive validity of these scales. The results of these studies produced two distinct, unidimensional measures of IWE an 8-item coworker IWE scale and an 8-item supervisor IWE scale. Additional analyses revealed that IWE is negatively related to, albeit distinct from, workplace inclusion and is part of the broader conceptual domain of antisocial workplace behavior which includes theoretically similar constructs namely, workplace incivility, counterproductive workplace behavior and workplace bullying. In addition, IWE was found to be negatively related to perceived interpersonal fair treatment, job satisfaction and leader-member exchange (LMX) as well as positively related to job induced tension. Lastly, results of the third study provided support for an exchange-based model of IWE such that both coworker and supervisor IWE measures were associated with employee social undermining behavior, reduced effort and lower levels of organizational citizenship behaviors.