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Can Gossip Buffer the Effect of Job Insecurity on Workplace Friendships?
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2019 04 10; 16(7)IJ

Abstract

Although previous research has documented a host of negative consequences of job insecurity, workplace interpersonal relationships have rarely been considered. This omission might be caused by the application of broad stress theories to the job insecurity literature without taking a nuanced perspective to understand the nature of job insecurity. To address this issue, we conceptualized job insecurity as a threat to employee social acceptance by their employer. This conceptualization, therefore, allows us to apply the multimotive model of social rejection to investigate a previously-overlooked outcome of job insecurity-workplace friendships. Specifically, we investigated the relationship between both job feature insecurity and job loss insecurity with workplace friendships. Based on stress coping theory and the fundamental differences between job feature insecurity and job loss insecurity, we further proposed that employees' tendency to engage in positive gossip buffers the negative impact of job feature insecurity on workplace friendships, whereas employees' tendency to engage in negative gossip buffers the negative impact of job loss insecurity on workplace friendships. Data collected from 286 working adults from Mturk supported our hypotheses. Our study opens the door for future research to take a more nuanced approach when examining nontraditional consequences of job insecurity.

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Authors+Show Affiliations

Jiang L
School of Psychology, University of Auckland, 23 Symonds Street, CBD, Auckland 1010, New Zealand. l.jiang@auckland.ac.nz.
Xu X
Department of Psychology, Old Dominion University; 250 Mills Godwin Life Sciences Bldg, Norfolk, VA 23529, USA. x3xu@odu.edu.
Hu X
Business School, Queensland University of Technology, 2 George Street, Brisbane, QLD 4000, Australia. xiaowen.hu@qut.edu.au.

MeSH

AdultCommunicationFemaleFriendsHumansInterpersonal RelationsJob SatisfactionMaleMiddle AgedWorkplace

Pub Type(s)

Journal Article

Language

eng

PubMed ID

30974818

Citation

Jiang, Lixin, et al. "Can Gossip Buffer the Effect of Job Insecurity On Workplace Friendships?" International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, vol. 16, no. 7, 2019.
Jiang L, Xu X, Hu X. Can Gossip Buffer the Effect of Job Insecurity on Workplace Friendships? Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2019;16(7).
Jiang, L., Xu, X., & Hu, X. (2019). Can Gossip Buffer the Effect of Job Insecurity on Workplace Friendships? International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 16(7). https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16071285
Jiang L, Xu X, Hu X. Can Gossip Buffer the Effect of Job Insecurity On Workplace Friendships. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2019 04 10;16(7) PubMed PMID: 30974818.
* Article titles in AMA citation format should be in sentence-case
TY - JOUR T1 - Can Gossip Buffer the Effect of Job Insecurity on Workplace Friendships? AU - Jiang,Lixin, AU - Xu,Xiaohong, AU - Hu,Xiaowen, Y1 - 2019/04/10/ PY - 2019/03/14/received PY - 2019/03/30/revised PY - 2019/04/06/accepted PY - 2019/4/13/entrez PY - 2019/4/13/pubmed PY - 2019/8/6/medline KW - gossip KW - job insecurity KW - stress coping KW - workplace friendships JF - International journal of environmental research and public health JO - Int J Environ Res Public Health VL - 16 IS - 7 N2 - Although previous research has documented a host of negative consequences of job insecurity, workplace interpersonal relationships have rarely been considered. This omission might be caused by the application of broad stress theories to the job insecurity literature without taking a nuanced perspective to understand the nature of job insecurity. To address this issue, we conceptualized job insecurity as a threat to employee social acceptance by their employer. This conceptualization, therefore, allows us to apply the multimotive model of social rejection to investigate a previously-overlooked outcome of job insecurity-workplace friendships. Specifically, we investigated the relationship between both job feature insecurity and job loss insecurity with workplace friendships. Based on stress coping theory and the fundamental differences between job feature insecurity and job loss insecurity, we further proposed that employees' tendency to engage in positive gossip buffers the negative impact of job feature insecurity on workplace friendships, whereas employees' tendency to engage in negative gossip buffers the negative impact of job loss insecurity on workplace friendships. Data collected from 286 working adults from Mturk supported our hypotheses. Our study opens the door for future research to take a more nuanced approach when examining nontraditional consequences of job insecurity. SN - 1660-4601 UR - https://www.unboundmedicine.com/medline/citation/30974818/Can_Gossip_Buffer_the_Effect_of_Job_Insecurity_on_Workplace_Friendships DB - PRIME DP - Unbound Medicine ER -