Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-18T20:46:07.698Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Can authentic leaders reduce the spread of negative workplace gossip? The roles of subordinates' perceived procedural justice and interactional justice

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 July 2021

Jin Cheng Open the ORCID record for Jin Cheng [Opens in a new window] ,
Muhammad Usman Open the ORCID record for Muhammad Usman [Opens in a new window] ,
Haiqing Bai Open the ORCID record for Haiqing Bai [Opens in a new window]  and
Yuqing He
Jin Cheng
Affiliation:
School of Management, Xiamen University, 422 Siming South Road, Xiamen 361005, P. R. China
Muhammad Usman
Affiliation:
School of Management, Xiamen University, 422 Siming South Road, Xiamen 361005, P. R. China
Haiqing Bai*
Affiliation:
School of Journalism and Communication, Xiamen University, 422 Siming South Road, Xiamen 361005, P. R. China
Yuqing He
Affiliation:
School of Management, Xiamen University, 422 Siming South Road, Xiamen 361005, P. R. China
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Many studies suggest that leaders should discourage or prevent the spread of negative workplace gossip (NWG), but yet little is understood about the relationship between leaders and their subordinates' NWG. This study interprets the linkage between authentic leadership and two types of NWG via individuals' perceptions of justice based on fairness heuristic and justice views. The data were collected in a three-stage process from a large information technology corporation in China. The findings revealed that interactional justice mediated authentic leadership and NWG's relationship with supervisors and the relationship between authentic leadership and NWG about coworkers. The procedural justice mediated the relationship between authentic leadership and NWG about supervisors, while it didn't mediate the relationship between authentic leadership and NWG about coworkers. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Keywords

Authentic leadershipfairness heuristic viewinteractional justicenegative workplace gossipprocedural justice
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Management & Organization , Volume 28 , Issue 1 , January 2022 , pp. 9 - 32
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press and Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adams, J. S. (1966). Inequity in social exchange. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 2(4), 267–299.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Al-Atwi, A. A. (2018). Personalized and depersonalized responses to leaders’ fair treatment: Status judgments and leader–member exchange as mediating mechanisms. Group & Organization Management, 43(6), 1037–1067.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ambrose, M. L., & Schminke, M. (2003). Organization structure as a moderator of the relationship between procedural justice, interactional justice, perceived organizational, support, and supervisory trust. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88(2), 295–305.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Aryee, S., Budhwar, P. S., & Chen, Z. X. (2002). Trust as a mediator of the relationship between organizational justice and work outcomes: Test of a social exchange model. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 23(3), 267–285.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Avolio, B. J., & Gardner, W. L. (2005). Authentic leadership development: Getting to the root of positive forms of leadership. Leadership Quarterly, 16(3), 315–338.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Avolio, B. J., Gardner, W. L., Walumbwa, F. O., Luthans, F., & May, D. R. (2004). Unlocking the mask: A look at the process by which authentic leaders impact follower attitudes and behaviors. Leadership Quarterly, 15(6), 801–823.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bai, Y., Wang, J., Chen, T., & Li, F. (2020). Learning from supervisor negative gossip: The reflective learning process and performance outcome of employee receivers. Human Relations, 73(12), 1689–1717 .CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baron, R. M., & Kenny, D. A. (1986). The moderator–mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51(6), 1173–1182.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Beersma, B., & Van Kleef, G. A. (2012). Why people gossip: An empirical analysis of social motives, antecedents, and consequences. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 42(11), 2640–2670.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bies, R., & Moag, J. (1986). Interactional justice: Communication criteria of fairness. Research on Negotiations in Organizations, 1, 290–318.Google Scholar
Boekhorst, J. A. (2015). The role of authentic leadership in fostering workplace inclusion: A social information processing perspective. Human Resource Management, 54(2), 241–264.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bordia, P., Kiazad, K., Restubog, S. L. D., DiFonzo, N., Stenson, N., & Tang, R. L. (2014). Rumor as revenge in the workplace. Group & Organization Management, 39(4), 363–388.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brady, D. L., Brown, D. J., & Liang, L. H. (2017). Moving beyond assumptions of deviance: The reconceptualization and measurement of workplace gossip. Journal of Applied Psychology, 102(1), 1–25.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Braun, S., & Nieberle, K. W. (2017). Authentic leadership extends beyond work: A multilevel model of work–family conflict and enrichment. The Leadership Quarterly, 28(6), 780–797.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brislin, R. W. (1970). Back-translation for cross-cultural research. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 1(3), 185–216.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chan, S. H. J., & Lai, H. Y. I. (2017). Understanding the link between communication satisfaction, perceived justice and organizational citizenship behavior. Journal of Business Research, 70, 214–223.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cheng, J., Bai, H., & Yang, X. (2019). Ethical leadership and internal whistleblowing: A mediated moderation model. Journal of Business Ethics, 155(1), 115–130.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clay-Warner, J., Reynolds, J., & Roman, P. (2005). Organizational justice and job satisfaction: A test of three competing models. Social Justice Research, 18(4), 391–409.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen-Charash, Y., & Spector, P. E. (2002). The role of justice in organizations: A meta-analysis (vol 86, pg 278, 2001). Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 89(2), 1215–1215. doi: 10.1016/s0749-5978(02)00040-7CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Colquitt, J. A. (2001). On the dimensionality of organizational justice: A construct validation of a measure. Journal of Applied Psychology, 86(3), 386–400.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Colquitt, J. A., Conlon, D. E., Wesson, M. J., Porter, C. O., & Ng, K. Y. (2001). Justice at the millennium: A meta-analytic review of 25 years of organizational justice research. Journal of Applied Psychology, 86(3), 425.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Colquitt, J. A., & Rodell, J. B. (2015). Measuring justice and fairness. In Cropanzano, R., & Ambrose, M.A. (Eds.) , The Oxford handbook of justice in the workplace. (pp. 187–202). New York, NY, USA: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Colquitt, J. A., Zipay, K. P., Lynch, J. W., & Outlaw, R. (2018). Bringing “The Beholder” center stage: On the propensity to perceive overall fairness. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 148, 159–177.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cropanzano, R., Bowen, D., & Gilliland, S. (2007). The management of organizational justice. Academy of Management Perspectives, 21(4), 34–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cropanzano, R., Prehar, C. A., & Chen, P. Y. (2002). Using social exchange theory to distinguish procedural from interactional justice. Group & Organization Management, 27(3), 324–351.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cropanzano, R., Rupp, D. E., Mohler, C. J., & Schminke, M. (2001). Three roads to organizational justice, in Ferris, G.R. (Ed.), Research in personnel and human resource management (Vol. 19, pp. 1–13). New York, NY: Elsevier Science.Google Scholar
Dayan, M., & Di Benedetto, A. (2008). Procedural and interactional justice perceptions and teamwork quality. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, 23(7–8), 566–576.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DeConinck, J. B. (2010). The effect of organizational justice, perceived organizational support, and perceived supervisor support on marketing employees' level of trust. Journal of Business Research, 63(12), 1349–1355.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Decoster, S., Camps, J., Stouten, J., Vandevyvere, L., & Tripp, T. M. (2013). Standing by your organization: The impact of organizational identification and abusive supervision on followers’ perceived cohesion and tendency to gossip. Journal of Business Ethics, 118(3), 623–634.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ellwardt, L., Wittek, R., & Wielers, R. (2012). Talking about the boss: Effects of generalized and interpersonal trust on workplace gossip. Group & Organization Management, 37(4), 521–549.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Folger, R., & Martin, C. (1986). Relative deprivation and referent cognitions: Distributive and procedural justice effects. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 22(6), 531–546.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foster, E. K. (2004). Research on gossip: Taxonomy, methods, and future directions. Review of General Psychology, 8(2), 78–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gefen, D., Straub, D. W., & Boudreau, M. C. (2000). Structural equation modeling and regression: Guidelines for research practice. Communications of the Association for Information Systems, 4(1), 1–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greenberg, J. (1990a). Employee theft as a reaction to underpayment inequity: The hidden cost of pay cuts. Journal of Applied Psychology, 75(5), 561–568.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greenberg, J. (1990b). Organizational justice: Yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Journal of Management, 16(2), 399–432.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grosser, T. J., Lopez-Kidwell, V., Labianca, G., & Ellwardt, L. (2012). Hearing it through the grapevine: Positive and negative workplace gossip. Organizational Dynamics, 41(1), 52–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hayes, A. F. (2013). Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: A regression-based approach. New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Hirst, G., Walumbwa, F., Aryee, S., Butarbutar, I., & Chen, C. J. H. (2016). A multilevel investigation of authentic leadership as an antecedent of helping behavior. Journal of Business Ethics, 139(3), 485–499.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hsiung, H. H. (2012). Authentic leadership and employee voice behavior: A multilevel psychological process. Journal of Business Ethics, 107(3), 349–361.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huong, L., Zheng, C., & Fujimoto, Y. (2016). Inclusion, organisational justice and employee well-being. International Journal of Manpower, 37(6), 945–964.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jacobs, G., Belschak, F. D., & Den Hartog, D. N. (2014). (Un)ethical behavior and performance appraisal: The role of affect, support, and organizational justice. Journal of Business Ethics, 121(1), 63–76.Google Scholar
Jensen, S., & Luthans, F. (2006). Entrepreneurs as authentic leaders: Impact on employees' attitudes. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 27(8), 646–666.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, R. E., & Chang, C. H. (2008). Relationships between organizational commitment and its antecedents: Employee self-concept matters. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 38(2), 513–541.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, D. A., Fassina, N. E., & Uggerslev, K. L. (2006). Meta-analytic tests of justice & OCB: agent-system, agent dominance, & shared-variance models. In Academy of Management Proceedings (vol. 2006, no. 1, pp. A1–A6). Briarcliff Manor, NY 10510: Academy of Management.Google Scholar
Jones, D. A., & Martens, M. L. (2009). The mediating role of overall fairness and the moderating role of trust certainty in justice–criteria relationships: The formation and use of fairness heuristics in the workplace. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 30(8), 1025–1051.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kampa, J., Rigotti, T., & Otto, K. (2017). Mechanisms linking authentic leadership to emotional exhaustion: The role of procedural justice and emotional demands in a moderated mediation approach. Industrial health, 55(2), 95–107.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Khan, K., Abbas, M., Gul, A., & Raja, U. (2015). Organizational justice and job outcomes: Moderating role of Islamic work ethic. Journal of Business Ethics, 126(2), 235–246.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kim, A., Moon, J., & Shin, J. (2019). Justice perceptions, perceived insider status, and gossip at work: A social exchange perspective. Journal of Business Research, 97, 30–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kirkman, B. L., Chen, G., Farh, J.-L., Chen, Z. X., & Lowe, K. B. (2009). Individual power distance orientation and follower reactions to transformational leaders: A cross-level, cross-cultural examination. Academy of Management Journal, 52(4), 744–764.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kong, D. T., & Barsness, Z. I. (2018). Perceived managerial (remote leader) trustworthiness as a moderator for the relationship between overall fairness and perceived supervisory (direct leader) trustworthiness. Current Psychology, 37(1), 280–294.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Konovsky, M. A. (2000). Understanding procedural justice and its impact on business organizations. Journal of Management, 26(3), 489–511.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuo, C.-C., Chang, K., Quinton, S., Lu, C.-Y., & Lee, I. (2015). Gossip in the workplace and the implications for HR management: A study of gossip and its relationship to employee cynicism. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 26(18), 2288–2307.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laschinger, H. K. S., Wong, C. A., & Grau, A. L. (2013). Authentic leadership, empowerment and burnout: A comparison in new graduates and experienced nurses. Journal of Nursing Management, 21(3), 541–552.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lemoine, G. J., Hartnell, C. A., & Leroy, H. (2019). Taking stock of moral approaches to leadership: An integrative review of ethical, authentic, and servant leadership. Academy of Management Annals, 13(1), 148–187.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leventhal, G. S. (1980). What should be done with equity theory? In Gergen, K. J., Greenberg, M. S. & Willis, R. H. (Eds.), Social exchange: Advances in theory and research (pp. 27–55). Boston, MA: Springer US.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Li, A., McCauley, K. D., & Shaffer, J. A. (2017). The influence of leadership behavior on employee work–family outcomes: A review and research agenda. Human Resource Management Review, 27(3), 458–472.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liden, R. C., Wayne, S. J., Liao, C., & Meuser, J. D. (2014). Servant leadership and serving culture: Influence on individual and unit performance. Academy of Management Journal, 57(5), 1434–1452.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lind, E. A. (2001). Fairness heuristic theory: Justice judgments as pivotal cognitions in organizational relations. In Greenberg, J., & Cropanzano, R. (Eds.), Advances in Organizational Justice (pp. 56–88. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press).Google Scholar
Lind, E. A., & Tyler, T. R. (1988). The social psychology of procedural justice. New York, NY: Plenum Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liu, S.-M., Liao, J.-Q., & Wei, H. (2015). Authentic leadership and whistleblowing: Mediating roles of psychological safety and personal identification. Journal of Business Ethics, 131(1), 107–119.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lyubovnikova, J., Legood, A., Turner, N., & Mamakouka, A. (2017). How authentic leadership influences team performance: The mediating role of team reflexivity. Journal of Business Ethics, 141(1), 59–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martinescu, E., Janssen, O., & Nijstad, B. A. (2019). Gossip as a resource: How and why power relationships shape gossip behavior. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 153, 89–102.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Masterson, S. S., Lewis, K., Goldman, B. M., & Taylor, M. S. (2000). Integrating justice and social exchange: The differing effects of fair procedures and treatment on work relationships. Academy of Management Journal, 43(4), 738–748.Google Scholar
Memon, M. A., Cheah, J., Ramayah, T., Ting, H., & Chuah, F. (2018). Mediation analysis issues and recommendations. Journal of Applied Structural Equation Modeling, 2(1), 1–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Michelson, G., Van Iterson, A., & Waddington, K. (2010). Gossip in organizations: Contexts, consequences, and controversies. Group & Organization Management, 35(4), 371–390.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mohammad, J., Quoquab, F., Idris, F., Al Jabari, M., & Wishah, R. (2019). The mediating role of overall fairness perception: A structural equation modelling assessment. Employee Relations, 41(3), 614–636.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moorman, R. H. (1991). Relationship between organizational justice and organizational citizenship behaviors: Do fairness perceptions influence employee citizenship? Journal of Applied Psychology, 76(6), 845–855.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Neider, L. L., & Schriesheim, C. A. (2011). The authentic leadership inventory (ALI): Development and empirical tests. Leadership Quarterly, 22(6), 1146–1164.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Podsakoff, P. M., MacKenzie, S. B., Lee, J. Y., & Podsakoff, N. P. (2003). Common method biases in behavioral research: A critical review of the literature and recommended remedies. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88(5), 879–903.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rooks, G., Tazelaar, F., & Snijders, C. (2011). Gossip and reputation in business networks. European Sociological Review, 27(1), 90–106.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rupp, D. E., & Cropanzano, R. (2002). The mediating effects of social exchange relationships in predicting workplace outcomes from multifoci organizational justice. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 89(1), 925–946.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Şantaş, G., Uğurluoğlu, Ö, Özer, Ö, & Demir, A. (2018). Do gossip functions effect on organizational revenge and job stress among health personnel? Journal of Health Management, 20(1), 64–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schein, E. H. (2010). Organizational culture and leadership (6th ed.). San Francisco, CA: Wiley.Google Scholar
Schminke, M., Arnaud, A., & Taylor, R. (2015). Ethics, values, and organizational justice: Individuals, organizations, and beyond. Journal of Business Ethics, 130(3), 727–736.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tassiello, V., Lombardi, S., & Costabile, M. (2018). Are we truly wicked when gossiping at work? The role of valence, interpersonal closeness and social awareness. Journal of Business Research, 84, 141–149.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tekleab, A. G., Takeuchi, R., & Taylor, M. S. (2005). Extending the chain of relationships among organizational justice, social exchange, and employee reactions: The role of contract violations. Academy of Management Journal, 48(1), 146–157.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tepper, B. J., & Henle, C. A. (2011). A case for recognizing distinctions among constructs that capture interpersonal mistreatment in work organizations. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 32(3), 487–498.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tyler, T. R., & Lind, E. A. (1992). A relational model of authority in groups. Advances in experimental social psychology, 25, 115–191.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van den Bos, K., Lind, E. A., & Wilke, H. A. M. (2001). The psychology of procedural and distributive justice viewed from the perspective of fairness heuristic theory. In Cropanzano, R. (Ed.), Justice in the workplace: Vol. 2. From theory to practice (pp. 49–66). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Walumbwa, F. O., Avolio, B. J., Gardner, W. L., Wernsing, T. S., & Peterson, S. J. (2008). Authentic leadership: Development and validation of a theory-based measure. Journal of Management, 34(1), 89–126.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wong, C. A., & Cummings, G. G. (2009). The influence of authentic leadership behaviors on trust and work outcomes of health care staff. Journal of Leadership Studies, 3(2), 6–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wu, L.-Z., Birtch, T. A., Chiang, F. F. T., & Zhang, H. (2018a). Perceptions of negative workplace gossip: A self-consistency theory framework. Journal of Management, 44(5), 1873–1898.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wu, X., Kwan, H. K., Wu, L.-Z., & Ma, J. (2018b). The effect of workplace negative gossip on employee proactive behavior in China: The moderating role of traditionality. Journal of Business Ethics, 148(4), 801–815.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Xu, A. J., Loi, R., & Ngo, H.-Y. (2016). Ethical leadership behavior and employee justice perceptions: The mediating role of trust in organization. Journal of Business Ethics, 134(3), 493–504.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zhao, X., Lynch, J. G. Jr, & Chen, Q. (2010). Reconsidering Baron and Kenny: Myths and truths about mediation analysis. Journal of Consumer Research, 37(2), 197–206.CrossRefGoogle Scholar