Co-worker Mistreatment in a Singaporean Chinese Firm: The Roles of Third Party Embeddedness and Network Closure

Abstract

This study integrates research on social networks and interpersonal counterproductive behaviours to examine the role of third party relationships in predicting an individual's susceptibility to co-worker mistreatment, and in moderating the relationship between co-worker mistreatment and job performance. Third party embeddedness and network closure are examined in the formal workflow network and the informal liking network. Results obtained from employees in a family-owned Chinese business in Singapore indicate that an individual is more likely to be mistreated by a co-worker when both parties are strongly embedded in mutual third party relationships in the workflow network, and that the individual is less likely to be mistreated when both parties are strongly embedded in the liking network. At the individual network level, network closure (i.e., the extent to which an individual's contacts are themselves connected to one another) in the workflow network increases the likelihood that a co-worker will mistreat the individual, but closure in the liking network weakens the negative relationship between mistreatment and performance. The findings offer a network-based perspective to understanding interpersonal mistreatment and counterproductive work behaviours, particularly in the context of Confucian Asian firms, and provide practical implications for organizations and individuals to reduce counterproductive behaviours at work.

本研究整合社会网络和人际反生产行为的研究, 探讨第三方关系在预测个人被同事虐待的程度中的作用, 也探讨第三方关系对于同事虐待和工作业绩之间关系的调节作用。 研究探讨了正式的工作流程网络和非正式的喜欢网络中的第三方嵌入性和网络闭合。 针对新加坡的一家华人家族企业的员工的研究显示, 当双方强烈地嵌入到工作流程网络中的第三方相互关系中时, 个人更可能被同事虐待; 当双方强烈地嵌入在喜欢网络中时, 个人更不可能被同事虐待。 在个人网络的层次上, 工作流程网络中的网络闭合(即, 个人的交往对象之间相互联结的程度) 增加个人被同事虐待的可能性, 但喜欢网络中的闭合减弱虐待与工作业绩之间的关系。 这些研究发现提供了一个基于网络的视角, 来理解人际虐待和反生产工作行为、 特别是在儒家文化的亚洲公司的情境下的人际虐待和反生产工作行为, 同时也对组织和个人减少工作中的反生产行为具有实践意义。