Workplace Ostracism and Employee Performance Outcomes: The Pragmatic and Psychological Effects

Synthesizing the conservation of resource theory (COR) with ostracism literature, we propose an integrative model to better understand how workplace ostracism influences employees' job performance and creativity through both the pragmatic and the psychological effects. Using supervisor-subordinate dyads data from two large companies in different industries with a multi-source, multi-wave design, we find that workplace ostracism influences job performance and creativity through access to information, access to resources, and intrinsic motivation. In addition, as a stress-buffering mechanism, perceived organizational support plays a key role in neutralizing the negative impacts of workplace ostracism on both the pragmatic and the psychological effects, and subsequent behavioral outcomes. The implications of these results for research and practice are discussed.