The effect of negative workplace gossip about supervisor on knowledge sharing and interaction avoidance: A moderated mediation model
研究员工听到同事说上级坏话时，如何根据对同事动机的猜测（寻求支持还是获取信息）产生不同情绪（同情或道德厌恶），进而影响知识分享或互动回避行为。
Abstract Although negative workplace gossip about supervisors (NWGS) is a prevalent phenomenon, how gossip recipients respond to coworkers' NWGS—particularly taking the perceived motives of gossip into consideration—remains insufficiently understood. Drawing from gossip attribution theory and adopting the recipient perspective, we propose that gossip recipients' emotional and behavioral reactions to coworkers depend on their attribution of the coworker's motive for engaging in NWGS. Using a two‐wave critical incident survey design with a sample of 234 U.S. employees, we tested this moderated mediation model through structural equation modeling. Results show that when recipients perceive NWGS as driven by a support‐seeking motive, they experience compassion and tend to engage in knowledge sharing. In contrast, when recipients perceive NWGS as driven by an information‐seeking motive, they experience moral disgust and tend to engage in interaction avoidance. This study advances understanding of how motive attribution shapes recipients' emotional and interpersonal reactions to coworkers' NWGS, offering novel theoretical and practical insights.