“I Am Sorry, But I Did Not Mean to Hurt You”: A Moderated-Mediation Model of Group Non-purposeful Ostracism

Our paper aims to advance our understanding of group non-purposeful ostracism at work by studying the causes and consequences of the non-purposeful ostracism and the conditions under which non-purposeful ostracism increases. Using network analysis on the ostracism data collected in two waves from 535 members across 73 groups, we found that group cognitive diversity and group time pressure were positively related to group non-purposeful ostracism, which in turn was negatively related to a group’s effectiveness. Group non-purposeful ostracism mediated group cognitive diversity and group time pressure in relation to group effectiveness. Based on the job demands-resources model, we hypothesized and found that recovery opportunities and social feedback climate, respectively, moderated/buffered group time pressure and group cognitive diversity in relation to group non-purposeful ostracism. Theoretical and practical contributions are discussed.