Cheng Sheng, Wang Yumei, Kuo Chien-Chih
School of Business, Suzhou University of Science and Technology, Suzhou, China.
Department of Psychology, National Chengchi University, Taipei, Taiwan.
Front Public Health. 2025 Apr 2;13:1575259. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1575259. eCollection 2025.
Negative gossip is a common behavior in the workplace. However, little research focuses on the employee perception of negative supervisor gossip in workplace. This study proposes that employee perceived negative supervisor gossip is a stressor that may lead employees to try coping using impression management tactics but ultimately to experience emotional exhaustion. Data were collected from 406 full-time Chinese employees and assessed with a time-lagged design. The results show that employee perceived negative supervisor gossip has a significant positive relationship with impression management, and impression management is positively correlated to emotional exhaustion. Furthermore, impression management mediates the relationship between perceived negative supervisor gossip and emotional exhaustion. Finally, task interdependence moderates the direct and indirect effects among perceived negative supervisor gossip, impression management, and emotional exhaustion. This study also discusses the theoretical and practical implications for managers. Specifically, supervisors should minimize the frequency of negative gossip behavior, encourage self-actualization among employees, and provide employees with more collaborative tasks.
负面八卦是职场中的一种常见行为。然而，很少有研究关注员工对职场中负面上司八卦的看法。本研究提出，员工所感知到的负面上司八卦是一种压力源，可能会导致员工尝试使用印象管理策略来应对，但最终会导致情绪耗竭。数据收集自406名中国全职员工，并采用了时间滞后设计进行评估。结果表明，员工所感知到的负面上司八卦与印象管理之间存在显著的正相关关系，且印象管理与情绪耗竭呈正相关。此外，印象管理在员工所感知到的负面上司八卦与情绪耗竭之间起中介作用。最后，任务相互依赖性调节了员工所感知到的负面上司八卦、印象管理和情绪耗竭之间的直接和间接影响。本研究还讨论了对管理者的理论和实践意义。具体而言，上司应尽量减少负面八卦行为的频率，鼓励员工自我实现，并为员工提供更多协作性任务。
