Social Undermining in the Workplace
* Academy of Mtinagfiiwnl journal • 2002, Vol, 4S, No, I. :i:n-351.
SOCIAL UNDERMINING IN THE WORKPLACE
MICHELLE K. DUFFY University of Kentucky DANIEL C. GANSTER University of Arkansas MILAN PAGON University of Ljubljana An interactive model of social undermining and social support in the workplace was developed and tested among police officers in the Republic of Slovenia. As predicted, social undermining was significantly associated with employee outcomes, in most cases more strongly than was social support. High levels of undermining and support from the same source were associated with negative outcomes. However, support from one source appeared to only modestly attenuate the negative effects of social undermining from another source. Interpersonal relationships are critical determinants of what occurs in any organization— how it functions, how effectively it performs its central tasks, and how it reacts to its external environment. According to Baron (1996), interpersonal relationships and interactions among organization members are at least as important in these respects as other factors that have received far more attention from scholars in organizational behavior and industrial-organizational psychology, factors such as job-related attitudes, reward and appraisal systems, and other aspects of employee behavior. Given the potential importance of interpersonal relations in the workplace, it is surprising how relatively little attention organizational researchers have devoted to these issues, especially to the concept of negative interactions in the workplace. Social relationships and exchanges are complex; they are capable of engendering intense feelings of both happiness and disappointment (Rook, 1992). Although the benefits associated with positive work and social relationships are well documented, little is currently understood about the effects of negative work interactions on An earlier version of this article was presented at the 1998 annual meeting
SOCIAL UNDERMINING IN THE WORKPLACE
MICHELLE K. DUFFY University of Kentucky DANIEL C. GANSTER University of Arkansas MILAN PAGON University of Ljubljana An interactive model of social undermining and social support in the workplace was developed and tested among police officers in the Republic of Slovenia. As predicted, social undermining was significantly associated with employee outcomes, in most cases more strongly than was social support. High levels of undermining and support from the same source were associated with negative outcomes. However, support from one source appeared to only modestly attenuate the negative effects of social undermining from another source. Interpersonal relationships are critical determinants of what occurs in any organization— how it functions, how effectively it performs its central tasks, and how it reacts to its external environment. According to Baron (1996), interpersonal relationships and interactions among organization members are at least as important in these respects as other factors that have received far more attention from scholars in organizational behavior and industrial-organizational psychology, factors such as job-related attitudes, reward and appraisal systems, and other aspects of employee behavior. Given the potential importance of interpersonal relations in the workplace, it is surprising how relatively little attention organizational researchers have devoted to these issues, especially to the concept of negative interactions in the workplace. Social relationships and exchanges are complex; they are capable of engendering intense feelings of both happiness and disappointment (Rook, 1992). Although the benefits associated with positive work and social relationships are well documented, little is currently understood about the effects of negative work interactions on An earlier version of this article was presented at the 1998 annual meeting