The danger of feeling sorry for oneself: How coworker incivility diminishes job performance through perceived organizational isolation among self-pitying employees

Abstract

The study examined how employees’ experience of resource-draining coworker incivility might undermine their job performance, with a focus on how this harmful process might be explained by perceptions of organizational isolation and moderated by susceptibility to self-pity. Three-wave survey data, collected among employees and their supervisors in various industries, indicated that an important reason that employees’ exposure to rude coworker treatment escalated into diminished performance outcomes was a belief that the employing organization was the source of their sense of abandonment. As a mediator, perceived organizational isolation exerted an especially prominent effect among employees who had a general tendency to pity themselves in difficult circumstances. Organizations accordingly can contain the risk that disrespectful coworker relationships translate into tarnished performance by discouraging employees to feel bad for themselves in the face of work-related hardships. JEL Classification: M50