Workplace ostracism, paranoid employees and service performance: a multilevel investigation

Purpose Drawing on the literature on victim precipitation theory, workplace ostracism (WO) and paranoia, this paper examines the mediating role of WO on the paranoia-service performance (SP) relationship. This paper further postulates that team cognitive diversity (TCD) moderates the paranoia-WO relationship. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from 228 nurses from a leading hospital located in an eastern province of China. Hypotheses developed from the literature were tested using multivariate hierarchical linear modeling (HLM). Findings WO had a negative effect on SP, while TCD had a positive effect on WO. Cognitive diversity moderated the paranoia-WO relationship, such that the positive relationship was stronger when group diversity was high. Originality/value This paper develops and tests a model exploring the antecedents of WO and its effect on SP.