Exploitative Leadership and Negative Gossip Behavior about Supervisor: The Perspective of Cognitive Appraisal Theory of Emotion

Abstract

Abstract: Exploitative leadership exists widely in organizations and can profoundly affect employees' emotional state and work behaviors. Despite the detrimental effect of exploitative leadership on employees' behavior about work have been proved, we still know little about how employees may react toward their exploitative leader. Such reaction is of great significance as it may affect the leader's future behavior. Therefore, based on the cognitive appraisal theory of emotion, the current study explores the effect of exploitative leadership on employees' negative gossip behavior about supervisor, and further examines the mediating role of workplace anxiety and the moderating role of moral identity. A multi-stage questionnaire survey is conducted to collect 438 pieces of valid questionnaire data in three stages on the professional data platform Credamo. The results show that:exploitative leadership has a significant positive impact on employees' workplace anxiety and ultimately leads to employees' negative gossip behavior about supervisor. The indirect effect of exploitative leadership on employees' negative gossip behavior about supervisor, via workplace anxiety, is moderated by employees' moral identity such that the indirect effect is positive and significant when employees' moral identity is low, but not significant when employees' moral identity is high. The current study expands the theoretical perspective and outcomes of exploitative leadership research, enriches the research on antecedent variables of negative gossip behavior in the workplace.

Key words: exploitative leadership, workplace anxiety, negative gossip, moral identity, cognitive appraisal theory of emotion

Liu Mingwei, Zhang Pengcheng, Pan Xiaoqing, Liu Zhiqiang, Ji Xiaotong. Exploitative Leadership and Negative Gossip Behavior about Supervisor: The Perspective of Cognitive Appraisal Theory of Emotion[J]. Management Review, 2023, 35(11): 230-241.

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