Who will survive workplace ostracism?

Career calling among hotel employees

Abstract
From the perspective of conservation of resources theory, this
research tests a model that explores the relationship between
workplace ostracism by supervisors and organizational citizenship
behaviors toward customers (OCB–C) and career adaptability. This
study also examines the mediating role of thriving at work in the
above relationship. More importantly, the moderating effect of
career calling is explored. The research design uses matching data
from hotel frontline service employees and their supervisors in
Taiwan. Findings demonstrate a mediating role of thriving at work
between workplace ostracism and OCB-C as well as adaptability.
Furthermore, results emphasize the moderating role of career
calling in the relationship between supervisor ostracism and
thriving at work. However, the results do not support the proposed
moderated mediation model. Theoretical and practical implications
of the research are also discussed.

Introduction
In service industries, frontline employees who serve as the main
interface between an organization and customers are called
“boundary spanning employees” (Schneider & Bowen, 1985).
Frontline employees not only provide customers with high-quality
services, but also respond to their requirements. Thus, these
employees must maintain good relationships with their colleagues.
Workplace ostracism in hospitality has gradually attracted academic
attention in recent years and has been defined as being ignored
intentionally or unintentionally at the workplace or being uninvited
or absent in certain situations (Ferris et al., 2015). From the
perspective of social identification, ostracized employees reduce
their identification with and loyalty to the organization, thereby
affecting their citizenship behavior (Ellemers et al., 2004). Recently,
this issue has been explored from the viewpoint of conservation of
resources (COR). The assumption is that service employees who are
ignored or excluded by supervisors or colleagues in the workplace
reduce their engagement and service productivity (Hsieh &
Karatepe, 2019; Leung et al., 2011). Therefore, this study regards
exclusion as an important factor in the lack of interpersonal
resources in the workplace and explores the effect of being
ostracized by supervisors on the service performance and on career
development. Given the increasingly dynamic and competitive
hospitality environment, organizational citizenship behaviors
toward customers (OCB–C) and career adaptability has recently
drawn research attention (Qiu et al., 2019; Safavi & Bouzari, 2019).
OCB-C is defined as the voluntary, authentic, and enthusiastic
actions that employees undertake to serve customers, which aligns
with the organizational interests to ensure service competitiveness
(Chan & Lam, 2011). Career adaptability refers to individual
abilities to cope with current and anticipated requirements of
occupational roles (Savickas & Porfeli, 2012). However, limited
research has explored the effects of supervisor ostracism on OCB-C
and career adaptability. The present study fills this gap by
scrutinizing such effects.
Hospitality research on career development and extra-role
behaviors has also identified the significance of supervisor behavior
in terms of employee work moods and learning opportunities (Bavik
et al., 2017; Luu, 2021). To integrate the relevant research, the
present study scrutinizes the mechanisms linking workplace
ostracism to OCB-C and career adaptability through the mediation
of thriving at work, which contains two subdimensions of vitality
and learning. These two elements reflect the activated positive
mood and need for growth (Porath et al., 2012). Thus, this study
contributes to ostracism research by identifying the essential role of
the needs for vitality and learning in discussing the negative
impacts of ostracism on OCB-C and career adaptability.
In investigating the moderating role of workplace ostracism, the
current hospitality literature explains factors of employee
personality traits and of psychological conditions (Huertas-Valdivia
et al., 2019; Leung et al., 2011; Zhu et al., 2017). To date, no
research has investigated how career calling can alleviate the
depletion of employees’ psychological resources caused by
workplace ostracism. Career calling stands for the profound
interests and value pursuit for career goal (Duffy et al., 2011). High
levels of career calling are not only extremely important among
hospitality employees to achieve organizational success, but also
critical to their personal career adaptability. Employees with high
levels of calling for the hospitality career can actively face the
negative aspects of workplace stressors, thereby alleviate the
negative effect of being ostracized by their supervisors on thriving at
work. Accordingly, the present study adopts career calling, which is
the latest concern among organizational behavior research (Clinton
et al., 2017), as a moderator and examines its effects on the negative
relationship of workplace ostracism with OCB-C and career
adaptability.
Accordingly, this study has the following purposes. First, this study
explores the relationships among workplace ostracism, work
performance factor (i.e., OCB-C), and career development factor
(i.e., career adaptability). Second, this study explains the mediating
role of thriving at work in the relationship of workplace ostracism
with OCB-C and career adaptability. Finally, this study discusses
how career calling moderates the relationship of supervisor
ostracism and thriving at work.