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The relationship between positive workplace gossip and job satisfaction: The mediating role of job insecurity and organizational identity

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From the perspective of social information processing theory and social identity theory, 1,267 employees were selected as the subjects, and the data were statistically analyzed by using Mplus8.0 and SPSS25.0 to explore the relationship between positive workplace gossip and job satisfaction and the role of job insecurity and organizational identity in this relationship. The results showed that there was a significant positive correlation between positive workplace gossip and job satisfaction. Furthermore, job insecurity and organizational identity independently mediated the relationship between positive workplace gossip and employee job satisfaction. In addition, job insecurity and organizational identity played a serial mediating role in the relationship between positive workplace gossip and job satisfaction. The results of the study shed light on how job insecurity and organizational identity were associated with the process of the positive workplace gossip-job satisfaction relationship. Based on the findings, implications and avenues for future research were discussed.
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Frontiers in Psychology 01 frontiersin.org
The relationship between
positive workplace gossip and
job satisfaction: The mediating
role of job insecurity and
organizational identity
Dawei Wang
1†, Zhaoxiang Niu
2†, Chongyu Sun
3, Peng Yu
1*,
Xiaolong Wang
4, Qihui Xue
1* and Yixin Hu
1
*
1 Educational Development Research Center of Southern Xinjiang, Kashi University, Kashi, China, 2 School
of Psychology, Central China Normal University, Wuhan, China, 3 School of Psychology, Shandong
Normal University, Jinan, China, 4 School of Education Science, Kashi University, Kashi, China
From the perspective of social information processing theory and social identity
theory, 1,267 employees were selected as the subjects, and the data were
statistically analyzed by using Mplus8.0 and SPSS25.0 to explore the relationship
between positive workplace gossip and job satisfaction and the role of job
insecurity and organizational identity in this relationship. The results showed that
there was a significant positive correlation between positive workplace gossip
and job satisfaction. Furthermore, job insecurity and organizational identity
independently mediated the relationship between positive workplace gossip and
employee job satisfaction. In addition, job insecurity and organizational identity
played a serial mediating role in the relationship between positive workplace
gossip and job satisfaction. The results of the study shed light on how job
insecurity and organizational identity were associated with the process of the
positive workplace gossip-job satisfaction relationship. Based on the findings,
implications and avenues for future research were discussed.
KEYWORDS
positive workplace gossip, job satisfaction, job insecurity, organizational identity,
social information processing theory
Introduction
Workplace gossip is common in the work environment; it is one of the channels for
employees to communicate in the organization, and plays a very important role in the
organization (Irvine and Blessing, 2019). Studies indicated that employees spend
approximately 65% of their working time on gossip (Ye etal., 2019), and more than 95% of
employees participated in workplace gossip (Grosser et al., 2012), which further
demonstrates the prevalence of workplace gossip. Workplace gossip can bedivided into
positive and negative workplace gossip according to its impact (Ellwardt etal., 2012). e
impacts of negative workplace gossip on employees’ work outcomes such as work eciency,
TYPE Original Research
PUBLISHED 28 November 2022
DOI 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.989380
OPEN ACCESS
EDITED BY
Sebastian Saniuk,
University of Zielona Góra, Poland
REVIEWED BY
Ari Saptono,
Jakarta State University,
Indonesia
Muhammad Waheed Akhtar,
COMSATS University Islamabad, Pakistan
*CORRESPONDENCE
Peng Yu
yupengjinan@163.com
Qihui Xue
xue_qihui@126.com
Yixin Hu
huyixin2005@163.com
These authors have contributed equally to
this work and share first authorship
SPECIALTY SECTION
This article was submitted to
Organizational Psychology,
a section of the journal
Frontiers in Psychology
RECEIVED 08 July 2022
ACCEPTED 19 October 2022
PUBLISHED 28 November 2022
CITATION
Wang D, Niu Z, Sun C, Yu PWang
XXue Q and Hu Y (2022) The relationship
between positive workplace gossip and job
satisfaction: The mediating role of job
insecurity and organizational identity.
Front. Psychol. 13:989380.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.989380
COPYRIGHT
© 2022 Wang, Niu, Sun, Yu, Wang, Xue and
Hu. This is an open-access article
distributed under the terms of the Creative
Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The
use, distribution or reproduction in other
forums is permitted, provided the original
author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are
credited and that the original publication in
this journal is cited, in accordance with
accepted academic practice. No use,
distribution or reproduction is permitted
which does not comply with these terms.
Wang et al. 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.989380
Frontiers in Psychology 02 frontiersin.org
job satisfaction, and work enthusiasm have attracted more
research attention (DiFonzo etal., 1994; Blakeley etal., 1996;
Baker and Jones, 2006; Yue etal., 2015), but less is known about
the impact of positive workplace gossip on employees’ outcomes
such as job satisfaction (Chen and Jiang, 2017). erefore, this
study aims to explore the relationship between positive workplace
gossip and employees’ job satisfaction.
In addition, previous studies have pointed out that positive
workplace gossip can help individuals eectively cope with job
insecurity (Jiang etal., 2019) and increase employees’ sense of
organizational identity (Ye etal., 2019). Positive workplace gossip
may reduce employees’ job insecurity by alleviating their
uneasiness at work (Chen and Jiang, 2017; Song etal., 2018; Jiang
et al., 2019) and increase employees’ sense of organizational
identity (Ye etal., 2019), which, in turn, improve employees’ work
eciency and job satisfaction (Callea etal., 2016; Asif etal., 2019;
Di Stefano et al., 2020), suggesting that job insecurity and
organizational identity may play a role in explaining the
relationship between positive workplace gossip and job
satisfaction. But there were no studies to prove that.
According to social information processing theory and social
identity theory, positive workplace gossip is an important part of
the workplace environment, which includes praising and
approving positive information such as work ability, attitude, and
performance. When employees encounter positive workplace
gossip, such as leaders’ or colleagues’ armation of their work
ability and performance, they receive and process these positive
information, feel recognized by the organization and others, and
their demands for respect and self-needs are satised, which may
reduce their job insecurity, increase their sense of identity with the
organization, and ultimately aect their job satisfaction. In other
words, positive workplace gossip may indirectly aect employee
job satisfaction through job insecurity and organizational
approval. is is the second innovation of this study. us, this
study’s second goal is to examine the mediating eect of
organizational identity and job insecurity on the relationship
between positive workplace gossip and job satisfaction.
Besides, previous studies have shown that job insecurity is an
antecedent variable of organizational identity (Piccoli etal., 2017;
Huang, 2019); job insecurity can reduce employees’ organizational
identity (Asif etal., 2019; Ali etal., 2020). us, job insecurity and
organizational recognition of positive workplace gossip may play
a serial mediating role in the relationship between job satisfaction
and job insecurity. is is the third innovation of this study.
erefore, this study’s third objective is to examine the serial
mediating eect of organizational identity and job insecurity on
the relationship between positive workplace gossip and
job satisfaction.
In summary, based on the theory of social information
processing, this study rstly aims to explore the relationship
between positive workplace gossip and employee job satisfaction.
Second, this study intends to explore the independent mediating
role of job insecurity and organizational identity in the relationship
between positive workplace gossip and job satisfaction. Finally,
this study wants to explore the serial mediating role of job
insecurity and organizational identity in the relationship between
positive workplace gossip and job satisfaction. e conceptual
model diagram is shown in Figure1.
Literature review and research
hypotheses
Positive workplace gossip and job
satisfaction
Positive workplace gossip refers to the behavior of conveying
positive information about an absent third person with a positive
personal evaluation between people in appropriate situations
(Foster, 2004). Positive workplace gossip can bethe recognition
and praise of one’s work ability, attitude, and performance. It can
be regarded as talking about normative behavior or positive
reputation, which may have an impact on the attitude and
behavior of the employee being discussed (Brady etal., 2017).
Some empirical studies have further proven that positive
workplace gossip has a positive impact on employees’ attitudes
and behaviors, including improving performance, reducing free-
rider behavior and increasing willingness to obey organizational
order (Beersma and Van Kleef, 2012; Feinberg etal., 2012; Bai
etal., 2019).
However, there are few empirical studies exploring the
impact of positive workplace gossip on job satisfaction. Job
satisfaction is a kind of reaction of employees to their work
situation, which refers to a subjective feeling of whether
employees are satised with the work environment and the job
itself from both psychological and physiological aspects
(Hoppock, 1935). According to social information processing
theory, people’s attitudes and behaviors are largely inuenced
by the surrounding social environment. People decide what
attitudes and behaviors to adopt through the processing and
interpretation of specic social information (Salancik and
Pfeer, 1978). On the one hand, positive workplace gossip is an
important part of the workplace environment. e recognition
and praise of employees’ work ability, attitude, and performance
in the workplace provide employees with a positive working
environment and close interpersonal relationships, making
employees have a more positive evaluation of the organization
and themselves and a higher degree of satisfaction. On the other
hand, the prevalence of positive workplace gossip among
employees amplies the positive impact of its related to work,
and creates a more positive work atmosphere. us, employees
will bemore satised with the subjective response to the work
situation, experiencing less pressure performance and feeling
higher job satisfaction when they engage in and face positive
workplace gossip (Salancik and Pfeer, 1978). Based on the
above analysis, this study believes that positive workplace gossip
may improve employees’ job satisfaction. erefore, the
following hypothesis is proposed:
Wang et al. 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.989380
Frontiers in Psychology 03 frontiersin.org
Hypothesis 1: Positive workplace gossip will have a positive
impact on job satisfaction.
The mediating role of job insecurity and
organizational identity
Job insecurity
Job insecurity refers to a sense of helplessness about the
sustainability of work in a threatened environment, one of the
most important organizational stressors encountered by
employees (Greenhalgh and Rosenblatt, 1984; Wang etal., 2020a).
Previous studies have shown that job insecurity notably aects
individual and organizational outcomes, such as employees’
mental health, job satisfaction, and job performance (Ashford
et al., 1989; Sverke et al., 2002). Additionally, job insecurity
negatively predicts job satisfaction among workers (Adkins etal.,
2001; Chirumbolo and Hellgren, 2003; Feather and Rauter, 2004;
Richter and Näswall, 2019; Yeves etal., 2019); that is, employees
who feel higher job insecurity experience lower job satisfaction
(Hsieh and Huang, 2017; Zhang etal., 2018; Tian et al., 2019;
Di Stefano etal., 2020). erefore, there is a negative correlation
between job insecurity and job satisfaction.
In addition, studies have shown that workplace gossip is one
of the factors aecting individual job insecurity; positive
workplace gossip can enable individuals to eectively deal with job
insecurity (Jiang et al., 2019). Employees buer the negative
impact of job insecurity on workplace friendships by participating
in positive workplace gossip and pointing out negative workplace
gossip to others (Jiang et al., 2019). According to social
information processing theory, aer receiving positive gossip in
the workplace (such as positive comments or praise from
supervisors or colleagues), employees have more positive
subjective feelings about themselves and their work, experiencing
a higher sense of self-ecacy and control over their work. When
faced with job insecurity, employees can eectively deal with job
insecurity (Jiang etal., 2019) and then experience higher job
satisfaction (Richter and Näswall, 2019). On the other hand,
employees describe themselves as “good employees” by actively
participating in positive workplace gossip so that they can meet
the values and expectations of the organization, thus reducing
their job insecurity and experiencing higher job satisfaction (Jiang
et al., 2019; Di Stefano et al., 2020). In summary, gossip is a
predictor of job insecurity, and job insecurity played a buering
role in the relationship between positive workplace gossip and job
satisfaction based on cognition appraisal theory. is study
proposes the following hypothesis:
H2: Job insecurity mediates the relationship between positive
workplace gossip and job satisfaction.
Organizational identity
Organizational identity means that when members more
strongly identify with the organization and its values, the
organization will become an important part of its members’ live,
just as members are an important part of the organization
(Cheney and Tompkins, 1987). In addition, existing studies
have pointed out that negative workplace gossip can reduce
organizational identity and service performance of hotel
employees (Ye etal., 2019). Negative workplace gossip threatens
the four basic needs of victimized employees, reduces their
sense of identity with the organization, decreases their interest
in improving the eectiveness of the organization, and declines
their investment in prescribed customer service and customer-
oriented organizational citizenship behavior (CO-OCB), thus
reducing their job satisfaction (Ellemers etal., 2004; Lu etal.,
2016). In the same way, according to social identity theory, in
most social situations, individuals tend to regard themselves as
typical members of groups such as organizations (Ashforth and
FIGURE1
Serial mediating model of positive workplace gossip and job satisfaction.
Wang et al. 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.989380
Frontiers in Psychology 04 frontiersin.org
Mael, 1989). ey identify strongly with a particular group
when it satises their four basic needs, including positive self-
esteem, belonging, control, and the need for a good life. When
the basic needs are met, their identity with the group will
improve (Ashforth and Mael, 1989; Hogg and Terry, 2000;
Smidts etal., 2001). As a pleasant experience, positive workplace
gossip can meet the basic needs of employees and enhance their
organizational identity. First, the positive comments and
evaluations of positive workplace gossip make employees feel
that they are respected and appreciated by their supervisors and
colleagues, thus making positive judgments about themselves.
Second, positive workplace gossip sends a signal to employees
that they are accepted by the organization, increasing their
sense of belonging. ird, positive workplace gossip increases
employees’ sense of control because employees can obtain
expected information and evaluation from supervisors and
colleagues. Finally, positive workplace gossip hints at employees
sense of value and increases their sense of meaning (Ashforth
and Mael, 1989; Ye etal., 2019). erefore, positive workplace
gossip increases employees’ sense of organizational identity.
Importantly, previous studies have shown that organizational
identity plays an important role in employees’ job satisfaction
(e.g., Brown, 1969; Schneider, 1972; Rotondi, 1975; O’Reilly and
Chatman, 1986). People with a high sense of organizational
identity will view their actual work situation more positively,
leading to higher job satisfaction (Van Dick et al., 2004; Ta ng,
2009; Wang et al., 2019a,b,c; Jeanson and Michinov, 2020).
Meanwhile, individuals with a high organizational identity are
more willing to work for the company and derive more happiness
from work (Hwang and Jang, 2020; Mete etal., 2016).
In summary, positive workplace gossip and organizational
identity may aect employees’ job satisfaction, and positive
workplace gossip may aect employees’ organizational identity
(Gerstner and Day, 1997; Van Dick etal., 2004; Riketta, 2005;
Riketta and Van Dick, 2005; Dulebohn et al., 2012; Tan etal.,
2020). Consistent with the theory of social identity, when
employees experience higher positive workplace gossip, the higher
their organizational identity regarding work will beand the higher
their job satisfaction will be(Ashforth and Mael, 1989). erefore,
employees’ organizational identities may play a mediating role in
the relationship between positive workplace gossip and employee
job satisfaction. It is assumed that:
H3: Organizational identity plays a mediating role in the
relationship between positive workplace gossip and
job satisfaction.
The serial mediating role of job insecurity
and organizational identity
Job insecurity and organizational identity may play an
independent mediating role in the relationship between positive
workplace gossip and job satisfaction, but the existence of a serial
mediator remains to befurther studied. Studies have explored the
relationship between job insecurity and organizational identity,
pointing out that job insecurity is an antecedent variable of
organizational identity (Piccoli etal., 2017; Huang, 2019). e
higher the employees’ job insecurity, the lower their organizational
identity is likely to be(Callea etal., 2016; Song etal., 2018; Asif
etal., 2019; Kim, 2019). Negative factors in an organization (such
as job insecurity) will aect the construction of employees
organizational identity, break the bond between employees and
the organization and thus lead to the decline of employees’ job
satisfaction (Ashforth and Mael, 1989). According to social
information processing theory, webelieve that positive workplace
gossip provides a positive workplace environment. In a positive
workplace environment, positive workplace gossip makes
employees more likely to experience recognition from the
organization and colleagues. It makes them have a more positive
evaluation of the organization and themselves, which may reduce
their job insecurity. e reduction of job insecurity increase
employees’ condent about keeping their jobs and further satises
employees’ basic needs, such as self-ecacy and sense of control,
which leads to a higher sense of identity with the organization and
ultimately improves their job satisfaction (Ashforth and Mael,
1989). erefore, wespeculate that positive workplace gossip may
improve employees’ organizational identity and ultimately
improve their job satisfaction by reducing their sense of job
insecurity. In other words, wehypothesize that job insecurity and
organizational identication of positive workplace gossip and job
satisfaction serve as serial mediators. In summary, this study
proposes the following hypothesis:
H4: Job insecurity and organizational identication play a
serial mediating role in the relationship between positive
workplace gossip and job satisfaction.
Materials and methods
Participants and procedures
A random sampling method was adopted to select 1,267
employees in a state-owned enterprise in China as the research
objects, among whom 789 were male (62.3%), and 478 were
female (37.7%). e average age was 37.86 years old (SD = 7.16).
e marital status of the study subjects was as follows: married
(87.6%), unmarried (8.1%), and others (4.3%). e subjects’
educational levels were: 1.0% with junior middle school education,
27.6% with a high school or technical secondary school education,
30.6% with a junior college education, 35.8% with undergraduate
education, and 4.9% with a master’s degree.
e human subjects involved in this study all conformed to
the Academic Committee of Shandong Normal University’ s
ethical standards, as well as the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its
subsequent revisions. Participants volunteered to participate in the
study and were paid to do so. Participants provided informed
Wang et al. 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.989380
Frontiers in Psychology 05 frontiersin.org
consent and verbal consent to participate before completing the
questionnaire. A brief guide describes the purpose of the
investigation and data condentiality procedures. It took
participants approximately 15 min to complete all the
questionnaires. Analyses were conducted using SPSS 25.0.
Mediation analyses made use of Mplus 8.0, and weused 0.05 as
the critical values for our test of hypothesis depending upon the
test statistic.
Measurement tools
Positive workplace gossip scale
e positive workplace gossip scale compiled by Brady etal.
(2017) and revised by Xuan and Majid (2018) was adopted to
measure employees’ positive workplace gossip. e scale includes
10 questions on two dimensions, including positive workplace
gossip about co-workers and positive workplace gossip about the
boss. Examples include questions such as “Complimented on your
boss’s actions during a conversation with a colleague.” A 7-point
Likert scale was used, and the higher the score, the higher the
positive workplace gossip. e Cronbach’s alpha for this scale
was 0.979.
Job satisfaction scale
e job satisfaction scale compiled by Hackman and
Oldham (1980) and revised by Shu and Liang (2015) was
adopted to measure employees’ job satisfaction. e scale
contains three questions, with sample questions such as “I
am generally satised with the work I have done in this
position.” A 5-point Likert scale was used, and the higher the
score was, the higher the job satisfaction. e Cronbach’s alpha
for this scale was 0.948.
Job insecurity scale
e work insecurity scale compiled by Borg and Elizur (1992)
and revised by Zhang etal. (2014) was used to measure employees’
job insecurity. e scale includes two dimensions of cognitive job
insecurity and emotional job insecurity. ere are 7 questions in
total. Cognitive job insecurity is scored in reverse on a scale of
1–4, and emotional job insecurity is scored positively on a scale of
5–7. Example questions include “I think my job is secure.” A
7-point Likert scale was used, and the higher the score was, the
higher the job insecurity. e Cronbachs alpha for this scale
was 0.779.
Organizational identity scale
e organizational identity scale compiled by Smidts etal.
(2001) and revised by Gao and Zhao (2014) was used to measure
employees’ organizational identity. is scale contains 5 questions,
with example questions such as “I have a strong sense of belonging
to our organization.” A 5-point Likert scale was used, and the
higher the score was, the stronger the organizational identity. e
Cronbach’s alpha for this scale was 0.970.
Results
Common method bias
is study adopted the Harman single-factor technique to
estimate the inuence of common method bias. e results
showed that there were 4 factors emerged, with an interpretation
rate of the population variance of 86.75%. e interpretation rate
of the rst common factor was 38.44%, indicating that there was
no serious common method bias in this study (P o d s a k o
etal., 2003).
Correlation analysis
Table1 shows that positive workplace gossip was positively
correlated with job satisfaction and organizational identity
(r = 0.338, p < 0.01; r = 0.327, p < 0.01), while positive workplace
gossip was negatively correlated with job insecurity and age
(r = 0.136, p < 0.01; r = 0.118, p < 0.01). Additionally, job
satisfaction was negatively correlated with job insecurity
(r = 0.181, p < 0.01). ere was a positive correlation between job
satisfaction and organizational identity (r = 0.711, p < 0.0 l) and a
negative correlation between job insecurity and organizational
identity (r = 0.182, p < 0.0 l).
Independent sample t-test results showed that there was a
signicant dierence between male and female job satisfaction
(t = 2.071, p = 0.039). Under dierent education levels, there was
no signicant dierence in job satisfaction (F = 0.264, p = 0.901).
ere was no signicant dierence in job satisfaction among
employees of dierent ages (F = 1.203, p = 0.201). ere was no
signicant dierence in job satisfaction between married and
unmarried employees (t = 0.522, p = 0.593).
The mediating role of job insecurity and
organizational identity in the relationship
between positive workplace gossip and
job satisfaction
e Mplus program was used to test the hypothetical model,
specifying 95% condence intervals and 5,000 bootstrap resamples
(Hayes, 2013; Wen and Ye, 2014). Because demographic variables
were not associated with job satisfaction, they were not included
in the analysis. Tables 2–4 and Figure2 show the results of the
structural equation model analysis, supposing χ2 = 660.879,
df = 245, p < 0.01, χ2/df = 2.697, CFI = 0.992, TLI = 0.990,
RMSEA = 0.037 (90% CI = [0.033, 0.040]), SRMR = 0.059), and
good tting of the model data (Wen etal., 2003; Hayes, 2013).
e study tested each path of the hypothetical model and
found that positive workplace gossip signicantly predicted job
satisfaction, as shown in Figure2 and Table3 (β = 0.296, SE = 0.025,
p < 0.001); therefore, Hypothesis 1 was true. e indirect eect of
workplace gossip on job satisfaction through job insecurity was
Wang et al. 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.989380
Frontiers in Psychology 06 frontiersin.org
signicant, as shown in Table4 (β = 0.025, SE = 0.008, p < 0.01);
therefore, Hypothesis 2 was true. e indirect eect of workplace
gossip on job satisfaction through organizational identication
was signicant, as shown in Table 4 (β = 0.071, SE = 0.009,
p < 0.001), therefore Hypothesis 3 was true. Positive workplace
gossip had a signicant indirect eect on job satisfaction through
a serial of job insecurity and organizational identication, as
shown in Table 4 (β = 0.032, SE = 0.007, p < 0.001); therefore,
Hypothesis 4 was true.
Discussion
Theoretical applications
In response to the call of current positive psychology, this
paper discussed workplace gossip from a positive perspective,
which was benecial to change the past focus on the negative
aspects of workplace gossip. is paper introduced two variables
aecting job satisfaction, job insecurity, and organizational
identity; constructed a serial mediation model of the relationship
between positive workplace gossip and job satisfaction; discussed
the mechanism of positive gossip driving job satisfaction; and
tested the mediating eect of job insecurity and
organizational identity.
First, this study veried the signicant positive relationship
between positive workplace gossip and job satisfaction, supporting
Hypothesis 1. While the positive impact of positive workplace
gossip was gaining traction, the relationship between positive
workplace gossip and job satisfaction had not been studied.
According to social information processing theory, positive
workplace gossip is an important part of the workplace
environment, which includes praising and approving positive
information such as work ability, attitude, and performance.
Individuals interpret this positive information related to
themselves and experience recognition from organizations and
colleagues, which includes more positive feelings, less pressure
performance, and higher job satisfaction (Di Stefano etal., 2020).
In addition, this study enriched the literature on the role of
positive workplace gossip because most of the previous studies
focused on the impact of negative workplace gossip (Bosson etal.,
2006; Ellwardt etal., 2012; Yeves et al., 2019) but ignored the
impact of positive workplace gossip (Wu etal., 2018b; Ye etal.,
2019). e results of this study not only reected the expectations
of previous studies on workplace gossip (Foster, 2004; Beersma
and Van Kleef, 2012; Sun and Mai, 2016; Wu etal., 2018a,b; Tian
etal., 2019; Ye et al., 2019) but also added relevant theoretical
literature on positive workplace gossip, providing empirical
evidence of positive workplace gossip on employees
job satisfaction.
Our study also found signicant gender dierences in
employee job satisfaction, the result that was consistent with
previous studies (Magee, 2015; Yang and Jeong, 2020). Specically,
men (M = 4.16) had lower job satisfaction than women (M = 4.26).
Research have shown that men are more focused on material or
external rewards than women, which may explain why many
studies have found that men report lower job satisfaction than
TABLE1 Describes statistics.
Variables MSD 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
1. Positive
workplace gossip
4.01 1.80
2. Job insecur ity 3.36 1.13 0.136**
3. Organizational
identity
4.26 0.90 0.327** 0.182**
4. Job satisfaction 4.20 0.87 0.338** 0.181** 0.711**
5. Gender 1.38 0.49 0.102** 0.020 0.024 0.058*
6. Marital status 1.17 0.48 0.019 0.010 0.010 0.000 0.093**
7. Years 37.86 7.16 0.118** 0.038 0.020 0.038 0.221** 0.129**
8. Work time 15.81 8.27 0.088** 0.051 0.019 0.033 0.286** 0.109** 0.916**
9. Education 3.16 0.92 0.093** 0.240** 0.003 0.022 0.102** 0.000 0.240** 0.315**-
N= 1,267.
*p< 0.05; **p< 0.01; **p< 0.001.
TABLE2 Results of confirmatory factor analysis of the measurement
models.
Measurement
models
χ2df RMSEA CFI TLI SRMR
Four-factor
(A, B, C, D)
660.879 246 0.992 0.992 0.990 0.036
ree-factor
(A,B + C, D)
5296.837 249 0.126 0.901 0.881 0.124
Two-factor
(A+ B + C, D)
12492.924 251 0.196 0.761 0.714 0.241
One-factor
(A+ B + C + D)
14494.379 252 0.211 0.721 0.668 0.240
Abbreviations: A, positive workplace gossip; B, job insecurity; C, organizational identity;
D, job satisfaction; RMSEA, root-mean-square error of approximation; SRMR,
standardized root-mean-square residual; CFI, comparative t index; TLI, Tucker-Lewis
index.
Wang et al. 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.989380
Frontiers in Psychology 07 frontiersin.org
women (Magee, 2015). Because this leads to men putting “golden
handcus” on themselves, in the sense that they feel more strongly
compelled than women to continue to do work that they have no
intrinsic motivation to do, and they are not particularly proud of
it (Rynes etal., 2004; Magee, 2015).
Second, this study examined the mediating role of job
insecurity in the relationship between positive workplace gossip
and job satisfaction, which supported Hypothesis 2. e empirical
results of this study conrmed the hypothesis of previous studies;
namely, positive workplace gossip could reduce employees’ job
insecurity (Jiang etal., 2019), and the reduction of job insecurity
could increase employees’ job satisfaction (Jiang et al., 2019;
Richter and Näswall, 2019). e results further indicated that job
insecurity was an important transmission mechanism between
positive workplace gossip and job satisfaction and that employees’
perception of the workplace environment aected employees’
perception of their jobs. According to social information
processing theory, positive workplace gossip creates a positive
work environment for our employees. is positive work
environment reduces employees’ job insecurity, increases positive
organizational aspects of the attention of employees, and leads to
more positive organizational evaluation so that employees
perceive higher job satisfaction (Salancik and Pfeer, 1978; Tian
etal., 2019; Yeves etal., 2019; Di Stefano etal., 2020). e model
of job insecurity in this study helps explain how positive workplace
gossip inuences employees’ job satisfaction.
ird, this study found the mediating role of organizational
identity in the relationship between positive workplace gossip
and job satisfaction, which supported Hypothesis 3. e results
of this study provided evidence for previous research hypotheses
that organizational identity (Ye et al., 2019) and the
improvement of organizational identity could increase
employees’ job satisfaction (Van Dick etal., 2004; Mete etal.,
2016). e results further showed that positive workplace gossip
might increase employees’ job satisfaction by increasing their
organizational identity, that is, the organizational identity part
mediated the relationship between positive workplace gossip
and employees’ job satisfaction. According to social identity
theory, webelieve that organizational identication is one of the
positive workplace gossip eect outcomes because positive
workplace gossip contains positive comments and evaluation,
which can satisfy employees’ positive self-esteem, sense of
belonging, sense of control, and demand for the good life,
meeting employees’ basic needs. Correspondingly, employees
organizational identity increases and they experience higher job
satisfaction (Ashforth and Mael, 1989; Lu etal., 2016; Ye etal.,
2019; Tan etal., 2020). is organizational identity model helps
TABLE3 The mediating role of job insecurity and organizational identity.
Outcome: Job insecurity Outcome: Organization
identication
Outcome: Job satisfaction
bSE t b SE t b SE t
Gender 0.056 0.02 2.836**
Marital status 0.017 0.013 1.276
Ye a rs 0.061 0.027 2.253*
Work time 0.011 0.040 0.283
Education 0.031 0.020 1.552
positive workplace
gossip
0.296 0.025 11.765*** 0.198 0.023 8.711*** 0.065 0.025 2.633**
job insecurity 0.305 0.049 6.290*** 0.660 0.034 19.163***
organizational
identity
0.154 0.038 4.043***
R20.088 0.168 0.574
F 5.705*** 4.628*** 18.147***
*p< 0.05; **p< 0.01; ***p< 0.001.
TABLE4 Test of mediation of job insecurity and organizational
identity on the relationship between positive workplace gossip and
job satisfaction: Bootstrap results.
Estimate SE t p BootLLCI BootULCI
Tot al
Ind:
JI JS
0.128 0.014 9.249 0.000 0.105 0.152
Indirect
eect
via JI
0.025 0.008 3.170 0.002 0.018 0.042
Indirect
eect
via OD
0.071 0.009 8.250 0.000 0.059 0.092
Indirect
eect
via JI
and OD
0.032 0.007 4.917 0.000 0.02 0.043
Tot a l 0.164 0.017 9.858 0.000 0.134 0.184
JI = job insecur ity, OD = organizational identity, JS = job satisfaction.
Wang et al. 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.989380
Frontiers in Psychology 08 frontiersin.org
to explain the mechanism by which positive workplace gossip
aects employee job satisfaction.
Finally, the results also examined the serial mediating eect of
job insecurity and organizational identity, suggesting that job
insecurity and organizational identity played a serial mediating
role in the relationship between positive workplace gossip and job
satisfaction, supporting Hypothesis 4. e research results
provided a new theoretical framework to explain the mechanism
of positive workplace gossip on employees’ job satisfaction; that
was, positive workplace gossip might reduce employees’ job
insecurity, increased employees’ organizational identity and
ultimately improved employees’ job satisfaction (Mete etal., 2016;
Chen and Cai, 2017; Huang, 2019; Tian etal., 2019; Yeves etal.,
2019). Consistent with social information processing theory,
we believe that positive workplace gossip includes positive
evaluations and comments that shape a positive work
environment, make employees positively evaluate the organization
and themselves, and cause employees to experience a greater sense
of security and self-ecacy in the organization, thus reducing
their job insecurity (Salancik and Pfeer, 1978; Chen and Cai,
2017). en, according to social identity theory, webelieve that
employees’ job insecurity is reduced, which further meets their
basic needs, improves their sense of identity with the organization,
and improves their job satisfaction (Ashforth and Mael, 1989;
Mete etal., 2016; Yeves etal., 2019).
Implications for practical applications
First, the study results suggested that employees were more
satised with their jobs when they received more positive workplace
gossip. erefore, business management organizations can
implement eective strategies to play the role of positive workplace
gossip. First, given the positive impact of positive workplace gossip,
organizations should disseminate positive workplace gossip and
create an environment for disseminating positive workplace gossip
(Wu etal., 2018a,b). Second, the organization can organize activities
and relevant knowledge training about workplace gossip to increase
employees’ understanding of workplace gossip and the better use of
it. ird, in an ambiguous environment, workplace gossip is
especially common (Difonzo and Bordia, 2007). erefore, to better
exert the positive inuence of workplace gossip, organizations
should also establish convenient and ecient workplace
communication channels.
Second, in addition to determining the impact of positive
workplace gossip on job satisfaction, this study also found that
employees’ job insecurity and organizational identity were
important mediators linking positive workplace gossip with job
satisfaction. erefore, the organization can reduce employees’ job
insecurity, increase employees’ organizational identity and
increase the positive inuence of positive workplace gossip to
improve employees’ job satisfaction. For example, by improving
employees’ organizational identity and increasing the positive
impact of workplace gossip on employees’ job satisfaction,
organizations can evaluate the sense of personal self-ecacy and
the t of personal values and organizational values when recruiting
new employees (Fuller etal., 2006). Organizations can regularly
provide employees with relevant stress relief training and
organizational culture team building (Fuller etal., 2006). e
organization can also disseminate positive information about the
organization through internal communication tools (such as email
communication) and release training information about
employees that can improve their abilities to promote employees’
identication with the organization (Tian etal., 2019; Wang etal.,
2020b), increasing employees’ job satisfaction. Organizations can
also clarify organizational goals for employees or authorize them
to participate in decision-making to enhance their understanding
of organizational goals and increase organizational identity (Tian
FIGURE2
Serial mediating model of positive workplace gossip and job satisfaction. **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001.
Wang et al. 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.989380
Frontiers in Psychology 09 frontiersin.org
etal., 2019; Wang et al., 2020a) increasing the job satisfaction
of employees.
In addition, to reduce the negative impact of job insecurity on
job satisfaction, organizations can reduce job insecurity by
improving employees’ employment predictability and
controllability. Although economic forces beyond employers
control may determine job insecurity, organizations can improve
employees’ perceptions of employment control and predictability
by promoting open and clear communication about organizational
change (De Witte, 2005; Wang et al., 2019, 2020a). e
organization can also encourage employees to participate in the
decision-making process and ensure that fair procedures are
always in place to help employees feel safe (De Spiegelaere etal.,
2014; Probst etal., 2018). Organizations can also take intervention
measures or training programs, such as attribution training
programs, to reduce employees’ job insecurity and further increase
the positive impact of workplace gossip on employees (Jiang etal.,
2019; Wang etal., 2019), increasing the positive impact of positive
workplace gossip in the workplace on employees’ job satisfaction.
Limitations and future research trends
is study was not without its limitations. First, there was
concern about common methodology bias (CMV; Podsako etal.,
2003) because all the assumptions in this study regarding job
insecurity, organizational identity, and job satisfaction in terms of
positive workplace gossip were tested using self-reported
questionnaires. Although the questionnaire design of multiple
time points and sources was adopted in this study, it was still a
cross-sectional study in nature, which can only explore the
internal mechanism and cannot deduce the causal relationship
between research variables. erefore, future studies can consider
the cross-lagged panel design to determine the cause-and-eect
relationship between positive workplace gossip, job insecurity,
organizational identity, and job satisfaction and to test the
robustness of the conclusions of this study.
Second, the study’s generality may be limited because the
sample data were collected from one Chinese company. Employees
may beexposed to dierent types of workplace environments at
the same time, such as leadership style (Tu etal., 2017; Boamah
etal., 2018; Wang etal., 2020c), organizational support (Grin
etal., 2001; Abou Hashish, 2017), and working atmosphere (Abou
Hashish, 2017). When considering other types of organizational
environments, it is worth further exploring whether positive
workplace gossip has the same impact on employees’ job
insecurity, organizational identity, and job satisfaction. Future
research could control for other types of work environments to
test the unique impact of positive workplace gossip beyond these
underlying factors. is will help people better understand the
impact of positive workplace gossip. In addition, the results may
vary according to dierent cultures and types of enterprises.
Future research could also replicate the study using Western
samples or controlling for cultural characteristics.
ird, this study founds that positive workplace gossip could
reduce employees’ job insecurity, increase their organizational
identity, and ultimately increase their job satisfaction at the
individual level. Given the importance of workplace gossip on
organizations, future research could explore the impact of
workplace gossip at the team level. For example, it would
beinteresting to study whether team-level service atmosphere,
service performance, and service-oriented creativity are aected
by positive workplace gossip (Zhou etal., 2020; Zou etal., 2020).
Such research will also help us better understand the impact of
positive workplace gossip on organizations.
Finally, the results suggested that job insecurity and
organizational identity only partially explained the relationship
between positive workplace gossip and job satisfaction, suggesting
that other mediating factors may exist. erefore, future research is
necessary to explore the inuence of more mediating variables on
positive workplace gossip, such as work motivation, organizational
commitment, organizational fairness, emotional exhaustion,
psychological capital, and job investment (De Spiegelaere etal., 2014;
Aybas etal., 2015; Wu etal., 2018a; Wang etal., 2020a).
Conclusion
Positive workplace gossip positively predicted employees’ job
satisfaction. Positive workplace gossip helped increase employees’
job satisfaction. Job insecurity and organizational identity played
a serial mediating role in the relationship between positive
workplace gossip and job satisfaction. In other words, positive
workplace gossip could improve employees’ job satisfaction by
reducing their job insecurity and increasing their
organizational identity.
Data availability statement
e original contributions presented in the study are included
in the article/supplementary material, further inquiries can
bedirected to the corresponding authors.
Ethics statement
e studies involving human participants were reviewed and
approved by the Academic Committee of Shandong Normal
University’s ethical standards. e patients/participants provided
their written informed consent to participate in this study.
Author contributions
DW: model building, writing. ZN: writing and revisions. CS:
data analysis. PY, XHQ: data collection and analysis, revisions.
XLW: revisions. YH: model building, revisions, supervision. All
Wang et al. 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.989380
Frontiers in Psychology 10 frontiersin.org
authors contributed to the article and approved the
submitted version.
Conflict of interest
e authors declare that the research was conducted in the
absence of any commercial or nancial relationships that could
beconstrued as a potential conict of interest.
Publisher’s note
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the
authors and do not necessarily represent those of their aliated
organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the
reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or
claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or
endorsed by the publisher.
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... Positive and bad talk, according to some academics, have quite different effects [17]. Although the effects of good workplace gossip on participants' job satisfaction have been confirmed by certain researchers in the past [18], the impact of gossip itself is still unknown and requires immediate investigation. Thus, the goal of this study is to investigate if encouraging gossip at work might enhance the job satisfaction of those who hear gossip. ...
... According to earlier studies, positive workplace gossip has been shown to boost employees' organizational identity by enhancing their perception of job security, which is one way that it influences job satisfaction [7,19]. In addition, some studies have confirmed that job insecurity only partially explain the influence on job satisfaction in the theoretical perspective and background of the West [18], which indicates that different mediators may exist when examining it from other theoretical perspectives, but no studies have yet explored other mediators. Especially when analyzing the behaviour of individuals within firms in the Chinese economic environment, the influence of culture cannot be ignored [20]. ...
... As individuals who participate in the operation management and value creation activities of the enterprise, their job satisfaction is very important. Some researchers use the theory of social information processing, which explains that employees will identify gossip in the workplace and gossip that is beneficial to them will make employees feel happy through people making corresponding responses to social information judgments [18,39]. ...
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Based on the Confucian philosophy of humanistic management, a relationship model between positive workplace gossip and employees' job satisfaction is constructed through a questionnaire survey of 205 Chinese corporate employees. Meanwhile, psychological capital and organizational identity are introduced as mediating variables to analyze the impact of positive workplace gossip on the satisfaction of the gossiped employees and the formation mechanism. The results show that: positive workplace gossip has a significant positive impact on employees' job satisfaction. ②Psychological capital has significant mediating effects on the relationship between positive workplace gossip and job satisfaction. ③Organizational identity has significant mediating effects on the relationship between positive workplace gossip and job satisfaction.
... For example, an experimental recall study showed that positive gossip is associated with self-improvement, while negative gossip is more strongly associated with self-promotion and self-protection, with gossip fulfilling a self-evaluative role and eliciting self-conscious emotions (Martinescu et al., 2014). Positive gossip conveys appreciation and approval, contributing to positive self-evaluation and augments self-efficacy, whereas negative gossip implies depreciation and disapproval (Chang & Kuo, 2021;Wang et al., 2022). Thus, the researcher proposes that: ...
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... le insights for future exploration on workplace gossip. First, although our research reveals that positive supervisor-directed gossip amplifies the negative consequences of negative supervisor-directed gossip on recipients, we acknowledge the importance of positive gossip in workplace dynamics and its associated benefits (e.g., A. Kim et al., 2019;D. Wang et al., 2022). Building on research linking positive rumination with positive experiences (Frone, 2015), future studies can explore how positive gossip influences recipients, particularly via fostering positive rumination. ...
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... As shown in Table 1, more than half of the reviewed studies explored the consequences of workplace gossip (e.g., [66,127]), and only about a quarter of the studies examined antecedents of workplace gossip (e.g., [44,56]). Most studies used either time-lagged (e.g., [71,103]) or cross-sectional designs (e.g., [69,115]). Experimental study designs that allowed for causal inferences were scarce (e.g., [17,73]). The few longitudinal studies were mostly qualitative field studies (e.g., [26,60]). ...
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Increasing attention is drawn to the effect of workplace gossip on the organization. Negative workplace gossip is a negative evaluation of others behind their back in the workplace. Based on the cognitive dissonance theory, the study explored the relationship between negative workplace gossip and knowledge sharing, through the mediation of organizational trust and the moderation of self-efficacy. The regression results of a two-stage questionnaire survey on 173 Chinese employees suggested that negative workplace gossip negatively influenced employees’ knowledge sharing through organizational trust. Additionally, findings also showed that self-efficacy moderated the mediation of organizational trust in the relationship between negative workplace gossip and knowledge sharing. This research provided a new theoretical perspective on the impact of workplace gossip, which has management implications for informal communication and team-building.
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