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Social Undermining at the Workplace: How Religious Faith Encourages Employees Who are Aware of Their Social Undermining Behaviors to Express More Guilt and Perform Better

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Abstract

Based on the conservation of resources theory, this study developed a model linking social undermining to employees helping behaviors and work role performance via expression of guilt, with religious faith possessed by employees as a first-stage moderator. We argue that individuals will feel guilty if they perceive themselves as the perpetrators of the social undermining against their coworkers. Feeling guilt can potentially trigger prosocial responses (i.e., helping coworkers) and enhance work role performance for improving the situation. We contend that religious faith that commands doing good with others further provides resources for managing these negative emotions to unleash a positive side of social undermining, such that the relation of social undermining with an expression of guilt will be strengthened. A multisource (supervisor-supervisee), multi-wave, and multi-context (education, healthcare, and banking) survey involving 281 employees largely supports our study hypotheses. The results indicated that social undermining is associated with more guilt expressions amid religious individuals, revealing higher prosocial and work role performance. For business ethics research, the current study unveils an important mediator—guilt expressions about wrongdoing—via which individuals’ social undermining behaviors at work, somewhat counterintuitively, lead to boost performance outcomes, and an employee’s religious faith helps a facilitator of this relationship.

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Data Availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Social Science Project of Fujian Province: A Study on the Mechanisms of Influence of Digital Human Resource Management System on Employees’ Psychological Alienation from the Perspective of Social Structuration theory (Project No: FJ2022B054).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Business Administration, Sarhad University of Science and Information Technology, Peshawar, Pakistan

    Nasib Dar

  2. School of Management, Xiamen University, Xiamen, China

    Muhammad Usman & Jin Cheng

  3. Business Administration Department, IQRA National University, Peshawar, Pakistan

    Muhammad Usman

  4. Center for Management Philosophy and Organizational Ecosystem, Renmin University, Beijing, China

    Jin Cheng

  5. Department of Business Administration, IQRA University, Karachi, Pakistan

    Usman Ghani

  6. Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China

    Usman Ghani

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  1. Nasib Dar
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Correspondence to Jin Cheng.

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Appendix A Constructs items

Appendix A Constructs items

Social undermining

Source

How often have you intentionally…

Insulted your coworker?

Gave your coworker the silent treatment?

Spread rumors about your coworker?

Delayed work to make your coworker look bad or slow your coworker down?

Belittled your coworker or your coworker ‘s ideas?

Hurt your coworker’s feelings?

Talked bad about your coworker behind their back?

Criticized the way your coworker handled things on the job in a way that was not helpful?

Did not give as much help as you promised?

Gave your coworker incorrect or misleading information about the job?

Competed with him for status and recognition?

Let him know that you did not like him or something about him?

Did not defend your coworker when people spoke poorly of your coworker?

Duffy, M. K., Ganster, D. C., & Pagon, M. (2002). Social undermining in the workplace. Academy of management journal, 45(2), 331–351

Expression of Guilt

 

In my conversations with coworkers…

I express feelings of guilt about some of my bad attitudes at work

I express how I feel bad about some of the things I have said at work

I express regrets about some of my bad behaviors at work

I think I should apologize to someone for my bad behaviors at work

I express what I feel bad about some of the things I have said at work

Gil-Monte, P. R., & Faúndez, V. E. O. (2011). Psychometric properties of the “Spanish Burnout Inventory” in Chilean professionals working to physical disabled people. The spanish journal of psychology, 14(1), 441–451

Religious Faith

 

I feel like I can always count on Allah/God

My faith in Allah/God helps me through hard times

I feel thankful to Allah/God for my life

I believe in Allah/God

I ask Allah/God to help me make important decisions

I feel that without Allah/God there would be no purpose in life

I try to live how Allah/God wants me to live

My faith in Allah/God shapes how I think and act every day

My life is committed to Allah/God

I believe that Allah/God sometimes punished people who commit a sin

I often count my blessings

Being with other people who share my religious views is important to me

I am grateful for what other people have done for me

I have a lot to be thankful for

When people do nice things for me, I try to let know that I appreciate it

I believe that if someone hurts me, it is alright to get back at them

Eaves, L. J., Hatemi, P. K., Prom-Womley, E. C., & Murrelle, L. (2008). Social and genetic influences on adolescent religious attitudes and practices. Social forces, 86(4), 1621–1646

Helping Behaviors

 

This employee helps coworkers who have been absent

This employee orient new people even though it is not required

This employee helps coworkers who have heavy workloads

This employee assists supervisor with his or her work

This employee helps colleagues solve work-related problems

Tang, T. L.-P., Sutarso, T., Davis, G. M.-T. W., Dolinski, D., Ibrahim, A. H. S., & Wagner, S. L. (2008). To help or not to help? The Good Samaritan Effect and the love of money on helping behavior. Journal of Business Ethics, 82(4), 865–887

Work Role Performance

 

This employee carried out the core parts of his job well

This employee complete his core tasks well using the standard procedures

This employee ensured his tasks were completed properly

This employee adapted well to changes in core tasks

This employee coped with changes to the way he has to do his core tasks

This employee learned new skills to help him adapt to changes in his core tasks

This employee initiated better ways of doing his core tasks

This employee come up with ideas to improve the way in which his core tasks are done

This employee made changes to the way his core tasks are done

Griffin, M. A., Neal, A., & Parker, S. K. (2007). A new model of work role performance: Positive behavior in uncertain and interdependent contexts. Academy of management Journal, 50(2), 327–347

  1. The bold item were slightly modified after expert’s opinion.

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Dar, N., Usman, M., Cheng, J. et al. Social Undermining at the Workplace: How Religious Faith Encourages Employees Who are Aware of Their Social Undermining Behaviors to Express More Guilt and Perform Better. J Bus Ethics 187, 371–383 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-022-05284-x

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