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This paper aims to examine the consistency between firms’ stakeholder-friendly responses to the COVID-19 pandemic and their environmental, social and governance (ESG) ratings. Consistent firms are those with high prior ESG ratings that actively support stakeholders during the COVID-19 crisis.

The authors use data from JUST Capital, which tracks Russell 1000 firms’ actions in response to the pandemic, to examine the relationship between pre-pandemic ESG ratings and their COVID responses towards employees, customers and communities. The authors also analyse the impact of firms’ consistency between pre-pandemic ESG ratings and stakeholder-friendly COVID responses on ESG ratings and stock returns.

This study finds that firms with higher pre-pandemic ESG ratings are more likely to support their stakeholders during the pandemic. The authors also find that firms with high ESG ratings before the pandemic experience a decline in their ESG ratings if they do not actively support their communities during the COVID-19 crisis, although insufficient employee/customer support does not impact their ESG ratings. Finally, the authors find that firms with higher pre-pandemic ESG ratings that continue to uphold their ESG commitments through community assistance during the pandemic achieve higher stock returns compared to inconsistent firms.

The results reveal gaps in how comprehensively ESG agencies assess firms’ crisis responses, highlighting areas for rating improvements. The findings contribute to sustainable development by revealing the importance of firms upholding their ESG commitments during crises to maintain stakeholder trust and drive long-term value creation.

The findings underscore the need for responsive, transparent ESG rating processes to support the integration of sustainability considerations into corporate practices and investment decisions, particularly during evolving societal expectations during crises.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to investigate how pre-pandemic ESG ratings explain firms’ stakeholder-friendly responses during the COVID-19 pandemic and analyse the integration of these responses and pandemic risks into ESG ratings during the crisis.

Knowledge is the source of competitive advantage, but when shared at all levels. Unfortunately, there is a universal unruly present in the form of knowledge hiding at employees’ level, but the causes and remedies are still vague as past studies have rarely investigated the causes of daily knowledge hiding behavior. Against this backdrop, this study aims to entail a daily diary method investigation of the role of daily abusive supervision in daily employees’ knowledge hiding through the mediation of dehumanization and moderation of psychological capital.

The data for this study is collected using a daily diary method approach, which estimates the daily workplace events and their continuous influence on employees’ feelings (i.e. dehumanization) and actions (knowledge hiding). The daily responses of 279 respondents were considered useful for analysis purposes.

The findings of the study revealed that the daily events of abusive supervision have both direct and indirect (through dehumanization) influence on employees’ daily knowledge hiding behavior. Moreover, psychosocial capital has a significant conditional influence in the relationships of negative workplace treatments (abusive supervision and dehumanization) and their outcomes (i.e. knowledge hiding).

The study provides some theoretical and practical insights by providing the explanatory and coping mechanism between continuous abusive supervision and daily knowledge hiding behavior.

There is a dearth of literature that has focused on daily episodes of abusive supervision, dehumanization and knowledge hiding behavior. Furthermore, the moderating role of psychological capital has also been rarely investigated.

Gossip spreads like wildfire, damaging relationships, decaying trust and creating a negative work environment. This study aims to investigate the relationship between negative workplace gossip (NWG) and quiet quitting (QQ), while considering the mediating effects of workplace stress and emotional exhaustion (EE).

Drawing upon the conservation of resource theory, the study aimed to comprehend this association in the context of 267 employees from diverse sectors in India, including health care, IT, banking and education. Through a three-wave time lagged survey design, using partial least squares structural equation modeling, significant findings were uncovered.

The results revealed a positive link between NWG and QQ. There was also a positive correlation between NWG and workplace stress. In addition, workplace stress and EE were found to mediate the relationship between NWG and QQ.

The findings have implications for both theory and practice. Organizations should consider implementing strategies to mitigate the prevalence of negative gossip and foster a healthier work environment, promoting employee well-being and retention.

The study reveals the “black box” between NWG and QQ, adding to the body of knowledge on the novel concept of QQ. Second, the study expands the literature on NWG, by examining impact path of how it leads to stress and EE, leading to QQ.

Criticality cognitions regarding the same workplace event often differ between leaders and employees. Nevertheless, its consequences on employee work outcomes remain unknown. In this study, we draw on cognitive dissonance theory to examine how and why leader–employee differences in cognitions of workplace event criticality impact employee job-related outcomes.

Wu used multilevel polynomial regression analyses from a time-lagged, multi-source field study with 145 leader–employee dyads to test our proposed model.

Leader–employee differences in cognitions of workplace event criticality can bring both benefits and perils to employees. Specifically, such differences can cause employee rumination, which in turn leads to an increase in both employee voice and fatigue.

This study contributes to the event and cognitive discrepancy literature in four ways. First, prior event studies largely adopted a singular employee perspective for investigation (e.g. Chen et al., 2021; Lin et al., 2021). By examining the impacts of event criticality from the dual perspective of leaders and employees, we attain a more comprehensive understanding of the implications of workplace events in organizational life. Second, extant studies have predominantly focused on the dark side of cognitive discrepancy (e.g. Bashshur et al., 2011; Erdogan et al., 2004; Grandey et al., 2013). Our study reveals that leader–employee differences in criticality cognitions can have both a bright and a dark side on employee outcomes, offering a more balanced and dialectical view of the consequences of cognitive discrepancy. Third, drawing on cognitive dissonance theory, we introduce employee rumination as an underlying mechanism to explain the impacts of leader–employee differences in criticality cognitions on employee voice and fatigue. Finally, while prior cognitive dissonance research has primarily employed an intrapersonal perspective (e.g. Sivanathan et al., 2008; Pugh et al., 2011; Grandey et al., 2013), our study adopts an interpersonal lens and underscores that interpersonal differences in cognitions can also serve as an example of cognitive discrepancy to instigate internal dissonance processes. By doing so, we enrich our understanding of cognitive dissonance theory.

This study aims to understand the impact of negative supervisor gossip on job performance among South Indian hotel employees. The focus is not just on the direct influence, but also on the mediating role of feedback-seeking behaviour (FSB) and the moderating effects of the agreeableness trait.

Through purposive sampling, data was garnered from South Indian hotel employees. Comprehensive analyses were performed using partial least squares structural equation modelling.

The analysis shows that FSB plays a mediating role in the positive relationship between negative supervisor gossip and job performance. In addition, the influence of gossip on FSB and subsequent job performance was more pronounced for employees with high agreeableness.

This research underscores the complex interplay between negative supervisor gossip and job performance, revealing that such gossip can catalyze FSB process in employees. It suggests that under certain conditions, negative gossip can be transformed into a constructive force that enhances job performance, challenging traditional perceptions of gossip in the workplace.

The findings underscore the importance of understanding the effects of workplace dynamics, like supervisor gossip, on employee behaviour and performance. Recognizing the influence of individual personality traits, such as agreeableness, can guide management strategies for fostering a productive work environment.

This research sheds light on the intricate interplay between negative supervisor gossip, FSB and agreeableness, offering a novel perspective on their combined impact on job performance. It not only enriches the existing literature on workplace communication but also broadens the understanding of the role of personality traits in shaping employee responses and outcomes.

An employee engagement/disengagement typology is presented to visually illustrate their possible constructive and destructive effects within the workplace, and identify some of the contextual drivers that may lead to these occurrences.

A narrative literature review was conducted during 2020–2023 to gain a comprehensive overview of employee engagement and disengagement processes and theories since 1990. Content analysis enabled the findings to be grouped into their destructive and constructive behavioural effects to produce a new typology.

The typology shows that not all employee engagement is constructive and that not all disengagement is destructive. This more accurately reflects organisational life. Destructive employee engagement in particular, demonstrates that there can be “too-much-of-a-good-thing”.

The typology may help inform future research designs to further understand the impact of contextual factors on both constructs, the pluralist interests involved and which interventions are likely to encourage constructive engagement and disengagement within specific contexts.

It is recommended that employee engagement and disengagement are incorporated into leadership and management training and that practices to foster constructive employee engagement (or permit temporary constructive disengagement to allow recovery) endorse the principles of mutuality and reciprocity. Interventions to prevent destructive employee engagement and disengagement are also advisable, particularly when there are adverse internal and external contextual issues which risk disengagement.

The typology is the first to classify engaged and disengaged behaviours within the workplace across two dimensions. In doing so, this helps to evaluate employee engagement and disengagement theory by challenging the normative assumptions held within these constructs. This categorisation more accurately represents both constructs and visually illustrates that within the workplace, not only is employee engagement sometimes destructive but also that sometimes disengagement is constructive. Furthermore, it demonstrates that purposive destructive employee disengagement responses may be passive or active.

Employee expediency is a ubiquitous, unethical phenomenon in the workplace that is largely underresearched. Based on the tenets of conservation of resources (COR) theory, this study investigates the influence of excessive performance pressure on employees' expedient behaviour via moral disengagement. It further examines the moderating role of employees' moral identity in the relationship between performance pressure and employee expediency.

The data were collected using a multi-wave paper-and-pencil survey amongst 388 sales associates working in pharmaceutical manufacturing companies in Bangladesh. A series of hierarchical regression analyses and bootstrapping techniques of the PROCESS macro were conducted to test the hypotheses.

The findings reveal that performance pressure significantly and positively affects employees' expediency. Additionally, moral disengagement partially mediates the positive relationship between performance pressure and employee expediency. Furthermore, moral identity moderates the direct effect of performance pressure on moral disengagement and the indirect effect of performance pressure on employee expediency through moral disengagement.

Managers are advised to consider the compatibility of economic and moral principles when defining performance targets or evaluating staff performance, as immoral behaviours harm organisations in the long run. Additionally, managers should emphasise candidates with high levels of sensitive moral qualities, such as integrity and moral behaviour, and their abilities should be given preference when hiring new employees, e.g. moral reasoning.

This pioneering study investigates the underlying psychological mechanisms and moral characteristics to unravel the association between performance pressure and employee expediency using the lens of COR theory. The study identified the moral consequences of performance pressure and mitigating strategies to reduce employee expedient behaviour.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused significant societal changes and altered how much of the construction industry operates. This study investigates the impacts of pandemic-related changes, how these changes may apply to different companies, and which changes should continue post-pandemic.

We aim to identify pandemic-driven changes that have affected the construction workplace and the advantages and challenges associated with them. We then make recommendations for what could and should endure through the pandemic and beyond, and under what circumstances. To achieve this objective, we conducted both qualitative and quantitative analyses of 40 semi-structured interviews with US-based construction professionals.

Identified through these interviews were 21 pandemic-driven changes across six categories: management and planning, technology, workforce, health and safety, supply chain, and contracts. This study noted both positive and negative impacts of the changes on cost, schedule, productivity, collaboration, employee retention, flexibility, quality, and risk mitigation. Participants indicated that some changes should remain after the pandemic and others (e.g. select safety measures, schedule adjustments) should be temporary.

By incorporating these lessons learned into recommendations, the findings of this study will help businesses identify and implement the most appropriate improvements for their organizations. The findings also provide policymakers with valuable insights on how to promote innovation in the construction industry and potentially enact more effective policies during crises to drive long-term improvements.

Drawing on social exchange literature, this study explores the mediating role of affective commitment between employees' assessments of contract breaches and opportunistic silence, along with the invigorating effect of hostile attribution bias.

We tested the hypotheses using multi-wave data collected from employees working in higher education institutions in Pakistan.

Perceived contract breaches elicit intentional, selfish and retaliatory motives of silence, largely because employees lack emotional attachments to their organization. This mechanism is more prominent among employees who tend to blame others and perceive them as antagonistic even when they are not.

For human resource managers, this investigation highlights a crucial feature – affective commitment – by which employees' perceptions of psychological contract breaches facilitate opportunistic silence. Our results suggest that this process is more likely to intensify when employees have distorted thinking, motivating them to attribute the worst motives to their employer's actions.

Perceived contract breaches within universities can have far-reaching societal consequences, affecting trust, reputation, economic stability, and the overall quality and accessibility of education and research. Addressing and preventing such breaches is essential to maintaining the positive societal role of universities.

This study provides novel insights into the process that underlies the connection between perceived contract breach and opportunistic silence by revealing the hitherto overlooked role of employees' hostile attribution bias, which renders them more susceptible to experiencing unfavorable forms of social exchange.

This study examines how employees’ exposure to coworker undermining may lead them to miss work deadlines. It offers a particular focus on the mediating role of diminished organization-based self-esteem and the moderating role of justice sensitivity in this connection.

The research hypotheses are tested with data collected among employees and supervisors who work in various industries.

Purposeful efforts by coworkers to cause harm translate into an increased propensity to fail to complete work on time, because the focal employees consider themselves unworthy organizational members. The extent to which employees feel upset with unfair treatments invigorates this process.

For employees who are frustrated with coworkers who deliberately compromise their professional functioning, diminished self-worth in relation to work and the subsequent reduced willingness to exhibit timely work efforts might make it more difficult to convince organizational leaders to do something about the negative coworker treatment. Pertinent personal characteristics can serve as a catalyst of this dynamic.

This study contributes to extant human resource management research by detailing the link between coworker undermining and a reduced propensity to finish work on time, pinpointing the roles of two hitherto overlooked factors (organization-based self-esteem and justice sensitivity) in this link.