Workplace ostracism and job performance: revisiting the limits of employee engagement in addressing workplace exclusion

Abstract

Workplace ostracism represents a subtle but damaging form of workplace exclusion that can weaken employees’ psychological functioning and job-related outcomes. Drawing on self-regulation theory (SRT), this study examines the association between workplace ostracism and employee job performance and investigates whether employee engagement moderates this relationship. Data were collected from 477 employees working in IT, banking and insurance, BPO, and supply-chain/service roles and analysed using partial least square structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) through SmartPLS 4. The findings show that workplace ostracism is significantly and negatively associated with job performance, whereas employee engagement is significantly and positively associated with job performance. The model explained 24.10% of the variance in job performance. Contrary to the proposed moderation hypothesis, employee engagement did not significantly buffer the negative association between workplace ostracism and job performance. This suggests that engagement may enhance performance directly but may not operate as a sufficient protective condition against the adverse performance-related consequences of workplace exclusion. The study contributes to organizational behavior literature by clarifying the limits of employee engagement as a buffering resource and highlighting the need for organizations to directly address exclusionary workplace practices.