How does negative workplace gossip influence receivers’ interaction avoidance and willingness to cooperate? The role of attributed self-serving motives

Purpose Although negative workplace gossip is ubiquitous, we know little about how it influences the sender–receiver relationship. Drawing on attribution theory and the warmth–competence framework, we develop a theoretical model to examine how receivers’ self-serving motives attribution affects their judgments (i.e. warmth and competence) of senders who share negative workplace gossip and their subsequent responses (i.e. interaction avoidance and willingness to cooperate) to these senders. Design/methodology/approach We collected multi-wave data from 273 employees in China and tested our hypotheses using path analysis. Findings Our results revealed that when receivers attributed negative workplace gossip to self-serving motives, they perceived the senders to be less warm and competent and subsequently showed more interaction avoidance and less willingness to cooperate with the senders. Practical implications These findings suggest that organizations should commit to implementing communication training programs to improve employees’ interpersonal communication skills and guide employees to interpret senders’ intentions with multiple cues. Originality/value The finding regarding the moderating role of self-serving motives attribution adds to the literature examining when receivers respond destructively to senders. Analysis of the mediating effects of warmth and competence further revealed the mechanisms of these effects.