Filling the Secrecy Vacuum: Examining Employees’ Responses to Perceived Supervisor Secrecy

ABSTRACT Although supervisors are expected to interact with their employees in a forthcoming manner, there are many occasions where they deliberately keep secrets from employees. What remains unclear from the literature is how employees respond to their perception of the supervisor's secrecy. To address this question, we develop a theoretical model by drawing on the social uncertainty model and cognitive theories of rumination. We hypothesize that perceived supervisor secrecy triggers rumination, which subsequently prompts employees to seek clarity from the supervisor, solicit gossip from coworkers, and experience heightened emotional exhaustion. Additionally, we propose that these effects are moderated by the quality of the supervisor‐employee relationship, or leader‐member exchange (LMX). We conducted three studies to test our hypotheses, including a vignette experiment (Study 1), a cued recall experiment (Study 2), and a multi‐wave, multi‐source field survey study (Study 3). Study 1 shows that perceived supervisor secrecy triggers rumination, which in turn increases clarity‐seeking, gossip‐seeking, and emotional exhaustion. Studies 2 and 3 largely replicate these findings, while presenting mixed evidence on the moderating role of LMX in the relationship between perceived supervisor secrecy and rumination as well as in the relationships between rumination and the distal outcomes. We conclude by discussing the theoretical and practical implications of our findings.