Relationships between organizational ostracism, cynicism, and positive and negative affectivity: The mediating role of positive and negative affectivity

The purpose of this study is to explore the relationships between ostracism, cynicism, and positive and negative affectivity, which are experienced by employees in organizations, as well as their influences on one another, to determine the directions of these relationships and influences, and to find out whether positive and negative affectivity has a significant mediating role. Survey was used to collect data. Data were collected from 403 people working at furniture enterprises operating in Kayseri province via convenience sampling. The employees were asked to express their degrees of agreement with the statements about ostracism, cynicism, and positive and negative affectivity. In addition, questions about demographic variables were asked to them. The data were analyzed based on correlation analysis, regression analysis, Baron Kenny mediation analysis, t-test and ANOVA. According to the correlation analysis results, there is a positive and significant relationship between ostracism and cynicism, a negative relationship between ostracism and positive affectivity, a positive relationship between ostracism and negative affectivity, a negative relationship between positive affectivity and cynicism, and lastly a positive relationship between negative affectivity and cynicism. The regression analysis results indicate that ostracism, positive affectivity, and negative affectivity have significant influences on cynicism. The results of Baron Kenny mediation analysis, which was conducted to reveal the mediating effect of positive and negative affectivity on the influence of ostracism on cynicism, show that positive affectivity has no mediating role whereas negative affectivity has a partial mediating role. Keywords: Organizational Ostracism, Organization Cynicism, Positive and Negative Affectivity