Existing studies have not examined how employees’ perceptions of coworkers' negative gossip about supervisors affect their interactions with the gossipers. To address this research gap, this study aims to examine the employees’ responses to coworkers’ negative workplace gossip about their supervisor. By integrating the social exchange perspective with the literature on the attributed motives of gossip, this study adopts a critical incident methodology using a two-wave survey design and a sample of 234 employees in the U.S. We find that perceived coworkers’ negative workplace gossip about supervisors (NWSG) is positively related to employees’ knowledge sharing (KS) and interaction avoidance (IA). However, how employees react to gossipers depends on their attribution of the gossip. When they attribute it to an information-seeking motive, they may experience disgust and tend to engage in IA subsequently; however, when they attribute it to support-seeking motive, they may experience compassion and subsequently engage in KS. This study is among the first to empirically establish the correlation between NWSG and KS and IA, and analyze the mechanisms and boundary conditions between them, which enriches the current literature on workplace gossip. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings and future research directions are also discussed.
