Social media ostracism and creativity: moderating role of emotional intelligence

Abstract

Abstract The goal of this study is to learn more about social media ostracism, a stressor associated with online social networks, defined by feelings of rejection, exclusion, or ignoring. We investigate the connection between social media ostracism and worker creativity. We suggest that psychological safety and psychological rumination serve as intermediaries in this relationship. Furthermore, we investigate emotional intelligence as a relationship regulator. To verify our hypothesis, we gathered data with the help of the HR department from 244 workers of nine Chinese organizations. Our research shows that psychological rumination and social media exclusion are significantly correlated, but only in workers with low emotional intelligence. Furthermore, for individuals with strong emotional intelligence, we did not discover a statistically negative association between psychological safety and social media exclusion. Findings suggest that psychological safety and psychological rumination serve as mediating factors in the relationship between employee creativity and social media exclusion. This study illuminates the negative aspects of social media ostracism and reveals how it might hinder creativity. It also emphasizes how emotional intelligence functions as a moderator. Organizations may learn a lot from this study on how to lessen the negative impacts of social media exclusion on employee creativity.

Keywords

• Social media ostracism
• Emotional intelligence
• Psychological rumination
• Psychological safety
• Creativity