Speaker
Description
The Workplace Ostracism Scale (WOS) is the most widely used instrument to assess Workplace Ostracism (WO), a particular form of social exclusion, comprising individual perceptions of being ignored and/or excluded by colleagues or supervisors at the workplace. The goal of the study was to contribute to the cross-validation of the WOS on an Italian sample (N = 441; 53.3% males; Mage = 35, SD = 9.98) through Item Response Theory (IRT) analyses (Graded Response Model). Additionally, the study sought to ascertain the scale's gender and age invariance and to explore the relationships with associated variables. Consistent with the original version, our results confirmed the unidimensionality of the scale [χ2 (34) = 68.962, p < .001, CFI = .963, TLI = .951, RMSEA = .048 (.032 - 065), SRMR = .035] and suggested that the instrument was more informative at higher levels of the trait. The negative associations between WOS θ scores and job satisfaction, job engagement, organizational citizenship behavior, and life satisfaction supported the validity of the scale scores. Differential Item Functioning (DIF) analyses indicated that the WOS showed minimal gender non-invariance and was invariant across age groups. Our findings suggest that the WOS is a robust measure for assessing acute cases of workplace ostracism, which enhances its utility in high-risk settings.
