Workplace emotional blackmail, ego depletion, and employee silence

• Jianming Zhou

  School of Business Administration, Guangdong University of Finance & Economics

• Ping He

  School of Business Administration, Guangdong University of Finance & Economics

• Jiansheng Chen

  School of Business Administration, Guangdong University of Finance & Economics

We examined the relationship between workplace emotional blackmail and employee silence by focusing on the mediating effect of employee ego depletion and the moderating effect of employee traditionality. Our aim was to find out how workplace emotional blackmail affects employees’ mental health and whether it produces harmful behaviors. We collected empirical data using a two-wave survey of 183 employees of 10 high-tech firms in Southern China. Results showed that workplace emotional blackmail was positively related to employee silence, and employee ego depletion significantly mediated this relationship. In addition, employee traditionality negatively moderated the relationship between workplace emotional blackmail and employee ego depletion. We discuss the implications of the findings and methods of preventing or reducing the occurrence of workplace emotional blackmail from the perspective of enterprises and employees.

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