Leadership styles and workplace ostracism among frontline employees

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine critical associations of transformational leadership, Laissez-faire leadership, transactional leadership, and authoritative leadership styles to predict perceived workplace ostracism among frontline employees (FLEs). Design/methodology/approach A snow-ball sampling technique is employed to collect data from 250 FLEs working in the telecommunication sector of Pakistan. The data are collected by means of a self-reported questionnaire. Findings All of the hypotheses are supported by the results. The authoritative leadership, transactional leadership, and Laissez-Faire leadership styles are found to positively relate to workplace ostracism while transformational leadership style is found to negatively relate to workplace ostracism. Practical implications The managers working in customer service organizations in general and telecom sector in particular should offer leadership training programs to transform supervisors (i.e., in their roles as being the leaders) by re-shaping their thinking as visionary leaders of future. Furthermore, the study has implications to strengthen the communication mechanisms by seeking opinions from FLEs about the leadership styles of their supervisors. This is to ensure that leaders actually transform themselves from being a highly traditional leader to more participative and positive leaders. Originality/value The relationships of different leadership styles to study their impact on workplace ostracism and the context of telecommunication service sector of Pakistan are unique to this study.