Abstract：The current study draws on ABC theory of emotion to identify the reason why and how different people show diverse outcome after suffering workplace ostracism. Specifically, we infer that, individuals with high cooperative orientation may lead to expected image risk and low innovative performance after experiencing workplace ostracism; individuals with high competitive orientation may contribute to expected image gain and high innovative performance after experiencing workplace ostracism. Time-lagged sample with 669 employees showed that: (1) individuals with high cooperative orientation could lead to expected image risk after suffering workplace ostracism; individuals with high competitive orientation could contribute to expected image gain after suffering workplace ostracism; (2) expected image risk negatively influences innovative performance, while expected image gain positively influences innovative performance; (3) individuals with high cooperative orientation may lead to low innovative performance after experiencing workplace ostracism through increasing expected image risk;individuals with high competitive orientation may contribute to high innovative performance after experiencing workplace ostracism through improving expected image gain. Additionally, individuals with low competitive orientation may decrease innovative performance after experiencing workplace ostracism through reducing expected image gain.
