Investigating the Impact of Workplace Ostracism on Quiet Quitting and Service Quality

An Integrated Delphi-DEMATEL Framework

Abstract

Workplace ostracism can weaken employee participation without producing immediately visible conflict. Its consequences may emerge through quiet quitting and eventually affect customer service. However, these relationships have rarely been examined within one causal framework. This study integrates workplace ostracism, quiet quitting, employee withdrawal, and service quality using a sequential Delphi–DEMATEL design. A focused literature review initially identified 37 factors. Eighteen experts from academia, healthcare, banking, hospitality, and information technology then participated in three Delphi rounds. Strong expert agreement was achieved (Kendall’s (W=.79)), resulting in 22 retained factors. Twelve experts subsequently evaluated the pairwise influence among these factors using DEMATEL. The analysis classified ten factors as net causes and twelve as net effects. Low agreeableness emerged as the strongest causal driver, followed by threats to group harmony and leadership vacuum. Avoidance of growth and technological isolation also occupied important upstream positions. Staff withdrawal was the most prominent and strongly dependent factor, while customer responsiveness and psychological withdrawal represented central downstream outcomes. Service reliability, service recovery, and overall service quality formed a distinct outcome cluster. The pattern suggests that quiet quitting can function as a behavioural mechanism through which exclusionary workplace conditions become consequential for employees and customers. The study extends workplace-ostracism research by connecting internal social conditions with service delivery. It also provides managers with an intervention hierarchy focused on inclusion, leadership accountability, developmental access, recognition, communication, and technological support. Because the relationships reflect aggregated expert judgements, future longitudinal and multilevel studies should test the proposed pathways empirically.