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PurposeThis study investigates whether prolonged durations of work from home (WFH) leads to workplace ostracism (WO), and whether such relationship is moderated by perceived organizational support (POS). The context of this research is based on the post-COVID-19 pandemic period, when most organizations have either recalled their employees back to their physical workplaces, or in other cases employees are relegated to continued WFH or to a hybrid model that combines both in-office and remote work. The importance of this study is the spotlight it brings to employees who feel ostracized from their workplace due the continued practice of WFH.Design/methodology/approachA conceptual model is developed, by leveraging the conservation of resources (COR) theory. The hypotheses are tested by using cross-sectional survey data collected from 240 employees working in various organizations in the Sultanate of Oman from both public and private sectors. The data are analyzed using R Core Team software.FindingsThe findings of the study reveal that WFH does not have any direct impact on WO. However, when POS is applied as moderator, the results indicate that at low levels of POS, the relationship between WFH and WO becomes significant, but not at moderate to high levels of POS.Research limitations/implicationsThis study provides insights into how the phenomenon of WFH is likely to influence perceptions of employees in terms of feeling excluded from the organization by being asked to continue to work remotely, while many of their colleagues have returned to their prepandemic workplaces. The implications of the findings are relevant to the growing literature on employee experiences in the realm of emerging work models being introduced by organizations. Among the limitations of this study is the fact that there may be missing mediators that link WFH with WO, and the possibility that such a study if replicated in other cultural contexts may yield different results.Practical implicationsThis study presents evidence to managers on leveraging the power of organizational support to ensure that negative emotions among employees such as WO are mitigated.Originality/valueThis appears to be among the first studies that attempts to provide insights into employee perceptions about WO in the postpandemic period, especially with regards to the emerging work arrangements that are primarily based on WFH that are being widely adopted by many organizations around the world. The results of this study provide useful information about how WFH and POS come together to influence emotions of individuals who have been longing to get back to their normal workplace once the social distancing guidelines of the pandemic were lifted.

AbstractOman and its conflict management model are the focus of this paper. This model has crystalized out of the three stand‐alone but complementary systems of conflict resolution which evolved in an ad hoc fashion: the institute of tribal leaders; the reconciliation committees; and the formal judicial system. These systems offer a foundation for the current efforts of the local people to sustain a peaceful co‐existence among the vibrant and ethnically diverse Omani communities known for their turbulent past. The analyzed data obtained from interviews with Omani tribal leaders, reconciliation committee members, and lawyers shed light on both the strengths of the conflict management model and the modern challenges which the model faces. The findings confirm that this model represents a coherent entity run by an integrated constitutional‐tribal order. They also suggest that the model serves as a state mechanism for balancing power between the country's major players—the government and the institute of tribal leaders. The novel contribution of this paper lies in linking the origin and philosophy of each system with the "mediation identity" of Oman's foreign policy.