The Heart Slicer Model: Micro-Devaluation, Labeling, Silence, and the Reproduction of Harm in Workplace Communication

This paper proposes the Heart Slicer Model as a theoretical framework for explaining how micro-devaluation, labeling, silence, public correction, avoidance, and comparison in workplace communication gradually position a target as less competent, less legitimate, or less included, thereby producing cumulative relational harm. Previous studies on workplace bullying, abusive supervision, workplace ostracism, organizational silence, and psychological safety have clarified how explicit aggression, exclusion, silence, and voice suppression affect individuals and organizations. However, workplace harm does not always appear as a single strong act such as verbal abuse, intimidation, insult, or explicit exclusion. In many cases, harm emerges through repeated low-intensity communicative acts, including minor corrections, public criticism, competence labels, hierarchical labels, non-response, exclusion from information sharing, and avoidant distancing. This paper conceptualizes such repeated low-intensity communicative acts as micro-devaluation and describes the cumulative process through which they erode the target’s self-understanding, voice possibility, action possibility, sense of belonging, and relational presence as heart slicing. Heart slicing is not merely psychological damage. It is a form of relational positioning in which the target is repeatedly treated as someone who is less capable, less central, less answerable, or less worthy of inclusion. The paper also theorizes secondary slicing, a process in which individuals who have been sliced reproduce similar communicative patterns toward weaker or less protected targets through public correction, labeling, silence, or avoidance. In this sense, heart slicing is not only an interpersonal event but also a communicative culture that may be learned, imitated, and reproduced within organizations. The Heart Slicer Model reframes workplace harm by asking not only what happened, but what was eroded through repetition. This perspective makes it possible to analyze invisible relational harm, silent exclusion, labeling-based positioning, shame produced by public correction, and the reproduction of harm through secondary slicing. By shifting attention from isolated events to cumulative communicative patterns, this paper provides a theoretical foundation for harassment prevention, managerial education, workplace consultation, and the redesign of organizational communication.