'Why you gotta be so rude?' Study highlights 'vicious cycle' of
workplace incivility

Date:
August 10, 2021
Source:
Portland State University
Summary:
Workplace incivility is on the rise, and a new study found that
employees who experience or witness incivilities are more likely
to be uncivil to others -- a worrying trend that could intensify
as people return to in- person work.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Workplace incivility is on the rise, and a new Portland State University
study found that employees who experience or witness incivilities are
more likely to be uncivil to others -- a worrying trend that could
intensify as people return to in-person work.


========================================================================== "People have gotten used to not having to engage in interpersonal
communication as much and that can take an already distressing or
tense situation and exacerbate it because people are out of practice
of not having to have difficult conversations," said Larry Martinez,
associate professor of industrial-organizational psychology and co-author
of the study. "These spirals that we're seeing might be stronger in a post-pandemic world." Uncivil behavior at work can range from criticizing someone in public, rude or obnoxious behavior or withholding important information to more subtle acts such as arriving late to a meeting,
checking email or texting during a meeting, or ignoring or interrupting
a colleague.

Incivility can mean different things to different people, so it can be
easily overlooked or missed.

"Incivility is typically ambiguous and not very intense, but it has
harmful effects all the same," said Lauren Park, a recent Ph.D. graduate
in industrial- organizational psychology who now works as an HR research scientist.

Park and Martinez's study is the first comprehensive review of its kind
to analyze the factors that predict uncivil behavior in workplaces. They focused on the instigator's perspective to better understand incivility
and how to stop it at its source.



========================================================================== Among the findings:
* Employees who have more control over their jobs are less likely to
reciprocate incivility. Researchers suggest that employees
with greater job control have more freedom in deciding when and
how their work tasks are completed, offering them the time and
energy to seek social or organizational support, mentally and/or
physically detach from work, reflect on the situation, or confront
their uncivil colleague.

* Employees whose immediate team or workgroup engages in more civil
behavior are less likely to reciprocate incivility.

* Employees who are older are less likely to reciprocate incivility.

In a remote working world, Park and Martinez said incivility could more
easily go unchecked as people hide behind Zoom boxes or chat messages
and it can be difficult to discern intent from text without body language
or tone of voice.

Even as people return to work, organizations may choose to adopt a hybrid
model where employees may only come in for team-based work.

"There will inevitably be some conflict as people might be meeting
coworkers in person for the first time or they'll be working together
again in the same physical space," Martinez said. "Relationships will
need to be renegotiated in different kinds of ways and the likelihood
that people are going to be able to address these situations in a
conducive manner as compared to before the pandemic will decrease."
Park said it's key that organizations provide support to employees who've experienced incivility.

"They're at a high risk of starting these vicious cycles," she
said. "Providing support is not only the right thing to do but it stops
that behavior from spiraling through the organization." Martinez added
that complaints about uncivil behavior shouldn't be discounted and organizations should have policies and practices in place that take
incidents seriously and address them in a way that curtails them from continuing.

The study was published in the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology.

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Portland_State_University. Original
written by Cristina Rojas. Note: Content may be edited for style and
length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Lauren S. Park, Larry R. Martinez. An 'I' for an 'I': A systematic
review
and meta-analysis of instigated and reciprocal incivility.. Journal
of Occupational Health Psychology, 2021; DOI: 10.1037/ocp0000293 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/08/210810121051.htm

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