Francis, L., Holmvall, C. M., & O’Brien, L. E. (2015). The influence of workload and civility of treatment on the perpetration of email incivility. Computers in Human Behavior, 46, 191-201.
Background
In the modern workplace, communication through email is a common form of social interaction. Unfortunately, there is a lot of potential to miscommunicate and to be uncivil. Thus, incivilities are a growing concern. Therefore, this research looks at how uncivil emails are perpetrated.
Incivilities are commonly defined as “low-intensity deviant behavior with ambiguous intent to harm the target, in violation of workplace norms for mutual respect”
Method
This research examined civility of responses from 86 undergraduate students in response to civil and uncivil emails with either a heavy or light workload.
Results
Participants responded more incivility under heavier workloads and in response to uncivil emails, with the most uncivil emails seen in response to uncivil emails under high workload.
Conclusion
This research provides evidence that email can be used as a means to manipulate incivility. It also shows that a situational factor like workload can influence uncivil behavior. Therefore, this research furthers our understanding of incivilities as a whole, and provides a situational factor that can be changed by organisations.
Leiter, M. P., Laschinger, H. K., Day, A., & Gilin Oore, D. (2012). Getting better and staying better: Assessing civility, incivility, distress, and job attitudes one year after a civility intervention. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 17(4), 425-434.
Background
Researchers examined whether the improvements resulting from the Civility, Respect, and Engagement in the Workplace (CREW) intervention could be sustained 1-year following the intervention.
Method
A total of 210 health care workers completed the surveys at three time points (pre-intervention, post-intervention, and 1 year after the intervention).
Results
Improvements in workplace civility, experienced supervisor incivility, and distress continued to improve following the intervention. Work attitudes did not continue to improve following the end of the intervention. Absences had returned to the pre-intervention level at the 1-year follow-up.
Conclusion/Implications
These results indicate that the success of the employee-based civility intervention (CREW) can be maintained overtime.
Leiter, M. P., Laschinger, H. K. S., Day, A., & Oore, D. G. (2011). The impact of civility interventions on employee social behavior, distress, and attitudes. Journal of Applied Psychology, 96(6), 1258-1274.
Background
Little research has examined the effectiveness of civility interventions on employee outcomes. The authors implemented the Civility, Respect, and Engagement in the Workplace (CREW) intervention across 8 hospital units (33 contrast hospital units).
Method
Employees working on the hospital unit completed employee outcomes measures (e.g., burnout, turnover intensions, trust in management) before and after the intervention.
Results
Hospital units that participated in the CREW intervention reported significant improvements in unit civility, burnout, job attitudes, trust in management and absences in comparison to hospital units that did not participate in the intervention (contrast groups).
Conclusion/Implications
Healthcare organizations are often faced with high levels of incivility. These results indicate that an employee-based civility intervention may be an effective method