The incidences of overt harassment and discrimination in the workplace have reduced in the United States with the passage of anti-discrimination laws, but prejudices persist often in subtle ways. One such type of misbehavior experienced by individuals in the workplace has been termed as incivility, which refers to “low-intensity deviant behavior with ambiguous intent to harm the target, in violations of norms of workplace mutual respect” (Andersson & Pearson, 1999: 457). It represents a general lack of concern, respect or regard for others and can range from minor rudeness to serious emotional and verbal abuse and aggression. Cortina and colleagues (2013) note that selective incivility is the “modern discrimination” and can be a behavioral manifestation of covert sexism and racism in organizations (Cortina, 2008; Cortina et. al., 2013).
Incivility is rooted in social interactions between individuals at work and because it is a more subtle form of aggression and the intent to harm is not always obvious (Pearson, Andersson and Porath, 2000). But research shows that it can have serious negative consequences including reduced job performance and commitment and result in adverse psychological effects (e.g., higher levels stress and burnout) and lead to more overt forms of mistreatment such as sexual harassment (Cortina et al., 2013; Estes and Wang, 2008; Pearson, Andersson and Porath, 2000). It can also disproportionately affect women and people of color and can place them on the margins of everyday work life (Cortina, et. al., 2013).
Although an important topic, incivility has received very limited attention in research in public administration. In keeping with the theme of the Perspectives of Diverse Workforces panel, we propose to examine the connection between demographic diversity and incidences of incivility in public organizations and how such experiences may affect public employees’ trust in their organization. We plan to examine these linkages using Hierarchical Linear Modeling with data collected using surveys from employees in seven local government organizations. These organizations, located in the Southeastern United States, are participants of the Local Government Workplaces Initiative, a data collection effort that began in 2004 to understand organizational behaviors in municipal and county organizations. Four organizations are cities, two are counties and one is a county department of social services. Surveys were distributed to all members of each organization; a total of 2,910 employees were surveyed, of which 1,617 responded, for a weighted response rate of 60% percent.
References
Cortina, L.M. (2008). Unseen injustice: Incivility as modern discrimination in organizations. The Academy of Management Review, 33(1), 55-75.
Cortina, L.M., Kabat-Farr, D., Leskinen, E.A., Huerta, M., & Magley, V.J. (2013). Selective incivility as modern discrimination in organizations: Evidence and impact. Journal of Management 39(6), 1579-1605.
Estes, B. & Wang, J. (2008). Workplace incivility: Impacts on individual and organizational performance. Human Resource Development Review, 7(2), 218-240.
Pearson, C. M., Andersson, L. M., & Porath, C. L. (2000). Assessing and attacking workplace incivility. Organizational Dynamics, 29(2), 123-137.
