Unravelling the impact: supervisor incivility on employee health and the role of affective rumination

De Clercq D., Azeem M.U., Haq I.U.

PurposeThis study aims to investigate the relationship between employees' exposure to supervisor incivility and their engagement in insubordinate behavior, by detailing a mediating role of ruminations about interpersonal offenses and a moderating role of supervisor task conflict.Design/methodology/approachThe research hypotheses were assessed with three rounds of data, obtained from employees and their peers, working for firms in various industries.FindingsAn important reason that employees' sense that their supervisor treats them disrespectfully escalates into defiance of supervisor authority is that the employees cannot stop thinking about how they have been wronged. The mediating role of such ruminations is particularly prominent when employees' viewpoints clash with those of their supervisor.Practical implicationsA critical danger exists for employees who are annoyed with a rude supervisor: They ponder their negative treatment, which prompts them to disobey, a response that likely diminishes the chances that supervisors might change their behaviors. This detrimental process is particularly salient when employee–supervisor interactions are marked by unpleasant task-related fights.Originality/valueThis study unpacks an unexplored link between supervisor incivility and supervisor-directed insubordination by explicating the pertinent roles of two critical factors (rumination and task conflict) in this link.

Khalid S., Hashmi H.B., Abbass K., Ahmad B., Khan Niazi A.A., Achim M.V.

Workplace incivility has gotten a lot of attention in recent decades. Researchers have looked at many forms of aggressive conduct in the workplace and their negative impacts on individuals and businesses. The goal of this study was to see how incivility among supervisors leads to work withdrawal and when this link might be mitigated. We argued that supervisor incivility indirectly influences work withdrawal behavior through job insecurity, and that emotional intelligence moderates this connection. This study attempted to evaluate the influence of supervisor incivility on the job withdrawal behavior of personnel working in several banks Lahore by drawing on affective events theory and conservation of resource theory. Data were gathered from 350 workers of banks in Lahore, Gujranwala, and Sheikhupura to test our assumptions, and SPSS 24 was used to generate and analyze data with Hayes Process. The findings revealed a strong link between supervisor incivility and job insecurity but no link between supervisor incivility and work withdrawal behavior. The idea of moderation was validated, since emotional intelligence moderates the relationship between job insecurity and job withdrawal behavior. There are also suggestions for more empirical studies and theoretical and practical ramifications.

Chris A.C., Provencher Y., Fogg C., Thompson S.C., Cole A.L., Okaka O., Bosco F.A., González-Morales M.G.

The present study proposes and examines a theoretical Dual Path Model of Experienced Workplace Incivility using meta-analytic relationships (k = 246; N = 145, 008) between experienced incivility and frequent correlates. The stress-induced mechanism was supported with perceived stress mediating the meta-analytical relationship between experienced incivility and occupational health (i.e., emotional exhaustion and somatic complaints). The commitment-induced mechanism was also supported with affective commitment to the organization mediating the relationship between experienced incivility and organizational correlates (i.e., job satisfaction and turnover intentions). However, these paths were not able to explain the strong relationship between experienced and enacted workplace incivility. Moderating analysis revealed that the experienced-enactment link is stronger between coworkers, in comparison to incivility experienced from supervisors; experienced incivility is more strongly related to organizational correlates, when incivility is enacted by supervisors in comparison to coworkers, and in human service samples when compared to samples comprised of mixed occupations. We discuss theoretical and practical implications as well as directions for future research. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Sonnentag S., Cheng B.H., Parker S.L.

Unwinding and recovering from everyday work is important for sustaining employees’ well-being, motivation, and job performance. Accordingly, research on work recovery has grown tremendously in the past few decades. This article summarizes research on recovery during work breaks, leisure-time evenings, weekends, and vacations. Focusing on day-level and longitudinal field studies, the article describes predictors as well as outcomes of recovery in different recovery settings and addresses potential between-group and cross-cultural differences. It presents findings from intervention research demonstrating that recovery processes can be improved by deliberate training programs. The article then discusses how future recovery research can address emerging themes relevant to the future of work—changing boundaries between work and nonwork life, increased reliance on teams and technology, and changes in employment arrangements. We conclude with an overall summary, open research questions, directions for methodological improvements, and practical implications.

Anjum M.A., Ahmed A., Zhang L., Durrani D.K.

PurposeAlthough past research has looked into myriad consequences of workplace incivility, little attention has been paid to the effects of supervisor incivility (SI) on employees’ sense of vitality and their discretionary work effort (DWE). Moreover, the mechanisms that drive the harmful effects of SI remain largely unknown. The current study seeks to address these gaps in the literature. In particular, this study aims to examine how SI culminates in decreased DWE.Design/methodology/approachAdopting a cross-sectional survey design, data for this study were gathered from 151 employees of two large companies in the financial services sector of Pakistan. A number of analysis techniques (e.g. confirmatory factor analysis and bootstrapping) were used to analyze the data.FindingsAs predicted, SI was found to be negatively associated both with subordinates’ sense of vitality and DWE while vitality was found to be positively associated with DWE. Findings also indicated that one way in which SI negatively affects subordinates’ DWE is by decreasing their sense of vitality.Practical implicationsThis study offers several useful implications for management practice in relation to preventing SI and mitigating its effects and bolstering employees’ sense of vitality.Originality/valueTo the best of the knowledge, this study is the first to unpack the relationship dynamics of SI, vitality and DWE, and to introduce a mechanism by which SI translates into reduced DWE.

Jimenez W.P., Hu X., Xu X.V.

Work is frequently on the minds of employees—even during evenings, weekends, and vacations. The present study is the first comprehensive meta-analysis of off-job work-related thoughts (WRTs; i.e., thoughts employees have about work when they are not at work). We were particularly interested in comparing off-job positive and negative work-related thoughts (PWRTs and NWRTs; i.e., thoughts about positive/negative work experiences or characteristics) to each other and other off-job WRT constructs, which we integrated into a typology. We coded 520 effect sizes from 171 independent samples (N = 58,682) and conducted a random-effects, individual-correction meta-analysis. We found that PWRTs and NWRTs were unrelated, and psychological detachment was negatively related to NWRTs but unrelated to PWRTs. Furthermore, PWRTs and NWRTs exhibited significantly different relationships with various antecedents (e.g., age, negative affectivity) and outcomes (e.g., work engagement, burnout). Compared to PWRTs and NWRTs, psychological detachment and problem-solving pondering exhibited generally weaker relationships with outcomes. NWRTs contaminated with negative affective strains (i.e., negative work-related thoughts and feelings) exhibited generally stronger relationships with outcomes. Overall, our meta-analytic findings indicate that PWRTs and NWRTs are different and underscore the importance of empirically and conceptually separating PWRTs and NWRTs from each other and other off-job WRT constructs. The findings also complement the nascent literature on interventions that target promoting PWRTs and reducing NWRTs.

Minnen M.E., Mitropoulos T., Rosenblatt A.K., Calderwood C.

While many employees read and respond to work-related e-mails in the evenings after work, the mechanisms through which after-hours e-mailing influences well-being remain poorly understood. In particular, there has been limited consideration of whether different characteristics of after-hours e-mails (frequency, duration, perceived tone) may trigger work-related rumination that influences employee well-being at bedtime (i.e., the end of the post-work period). To address this gap in the literature, data were collected from 59 employees during a 5-day daily survey period. We expected after-hours e-mail frequency, duration, and perceived tone to indirectly relate to employee vigour and fatigue at bedtime (two common well-being criteria) via affective rumination and problem-solving pondering (two major forms of work-related rumination). Our results indicated that a more negatively perceived after-hours e-mail tone influenced both vigour and fatigue via affective rumination. Further, our findings suggested diverging implications of after-hours e-mailing frequency and duration for problem-solving pondering, with longer duration and more frequent after-hours e-mailing co-varying with higher and lower levels of this form of rumination, respectively. These findings demonstrate the importance of considering various characteristics of after-hours e-mailing and corresponding implications of work-related rumination when studying employee well-being.

He Y., Walker J.M., Payne S.C., Miner K.N.

Research studies have shown that workplace incivility is associated with numerous negative work and non-work outcomes. The underlying mechanisms explaining why workplace incivility is associated with these outcomes, as well as contextual buffers of these relationships, have received less attention. This study extends workplace incivility research by examining the mediating role of negative rumination as a potential factor undergirding the relationship between experiences of incivility from colleagues at work and detrimental outcomes. We also investigated perceived organizational support and family supportive work environment as potential mitigators of the indirect relationship between incivility and negative outcomes. Data were collecfrom 154 university faculty members on two occasions. The results showed that negative rumination mediated the relationships between workplace incivility and both work (job satisfaction, burnout) and non-work (work-to-family conflict, life satisfaction) outcomes. Furthermore, results from the moderated mediation analyses revealed that perceived organizational support buffered the mediated effect of negative rumination and job satisfaction and a family-supportive work environment buffered the mediated effect of negative rumination on work-to-family conflict. Overall, the results demonstrate that negative rumination helps explain why workplace incivility negatively affects both work and non-work outcomes and underscores the important role of organizational context as buffers for these relationships.

Pradhan S., Srivastava A., Jena L.K.

Purpose Based on the unfolding theory of voluntary turnover, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the linkage between abusive supervision (a shock) and subordinate’s intention to quit (withdrawal cognition). The study also explores the multi-mediation routes by testing the abusive supervision-intention to quit relationship via psychological contract breach and via burnout. Design/methodology/approach To test the proposed hypotheses, the study draws cross-sectional data from Indian employees working in various MNCs in the country. Data were collected using an electronic data collection method. The online form link was send to 600 employees, out of which 246 valid and complete responses were received (n=246). Partial least square (PLS–SEM) was used for the analysis. Findings Results showed that abusive supervision is positively related to intention to quit. Similarly, psychological contract breach and burnout partially mediates the abusive supervision-intention to quit linkage. Originality/value First, the current study has conceptualized and tested abusive supervision as a shock that triggers various adverse cognitions including withdrawal cognition (intention to quit). Second, the study also empirically investigated multi-mediational routes via psychological contract breach and burnout that explained the indirect effect between abusive supervision and intention to quit.

Shin Y., Hur W.

Despite the increasing body of research on workplace incivility, the relationship between supervisor incivility and employee job performance, as well as its intermediary mechanisms, has received relatively little attention from researchers. Drawing on the transactional model of stress and self-determination theory, we propose employees' job insecurity and amotivation as mediating mechanisms between supervisor incivility and employee job performance. The proposed serial-mediation model was tested through a multilevel analysis of two-wave surveys collected from kindergarten teachers and their principals. Our mediation analysis revealed that incivility perpetrated by kindergarten principals exerted a negative effect on teachers' job performance three months later by shaping job insecurity perceptions and amotivation. These findings have theoretical implications for the workplace incivility literature and managerial implications for practitioners.

Tong J., Chong S., Johnson R.E.

Potipiroon W., Ford M.T.

Hair J.F., Risher J.J., Sarstedt M., Ringle C.M.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive, yet concise, overview of the considerations and metrics required for partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) analysis and result reporting. Preliminary considerations are summarized first, including reasons for choosing PLS-SEM, recommended sample size in selected contexts, distributional assumptions, use of secondary data, statistical power and the need for goodness-of-fit testing. Next, the metrics as well as the rules of thumb that should be applied to assess the PLS-SEM results are covered. Besides presenting established PLS-SEM evaluation criteria, the overview includes the following new guidelines: PLSpredict (i.e., a novel approach for assessing a model’s out-of-sample prediction), metrics for model comparisons, and several complementary methods for checking the results’ robustness. Design/methodology/approach This paper provides an overview of previously and recently proposed metrics as well as rules of thumb for evaluating the research results based on the application of PLS-SEM. Findings Most of the previously applied metrics for evaluating PLS-SEM results are still relevant. Nevertheless, scholars need to be knowledgeable about recently proposed metrics (e.g. model comparison criteria) and methods (e.g. endogeneity assessment, latent class analysis and PLSpredict), and when and how to apply them to extend their analyses. Research limitations/implications Methodological developments associated with PLS-SEM are rapidly emerging. The metrics reported in this paper are useful for current applications, but must always be up to date with the latest developments in the PLS-SEM method. Originality/value In light of more recent research and methodological developments in the PLS-SEM domain, guidelines for the method’s use need to be continuously extended and updated. This paper is the most current and comprehensive summary of the PLS-SEM method and the metrics applied to assess its solutions.

Alola U.V., Olugbade O.A., Avci T., Öztüren A.

A logical position emphasized by the service-oriented organizations that ‘the customer is always right’ and the organizational policies that requires employees to make customer happy, even in situations involving customer uncivil behavior has continued to be one of the antecedents of employees' negative outcomes. Applying the conservation of resources theory (COR), the current study develops and tests a research model that investigates the relationships between customer incivility (CIVT), emotional exhaustion (EEXT), turnover intentions (TINT) and job satisfaction (JSAT). A total of 328 customer-contact employees in 4 and 5 star hotels in Nigeria participated. Using structural equation modeling, the findings demonstrate that CIVT increases EEXT and TINT, but has no direct influence on JSAT. The findings demonstrate that EEXT partially mediates the effect of CIVT on TINT while it fully mediates the effect of CIVT on JSAT. Implications of the findings for the literature and limitation are discussed.

Sonnentag S.

Job stressors such as time pressure, organizational constraints, and interpersonal conflicts matter for individual well-being within organizations, both at the day level and over longer periods of time. Recovery-enhancing processes such as psychological detachment from work during nonwork time, physical exercise, and sleep have the potential to protect well-being. Although the experience of job stressors calls for effective recovery processes, empirical research shows that recovery processes actually are impaired when job stressors are high (recovery paradox). This article presents explanations for the recovery paradox, discusses moderating factors, and suggests avenues for future research.