Thwarted enthusiasm: effects of workplace incivility on newcomer proactive behaviors

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between supervisor and coworkers’ workplace incivility and newcomer proactive behaviors. Drawing on conservation of resources (COR) theory, the authors examined resource depletion as a mediator and newcomer proactive personality, as well as their current organizational tenure as moderators of the relationship between workplace incivility toward newcomers and their proactive behaviors. Design/methodology/approach A time-lagged research design was used to test hypotheses with data covering 322 newcomers and their immediate supervisors in two subsidiaries of a large food processing company in China. Regression analysis using the PROCESS macro in SPSS is used to test the hypotheses. Findings The results show that workplace incivility toward newcomers is negatively related to their proactive behaviors. This relationship is mediated by resource depletion. Furthermore, newcomers’ proactive personality moderates the relationship between workplace incivility and resource depletion. Moreover, both the direct effect of workplace incivility on resource depletion and its indirect effect on newcomer proactive behaviors are moderated by the combination of newcomer proactive personality and their current organizational tenure. Originality/value Drawing on COR theory, a theoretical framework is constructed that specifies the process through which workplace incivility affects proactive behaviors to expand collective understandings of workplace incivility in the newcomer context. Furthermore, the boundary conditions of the underlying process are investigated, which further enhances the contribution of this paper to the extant literature on workplace incivility.

Workplace Incivility and Employees’ Personal Initiative: A Moderated Mediation Model of Emotional Exhaustion and Meaningful Work

“…Second, the processes through which workplace incivility affects work outcomes have not previously been adequately studied (Schilpzand et al, 2016), especially the relationship between workplace incivility and proactive work behaviors (Lan et al, 2020; Liu et al, 2019; Schilpzand & Huang, 2018). The current study suggests that the depletion of personal emotional resources mediates the relationship between workplace incivility and personal initiative, which offers a better understanding of the mechanism driving the connections between workplace incivility and proactive performance.…”

“…First, our study extends previous studies on workplace incivility and personal initiative. Previous research has devoted attention to the effect of workplace incivility on negative work outcomes and in-role performance (Cortina et al, 2001;Lim et al, 2008;Pearson et al, 2000Pearson et al, , 2001Penney & Spector, 2005;Sliter et al, 2012;Taylor et al, 2017), while few studies have focused on the effect of workplace incivility on proactive work behaviors (Lan et al, 2020;Liu et al, 2019;Schilpzand & Huang, 2018), such as personal initiative. By examining the link between workplace incivility and personal initiative, our study supplements existing literature on the effect of uncivilized work behaviors on positive work outcomes and enriches the potential antecedents of personal initiative.…”

“…Our study contributes to the existing literature and theory in several aspects. First, although the connection of workplace incivility to negative work behaviors or in-role performance has been examined (Cortina et al, 2001, 2002; Pearson et al, 2001; Skarlicki & Folger, 1997), the relationship between workplace incivility and proactive behavior or extra-role performance has not been fully examined (Lan et al, 2020; Liu et al, 2019; Porath & Erez, 2009; Schilpzand & Huang, 2018). Since the relationship between workplace incivility and proactive performance and its mechanism might be different from that of other behaviors (Schilpzand et al, 2016), addressing this issue is important both theoretically and practically.…”

How Rude! Linking supervisor incivility to subordinates’ discretionary work effort

“…Although we were keen to extend this study’s scope by drawing the samples from all financial services sector organizations, only four organizations in the southern region of Pakistan (based on the lead author’s personal contacts) gave permission for data collection, informally. Following Lan et al (2020) approach, a small group of employees from the selected organizations was first interviewed to determine the extent to which they had been subjected to SI. However, the interviews indicated that SI was high in two of the organizations.…”

Distributed Leadership and New Generation Employees’ Proactive Behavior: Roles of Idiosyncratic Deals and Meaningfulness of Work

“…In organizational management research, scholars have proven that distributed leadership has positive impacts on individuals, teams, and organizations (e.g., it promotes employees' taking charge behavior, team performance, and organizational change; Wang et al, 2014;Butler and Tregaskis, 2018;Canterino et al, 2020). Despite these encouraging findings (Crant, 2000;Den Hartog and Belschak, 2012;Lan et al, 2020;Bohlmann and Zacher, 2021), a notable omission is the proactive behavior of new generation employees. Therefore, the first goal of this research is to explore how distributed leadership can effectively promote the proactive behavior of new generation employees.…”