Understanding the consequences of workplace incivility: the roles of emotional exhaustion, acceptability and political skill

Abstract

Purpose Workplace incivility is a common deviant behavior happening in organizational contexts, and it can have serious negative consequences such as decreasing employees’ organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) and increasing their turnover intentions. This study aims to test the argument that emotional exhaustion and acceptability of workplace incivility can act as mediators in this relationship between incivility and OCB and turnover intentions. Moreover, the assumption that employees’ political skill can act as a buffer on job strain caused by incivility displayed by both coworkers and supervisors was tested. Design/methodology/approach In total, 703 South Korean employees recruited online completed a self-assessment on their political skill first and then they were randomly assigned to one of the two conditions: either recalled a co-worker or a supervisor who had previously displayed uncivil behaviors toward them. Findings The stronger the employees’ experience of incivility, the lower their OCB-O and the higher their turnover intentions. These relationships were mediated by acceptability of incivility and emotional exhaustions. Interestingly, results also supported the moderating role of political skill on the relationship between incivility and turnover intentions mediated by acceptability, with higher politically skilled employees being more likely to accept incivility when compared to lower politically skilled employees. Originality/value Using a between-subjects design, the findings expand the current knowledge regarding the negative impacts of workplace incivility. Specifically, they showed that acceptability is an important mechanism to understand the impact of workplace incivility on OCB and turnover intention.

Negative workplace gossip and turnover intention among Chinese rural preschool teachers: The mediation of ego depletion and the moderation of bianzhi

“…As environmental factors, deviant workplace behaviors have been extensively explored in organizational behavior research in recent years and have shown to be important antecedents of employee turnover intention. Although the effects of interpersonal deviance (such as workplace bullying and workplace incivility) on the targets' turnover intention have been analyzed (Mahfooz et al, 2017;Malik et al, 2018;Favaro et al, 2021;Moon and Morais, 2022), to our knowledge, no studies have yet examined the effects of negative workplace gossip.…”

“…One possible way negative workplace gossip affects turnover intention is by influencing ego depletion. Previous studies have mainly explored the influencing mechanisms of deviant workplace behaviors on turnover intention from the perspective of cognition and stress (Mahfooz et al, 2017;Salin and Notelaers, 2017;Malik et al, 2018;Bentley et al, 2021;Moon and Morais, 2022;Schwepker Jr and Dimitriou, 2022). However, the functioning mechanism has not been analyzed from an integrated perspective.…”

Abusive Supervision Impact on Employees’ Creativity: A Mediated-Moderated Perspective

“…In recent years, insecure employment has gained a lot of attention in the workplace; when work stress levels rise, insecurity in the office rises, resulting in increased rates of organizational deviance, burnout, and employee's turnover intensions [11,12]. People have a simple drive to maintain, secure, and create resources which they consider valuable, as per the COR theory [13].…”

The Influence of Political Skill on Emotional Labor and Turnover Intention. (c2022)

“…Such influence is exerted to achieve goals under various contextual conditions but in a precise manner (Tang et al, 2020). This dimension is also known as "flexibility" since it allows individuals to adapt and calibrate their behavior according to different scenarios with an intent to elicit the responses they desire from others (Moon & Morais, 2022).…”

“…When they gather and access such critical information needed to perform their job, they gain reputation, power, and promotion. Research proves that political skill not only helps individuals build relationships with leaders but also affects organizational citizenship behavior and promotes the employee's positive emotions towards the organization and its members (Moon & Morais, 2022). Ferris and his colleagues (2007) argue that political skill enhances job satisfaction, and consequently reduces turnover intention.…”