Workplace Incivility and Turnover Intention in Organizations: A Meta-Analytic Review

Abstract

Incivility has been identified as a prevalent and crucial issue in workplaces and one that may be associated with detrimental effects on employees and organizational outcomes, such as turnover intention. Many studies have been published regarding the effects of incivility, but there is a lack of integrative reviews and meta-analyses. The aim of the present study is to conduct an early meta-analysis of the relationship between employees’ perceptions of workplace incivility and their turnover intentions. Six databases, including ISI Web of Science, PsychInfo, Scopus, Emerald, Hospitality & Tourism Complete, and Soc Index, were searched to identify empirical articles for this meta-analytical paper. The results of statistical meta-analyses and meta-regression suggest that there is a positive relationship between perceived incivility and turnover intentions in employees and that relationship is consistent across different sources of workplace incivility. However, we did observe a possible interaction effect of “supervisor” and “coworker incivility”. The results also suggest that the relationship between workplace incivility and turnover intention is stronger in the academic sector than in other industries and stronger in the United States than in other countries.

Association between Burnout, Job Dissatisfaction and Intention to Leave among Medical Researchers in a Research Organisation in Malaysia during the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Turnover is different from intention to leave, as turnover is an actual act of the individuals leaving the organisation, meanwhile, the intention to leave is the individual’s perception to quit the organisation. A direct turnover predictor is the intention to leave [ 6 ] and considered to be the strongest predictor among healthcare workers [ 7 ].…”

The relationship between workplace incivility and turnover intention in nurses: A cross‐sectional study

“…Also, this study revealed that workplace incivility was one of the most significant influencing factors of turnover intention in the regression model when all other independent factors were taken into account. The relationship between workplace incivility and turnover intention has been investigated in a recent meta‐analysis study, and an effect of workplace incivility on turnover intentions has been estimated as 0.31 (Namin et al, 2021). In another meta‐analysis integrating 20 years of workplace incivility research, this effect has been reported as 0.27 for cross‐sectional studies and 0.24 for time‐lagged studies (Han et al, 2021).…”

“…Differences between cultures may have affected the results. Majority of workplace incivility‐related studies have been conducted in Western countries and the United States (Namin et al, 2021). However behaviours in the organisation may differ from culture to culture.…”

“…In particular, coworker incivility has a mediating role in the relationship between organisational efficiency and turnover intention (Viotti et al, 2018). Also, the effect of combination of coworker incivility and supervisor incivility on turnover intention is lower than their individual independent effects, which means that individually estimated main effects of the two may be overestimated (Namin et al, 2021). Therefore, organisations need to take measures to reduce workplace incivility in order to reduce the turnover intention.…”

A Story of Serial Mediation: Intrapreneurship Explained through a Combination of Individual and Organisational Factors

“…However, consistent with bullying, incivility is associated with a range of negative individual and organisational outcomes. Workplace incivility affects employee engagement, job performance and satisfaction [28], and employee turnover [29]. Individuals who experience incivility in the workplace tend to distrust their organisation [30] and engage in less discretionary citizenship behaviours [31].…”