Workplace incivility and its socio-demographic determinants in India
International Journal of Conflict Management
ISSN: 1044-4068
Article publication date: 5 January 2022
Issue publication date: 6 May 2022
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to present an empirical account of the prevalence and socio-demographic determinants of workplace incivility (experienced and instigated) in the Indian workplace.
Design/methodology/approach
The study sample consisted of 1,133 employees working in service organizations mainly banks, hotels, academic institutions and information technology firms. The authors tested the proposed model on the same set of respondents in two different studies. The phenomenon of instigated incivility and its determinants were examined in Study 1, while Study 2 looked at experienced incivility and its antecedents. The data were analyzed using univariate, bivariate, and multivariate statistical operations in SPSS 24.
Findings
The results of both studies revealed that employees’ age, gender, educational qualification, position, nature of the organization, type of the organization and duration of working hours significantly predict the onset of workplace incivility. Nevertheless, marital status and tenure failed to predict the manifestation of uncivil behaviors in the organization.
Research limitations/implications
The scope of this study was restricted to the Indian service sector with a focus on only two types of workplace incivility (instigated and experienced).
Practical implications
The managers are advised to be mindful of employees’ socio-demographic differences while devising interventions to tackle the issues of uncivil acts at work.
Originality/value
This study is one of the pioneer attempts to explore the impact of socio-demographic factors on employees’ tendency to instigate and experience incivility at work in India. In doing so, the study enriches the scant literature on workplace incivility by establishing the role of individual differences in determining the occurrence of incivility in the workplace.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Ethical Approval: All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.Conflict of Interest: All of the study authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.Informed Consent: Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.
Citation
Chaudhary, R., Lata, M. and Firoz, M. (2022), "Workplace incivility and its socio-demographic determinants in India", International Journal of Conflict Management, Vol. 33 No. 3, pp. 357-384. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCMA-02-2021-0023
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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