Testing a Moderated Mediational Model of Workgroup Incivility: The Roles of Organizational Trust and Group Regard

The purpose of this study was to examine organizational trust as a mediator of the relationship between workgroup incivility and work outcomes, and whether workgroup regard moderates this mediation. Participants included 90 (61% female, 79% White) employees of a property-management company who completed measures of workgroup incivility, group regard, organizational trust, job satisfaction, turnover intention, and job burnout. The results showed that trust mediated the relationship between incivility and all 3 work outcomes, and that regard for the workgroup moderated this process. Employees with lower group regard reported less organizational trust when they experienced incivility within their workgroup; lower trust, in turn, related to lower job satisfaction, especially for those with low group regard. Implications for organizations are discussed. jasp_695 3148..3168 Uncivil behavior has recently become an important area of study for those concerned with interpersonal relationships in organizations, partly because research has shown that incivility is extremely common. For example, Cortina, Magley, Williams, and Langhout (2001) found that 71% of a sample of public-sector employees had experienced incivility in the previous 5 years. Additionally, 79% of a law-enforcement sample (Cortina & Magley, 2009) and 75% of a university employee sample (Cortina, Lonsway, & Magley, 2004) reported that they also had experienced at least one form of incivility in recent years. Andersson and Pearson (1999) defined workplace incivility as “low intensity deviant behavior with an ambiguous intent to harm the targe t... This is characteristically rude and discourteous” (p. 456). Typical examples of uncivil work behaviors include making jokes at someone’s expense, speaking condescendingly to a coworker, and addressing a colleague inappropriately or unprofessionally. An important aspect of incivility is the ambiguous intent to harm others. As such, it may be unclear whether or not the instigator of the behavior meant to hurt the target.