The Coping Patterns And Effects Of Incivility In Chinese Workplace

Incivility with low intensity and vague intention to harm exist widely in the workplace and directly or indirectly hinder the healthy and orderly development of organizations and individuals.However,we know little about how local victimized employees respond to this negative behavior in the workplace,let alone how victimized employees should respond appropriately to reduce the recurrence of incivility.In order to make up for this research deficiency,based on the theory of stress transaction,this study firstly conducted a preliminary investigation on the types,influencing factors and effects of coping in response to workplace incivility in Chinese context.Secondly,based on the survey results,focusing on the typical coping styles of victims,this study explored how key individual and environmental factors affect the choice of different coping styles.Finally,this study examined the effects of typical coping styles on incivility recurrence,and the boundary conditions that may affect the effectiveness of coping styles from the perspective of the perpetrator.Specifically,Study 1 adopted the semi-structured interviews and recruited 18 working individuals for content collection.Using a combination of thematic research and grounded theory,all interview contents were analyzed and coded.The results shows that the coping styles of Chinese victimized employees included avoidance,minimization,confrontation,negative reciprocity,and seeking social or organizational support.Avoiding the perpetrator is the most frequently adopted coping style,and negative reciprocity is the least adopted coping style.In terms of response effect,confronting the perpetrator is the most likely to reduce the recurrence of incivility,while most other coping methods cannot reduce the recurrence of incivility,and avoiding the perpetrator may even exacerbate the recurrence of incivility.The choice of these coping styles is influenced by the factors of the incivility itself,the perpetrator,the victim,and the organizational environment.Next,Study 2 selected two typical but completely different coping styles,avoidance and confrontation,and examined the influence of four factors: the gender of the perpetrator,the status of the perpetrator,closeness of the relationship between the perpetrator and the victim,and openness of organizational communication.In Study 2,a cross-sectional questionnaire was used to collect data from 252 employed individuals.The results shows that avoidance is affected by communication openness and relationship closeness,and confrontation is affected by communication openness,the gender and status of the perpetrator.The higher communication openness in the organization,the more likely the victim is to adopt confrontation and the less likely to avoidance.The closer the relationship between the perpetrator and the victim,the higher the degree of avoidance of the victim.When the perpetrator is a superior or male,the victim has less confrontation.Finally,study 3 adopted a longitudinal design and conducted three waves of data collection with a two-week interval from 219 employed individuals to examine the effectiveness of avoidance and confrontation in reducing incivility recurrence.At time 1,demographic data,the frequency of incivility from a particular perpetrator,the gender and status of the perpetrator,relationship closeness with the the perpetrator,and communication openness of the organization were collected.Avoidance and confrontation during the past two weeks were collected at time 2.Finally,at time 3,the incivility of the past two weeks was collected.The results shows that avoidance positively predicts incivility recurrence,especially when the organizational communication is open,the victim is equal and male,and the relationship is close.There is no stable predictive relationship between confrontation and incivility recurrence,but the recurrence of incivility will be reduced under the condition of high openness of organizational communication and the victim being a subordinate.In general,the results of this study suggest that although avoidance is the most common coping adopted by Chinese employees,avoidance is not only ineffective but may aggravate incivility recurrence.By contrast,confronting the problem is more constructive.In addition,the communication characteristics of the organization play an important role in coping choices and coping effects.The organization should strive to create an open communication environment to help the victims confront the problem and enhance the effectiveness of confrontation.