INCIVILITY IN THE WORKPLACE FROM THE PERSPECTIVES OF SUBORDINATES

Abstract

Workplace incivility has been a popular research topic for many academics in the field of organization psychology due to its rising trend in recent years. The subtlety and ambiguous nature of incivility makes it is difficult for management to detect. However, these seemingly small and harmless actions have the potential to “spiral” into increasingly aggressive behaviour. It is therefore important that incivility in the workplace is not ignored and should be managed as best as possible. This paper particularly looks at subordinate incivility. Subordinates may have greater incentives than superiors in engaging in uncivil behaviour as they face more constraints in openly showing their discontent to their superiors given their lower position in the organization. The study is carried out from the perspectives of the subordinates themselves in analyzing the possible antecedents of subordinate incivility. In particular, the relationships between the personal characteristics (humility, masculinity, femininity and level of individualism) of the subordinate and subordinate incivility are explored. The paper then further goes on to discuss if female superiors do receive a greater amount of subordinate incivility compared to their male counterparts as some studies conducted in the West have suggested. This study revealed some key findings. Firstly, there are significant relationships between all the personal characteristics and subordinate incivility except for the masculinity of the subordinate. The more humble the subordinate, the lower the level of subordinate incivility engaged in. In contrast, the level of subordinate incivility increases with the level of femininity and individualism of the subordinate. The last key finding is that there does not seem to be any significant difference between the amounts of subordinate incivility received by female superiors and male superiors.