Uncivil behaviours from insider as well as outsider members of the organization are commonly experienced and may have detrimental effects on employee’s well-being. While previous diary studies demonstrated that such effects might already appear within the same day, few investigated how long they might last. Moreover, previous studies that examined targets of incivility’s stress reaction mainly focused on emotions and neglected that such interpersonal misconduct might also impair employees’ self-esteem. In addition, previous studies on the boundary conditions of experienced incivility’s effects showed that resources are crucial to cope with experienced incivility’ effects. However, few studies considered the close social context and specifically whether targets observe others being rudely treated as well, which may also buffer targets’ stress reaction. In addition, employees may have to cope with many job stressors (included incivility) but resources are limited, thus they may lack the resources to successfully cope with experienced incivility’s effects. We therefore conducted two first diary studies to examine the short-term effects of experienced incivility on employees’ well-being (angry and depressive mood and self-esteem) as well as the lagged effects on general negative affect. In a third filed study, we also examined customer incivility’ effects on exhaustion and job satisfaction. In addition, we investigated the buffering role of observed incivility as well as the exacerbating role of some work stressors (workload, organizational constraints and an organizational change). Our findings revealed that experienced incivility positively related to angry, depressive mood and exhaustion and negatively related to self-esteem and job satisfaction. With regard to the boundary conditions, observed incivility did buffer experienced incivility’s effects on depressive mood and self-esteem. Unexpectedly however, the organizational change also buffered customer incivility’ effects on job satisfaction. Finally and in line with the depletion of resources assumption, workload did exacerbate experienced incivility’s effect on general negative affect. Overall, the present research confirms the harmful effects of experienced incivility on employees’ well-being. Moreover, it highlights that sharing experiences of incivility with other victims may buffer targets’ strain and on the contrary, facing some work stressors may exacerbate it.
The role of state and trait motivational regulation for procrastinatory behavior in academic contexts: Insights from two diary studies
