Would you mind sharing your story? A narrative exploration of incivility experiences in the Information Technology workplace

Abstract

PurposeUnfortunately, workplace incivility (WI) within the information technology (IT) sector has hardly been covered in extant literature. Therefore, through narratives, this study explored various situational and cultural attributes of WI in the Indian IT sector.Design/methodology/approachSemi-structured interviews were conducted among the IT professionals (N = 24; Males = 13, Females = 11) aged between 21 and 45 years (Mean = 31.20, SD = 6.56) working in the South Indian state of Karnataka (Bengaluru).FindingsThe narrative thematic analysis yielded the following themes: Experiences of managers' ill-treatment at the workplace, co-workers incivility: dominance in the IT sector and prevalence of gender-based interpersonal discrimination. Furthermore, many sub-themes emerged under each major theme.Research limitations/implicationsContexts and cultural attributes of WI experiences warrant reconsidering and redefining the concept's theoretical underpinnings, especially from multi-cultural contexts, i.e. India, unlike leading studies in the Western culture. Current study narratives would guide further explorations of how IT professionals wish to curtail these behaviours and suggest strategies to minimize these behaviours in the respective sector.Originality/valueThe findings pose an interesting question for further investigation such as: Do individuals who seek favours from co-workers, under certain conditions, invite the experiences of WI for themselves from potential favour-doer? In a first of its kind, the study also offered relevant insights into exploring whether intentional acts as uncivil behaviours are peculiar to multi-cultural contexts, such as in India.