Workplace Incivility and Its Demographic Characteristics: A Cross-Cultural Comparison Between Chinese and Vietnamese Working Adults

Abstract

Workplace incivility (WI) is defined as low-intensity negative behaviors in the workplace. While this topic is common in a Western context, limited research has been conducted in the Asian context, particularly in China and Vietnam. This research aims to investigate a cross-cultural study about WI, to focus on the linkage between demographic variables and WI. The research sample comprised 598 voluntary working adults in China and Vietnam. The data were calculated using descriptive statistics and paired t-tests in SPSS. The result indicated that Chinese and Vietnamese experienced the same incivility behaviors at works. In addition, males experienced more WI than females. This research is a pioneer cross-cultural study about WI in the Asian context, which investigates the influence of demographic variables on WI in Chinese and Vietnamese working adults. Although this study attempts to conduct a cross-cultural study, its limitation is that the sample size is modest and random. This study also expresses some solutions to eliminate incivility behaviors in the workplace.