Developing and Testing a Dynamic Model of Workplace Incivility Change

Abstract

Theory and practice suggest workplace incivility is progressive and dynamic. To date, however, workplace incivility has been assessed as a between-person phenomenon by asking employees to summarize their exposure to incivility over some specific period (e.g., 1 year or 5 years). Consequently, little is known about the time-varying and progressive aspects of workplace incivility as suggested by both the referent literature and experience. Within the context of employee burnout and withdrawal, we developed a novel, dynamic mediated model of workplace incivility change and tested specific predictions about its time-sequential effects. Latent change score modeling of weekly survey data from 131 employees indicates that incivility change uniquely affects subsequent changes in burnout, which, in turn, lead to subsequent changes in turnover cognitions. We also explore whether this dynamic mediated effect varies across time and individuals.