Left on “Read” and All Alone: Instigated Cyber Incivility, Shame, and Experienced Ostracism at Work

The mistreatment literature focused on workplace incivility has grown significantly over the past two decades, as it has been recognized as an omnipresent issue in the workplace. Workplace incivility presents itself as low-intensity rudeness in which at least one individual takes counter normative negative actions against another individual (Andersson & Pearson, 1999; Cortina & Magley, 2003), and may take place in both office and remote work settings as well as through a cyber modality (e.g., email, Zoom, Teams, Slack). These actions often occur in a spiral where the target of incivility becomes likely to perpetuate incivility later down the line (Andersson & Pearson, 1999). However, much of the incivility literature lacks a comprehensive understanding of the perpetrator’s perspective. Based on theory and empirical evidence, this study extends the spiral by reframing it to operate from the perspective of the perpetrator of cyber incivility, relative to that of the target. In this study I evaluate the affective processes underlying the relations between instigated cyber incivility and experienced workplace ostracism through the negative self-conscious affect of shame. The model also considers the boundary condition of sleep quality as a means of self-regulation capacity, acting as a second stage buffer of the relationship between shame and experienced workplace ostracism. Participants included 354 employed individuals across various industries in the United States. Results showed that although there was a direct relationship between instigated cyber incivility and experienced workplace ostracism, the relationship was not found to be fully mediated by shame. Sleep was seen as a buffer between shame and experienced workplace ostracism, but only with the time matched data . Implications, limitations, and future research directions will be discussed

Do you pass it on? An examination of the consequences of perceived cyber incivility

Purpose: The emerging literature on computer-mediated communication at the study lacks depth in terms of elucidating the consequences of the effects of incivility on employees. This study aims to compare face-to-face incivility with incivility encountered via e-mail on both task performance and performance evaluation. Design/methodology/approach: In two experimental studies, the authors test whether exposure to incivility via e-mail reduces individual task performance beyond that of face-to-face incivility and weather exposure to that incivility results in lower performance evaluations for third-parties. Findings: The authors show that being exposed to cyber incivility does decrease performance on a subsequent task. The authors also find that exposure to rudeness, both face-to-face and via e-mail, is contagious and results in lower performance evaluation scores for an uninvolved third party. Originality/value: This research comprises an empirically grounded study of incivility in the context of e-mail at study, highlights distinctions between it and face-to-face rudeness and reveals the potential risks that cyber incivility poses for employees

Spanish validation of the Shorter Version of the Workplace Incivility Scale: An employment status invariant measure

Workplace Incivility (WI) occurs worldwide and has negative consequences on individuals and organizations. Valid and comprehensive instruments have been used, specifically in English speaking countries, to measure sucadverse process at work, but it is not available a validated instrument for research carried out in Spanish speaking countries. In this study we aim to test the psychometric properties of the Matthews and Ritter’s four-item Workplace Incivility Scale (2016) with Spanish workers (N = 407) from different sectors. Participants’ mean age was 38.73 (SD = 10.45) years old and the percentage of female employees was 59.2%. Confirmatory factor analysis using AMOS 19.0 was carried out, presenting a good fit. The internal consistency, convergent and concurrent validity of the scale were examined. Results show good scale reliability and expected high correlations with social undermining. Moreover, the scale related to propensity to leave a job, job satisfaction, and psychological well-being in the expected way. After configural invariance across groups was established, testing for metric invariance and scalar invariance was performed. Considering Δχ2 and ΔCFI tests for two nested models, the 4-item scale was invariant when the employment status is considered (permanent vs. temporal, full-time vs. part-time, and supervisor vs. non-supervisors). Overall, our findings showed good psychometric properties of the shorter version of the WIS in Spain. Theoretical and practical implications of this study are discussed.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad de España PSI2015-64894-PFundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) Portugal SFRH/BPD/121748/201

Cyber incivility and spillover effects: A proposed mediation model

Background Incivility is pervasive in the workplace, affecting upwards of 96% of employees across their work lives, with approximately 50% of employees indicating they experience incivility regularly, on a weekly basis. Recent research indicates that given the massive shift to virtual work, the incidence and impact of cyber incivility associated with work is an increasing issue. Although the individual and organizational effects of cyber incivility on work outcomes are well researched, less is known about how this low-intensity, deviant behavior affects the target of cyber incivility in other domains, such as the home domain. The present study will examine the association of cyber incivility on target angry and withdrawn behaviors at home, through the spillover mechanism of affective rumination via affective events theory. It is hypothesized that daily experienced cyber incivility will be positively associated with both angry behavior (H1) and withdrawal behavior (H2) at home. Additionally, work-related affective rumination is hypothesized to mediate the relationship between daily experienced cyber incivility and both aggression (H3a) and withdrawal (H3b) at home. Proposed Method Approximately 100 participants who work full-time will be enrolled in the study via Prolific Academic, an online participant crowdsourcing site. To date, the sample size consists of 63 participants who have completed 10-day daily surveys. Participants will be pre-screened to ensure they are 18 or older, work full-time, and interact with coworkers and supervisors daily. Proposed Analyses Hypotheses H1-H3b will be assessed using multilevel path analysis because of the hierarchical nature of the data (daily observations will be nested within individuals). Daily variables (level 1) will be person-mean centered, while between-person variables (e.g., aggregate means of constructs of interest, demographics, and trait characteristics) will be grand-mean centered and controlled for at the between-person level (level 2). Because mediation is hypothesized, indirect effects will be examined using bootstrapped estimates and confidence interval coverage. Expected Results & Implications Results from this study are expected to provide support for the episodic occurrence of work-related cyber incivility and its effects on at-home behavior, providing support for spillover effects between work and home. This is significant because work-related cyber incivility is on the rise with the shift to virtual work and is an understudied phenomenon. Understanding how experienced work-related cyber incivility impacts employees at home behavior will allow for the development of targeted interventions

Conciliatory and Non-Conciliatory Responses to Cyber Incivility

This paper examined a) non-conciliatory responses – revenge and avoidance, and b) conciliatory response – reconciliation to cyber incivility. Based on a survey of 192 employees, results showed that (dis)satisfaction with supervisor mediated the relationship between supervisor’s cyber incivility and victim’s responses. Individual responses to cyber incivility were moderated by a) victim’s personality through (dis)satisfaction with supervisor. The victim’s dark personality traits (Machiavellianism) and cyber incivility jointly produced conditional indirect effects on the victim’s responses. Machiavellianism produced a positive indirect effect on revenge and a negative indirect effect on reconciliation. Overall, findings suggested that the victim’s personality had a conditional indirect effect on the victim’s response to cyber incivility through (dis)satisfaction with supervisor

From Cyber to E-Mail Incivility: A Psychometric Assessment and Measure Validation Study

Conducting research on organizational communication, and on how e-mail is used and misused by employees, is an important question addressed by this research. Specifically, we assess and address the deficiency in the existing construct of cyber incivility. This research examines how the existing scale is lacking, explains why a new scale is needed, and then develops and tests a new measure of rude e-mail. In this study we perform a quantitative test of the quality of the existing cyber incivility scale. In addition, we develop and propose a new scale with improved psychometric properties and test its validity on a sample of Mechanical Turks (MTurks). Taken together, this research develops a much-needed construct and measure of rude e-mail that is empirically informed, validated, and more useful than the existing cyber incivility scale. Implications of these findings for theory and practice are discussed

Online Disinhibition and Its Influence on Cyber Incivility

The proliferation of telecommunication technology over the past three decades has redefined the nature of work for many. Today, employees may use such tools to work remotely, fulfilling some or all of their duties away from an office and their colleagues. Organizational researchers generally view remote work favorably, as it is tied to improvements in job satisfaction and performance. However, some behavioral researchers have identified online communication attitudes that are related to counternormative online behavior. Known as Online Disinhibition, these attitudes propagate low intensity interpersonal deviances that are analogous to what organizational researchers call Cyber-Incivility. Despite its relevance to deviance and remote work literature, no study has investigated Online Disinhibition in an organizational context. Accordingly, this study seeks to establish Online Disinhibition\u27s relevance to remote work by demonstrating its relation to cyber incivility through a survey study of remote workers via Amazon\u27s Mechanical Turk. Results from a pilot study (n=51) found that roughly three-fifths of the sampling population reported some occurrence of instigated uncivil behaviors. Additionally, Online Disinhibition appears to be positively related to uncivil behaviors among these respondents. These results were replicated in a full survey study (n = 257), however, results for both hypotheses appeared to differ when Victimized Cyber Incivility was removed as a control. The interpretation of these findings, along with their limitations and implications for future research and applications are discussed

Perlindungan Hukum Terhadap Pekerja atas Perundungan yang Terjadi di Tempat Kerja

Bullying is a serious phenomenon these days, as the intensity of reports and news about it is increasing. However, victim legal protection at the workplace is particularly low. False assumption that views bullying at the workplace as a common thing passing down to generations needs to be corrected. It should also be confirmed when there is huge potential of law violation. Yet, there is no specific laws regulating about bullying at the workplace, while other countries put more concern on this matter by establishing specific laws and regulations. This article attempts to provide alternative policies regarding bullying at the workplace by using normative legal method and approach to law, as well as comparative law method. Regulation and practice applied in several countries can become an alternative solution to be considered as preventive measures of bullying at the workplace.Perundungan menjadi fenomena yang memperihatinkan saat ini, tidak hanya karena instensitas laporan dan pemberitaan yang marak namun rendahnya perlindungan hukum yang diberikan terhadap korban, diantaranya perundungan yang terjadi di tempat kerja. Anggapan keliru yang menilai perundungan di tempat kerja hanya sebagai budaya perlu diluruskan dan membutuhkan penegasan bila potensi hadirnya pelanggaran hukum sangatlah besar. Namun, perlu diakui jika saat ini tidak terdapat aturan yang secara khusus mengatur tindakan perundungan di tempat kerja sebagaimana negara-negara lain telah memberikan perhatiannya dalam bentuk regulasi khusus. Tulisan ini berupaya memberikan alternatif kebijakan yang dapat diterapkan terhadap perundungan di tempat kerja dengan menggunakan metode penelitian yuridis normatif dan pendekatan undang-undang, serta perbandingan hukum. Regulasi dan praktik yang terjadi pada beberapa negara dapat menjadi salah satu alternatif yang dapat dipertimbangkan dalam upaya mencegah terjadi perundungan di tempat kerja

The Dark Side Of The Ivory Tower: Cyberbullying Of University Faculty And Teaching Personnel

This paper discusses findings from an exploratory study on the nature, extent, and impact of cyberbullying experienced by 121 faculty members at one Canadian university. We situate cyberbullying in university on a continuum between cyberbullying in K-12 education and cyberbullying in the workplace and also take into account the power dynamics that characterize the post-secondary context. Quantitative and qualitative analyses of online survey data revealed that 17% of respondents had experienced cyberbullying either by students (12%) or by colleagues (9%) in the last 12 months. Gender differences were apparent plus racial minority status also appeared to render faculty members more vulnerable to cyberbullying. These findings suggest a rights-based lens could be used to analyze and respond to the vulnerabilities of women and other marginalized faculty in cyberbullying situations. This study contributes to the dearth of research on cyberbullying at the post-secondary level and raises the need to consider factors of difference, such as gender and race, in policy development and practice.Cet article discute des résultats d’une étude exploratoire sur la nature, l’étendue et l’impact de la cyberintimidation qu’ont connu 121 membres du personnel enseignant d’une université canadienne. Nous situons la cyberintimidation à l’université sur un continuum entre la cyberintimidation dans les milieux K-12 et celle dans les milieux de travail, tout en tenant compte de la dynamique des pouvoirs qui caractérise le contexte postsecondaire. Des analyses quantitatives et qualitatives de données découlant d’une enquête en ligne ont révélé que, dans les 12 mois qui venaient de s’écouler, 17% des répondants avaient connu la cyberintimidation, soit de la part d’étudiants (12%), soit de la part de collègues (9%). Des écarts selon le sexe se sont révélés et le statut de minorité raciale semblait rendre les membres du personnel enseignant plus vulnérables à la cyberintimidation. Ces résultats suggèrent que dans les situations de cyberintimidation, on pourrait adopter une perspective reposant sur les droits pour d’abord analyser les vulnérabilités des femmes et d’autres membres du personnel enseignant qui sont marginalisés, et ensuite y réagir. Cette étude participe à combler le vide dans la recherche portant sur la cyberintimidation au niveau postsecondaire et soulève le besoin de tenir compte de facteurs de différenciation, tels le sexe et la race, dans le développement de politiques et la mise en pratique de celles-ci.

Faculty Members' Perceived Experiences of Cyberbullying by Students at a Canadian University

CyberbullyingfacultystudentsuniversityimpactrecommendationsThis two-phase mixed methods study adopted online survey and individual interview questions to explore faculty members’ experiences of cyberbullying by students at one Canadian university. Foucault's (1994) power relations theory was used to explore the power dynamic that can exist in the student-faculty relationship. The study found that cyberbullied faculty members were commonly female, over 40 years of age, English-speaking Canadian citizens, and held fulltime rank. Cyberbullying occurred namely via email, end-of-term faculty evaluation sites, and public polling sites (e.g. Ratemyprofessor.com), while students' dissatisfaction with grades was the most common precursor. Consistent with prior bullying and cyberbullying literature, this study also found that cyberbullied faculty members experienced detrimental effects, persisting from a few days to more than one year. The under-researched focus of this study advances existing workplace bullying and cyberbullying research by illuminating both the harmful implications of student-to-faculty cyberbullying, and the support measures deemed necessary by targeted individuals.Blizard, L. M. (2016). Faculty members' perceived experiences of cyberbullying by students at one Canadian University: Impact and recommendations. International Research in Higher Education 1(1), 107-124. doi:10.5430/irhe.v1n1p107Peer reviewed10.5430/irhe.v1n1p10