Supervisor incivility and how it affects subordinates’ performance: a matter of trust
| Date | 03 April 2018 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/PR-01-2017-0022 |
| Pages | 709-726 |
| Published date | 03 April 2018 |
| Author | I.M. Jawahar,Bert Schreurs |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour,Global HRM |
Supervisor incivility and how it
affects subordinates’
performance: a matter of trust
I.M. Jawahar
Office of the Provost, Illinois State University, Normal, Illinois, USA, and
Bert Schreurs
Department of Business, Vrije Universiteit, Brussel, Belgium and
Research Center for Education and the Labor Market,
Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands
Abstract
Purpose –To enhance the understanding of the mechanisms underlying the effects of incivility on outcomes, the
purpose of this paper is to propose and test work engagement as a mediator of the impact of supervisor-initiated
incivility on subordinates’task and citizenship performance. Further, the authors propose that this mediated
relationship would be conditional on the influence of trust in supervisor, such that the relationship would be
exacerbated for subordinates who have high levels of trust in the supervisor.
Design/methodology/approach –Data came from a cross-sectional survey of 350 professionals employed
in diverse occupations and organization types.
Findings –The authorsfound support for the mediatingrole of work engagementfor citizenship performance,
but not for task performance. As predicted, this explanation only held for employees who reported at least
average levels of trust in their supervisors, supporting the “mediation is moderated”explanation.
Originality/value –Understanding how and for whom supervisor incivility affects task and citizenship
performance is vital to advancing theory as well as for designing interventions to mitigate the negative
effects. This manuscript is one of very few to pursue this line of research and makes important contributions
to theory and practice.
Keywords Quantitative, Work engagement, Trust, Task performance, Workplace incivility,
Citizenship performance
Paper type Research paper
“Be civilized. Grudges are for Neanderthals Hubert Humphrey (in Pietrusza, 2008).
It happens to the best of us –we lose our temper, interrupt others, or are insensitive to the needs
of our coworkers. However, as a supervisor, treating subordinates in such uncivil manner will
not remain without consequences. Research has shown that workplace incivility, including
supervisor-initiated incivility, is ubiquitous, and bears enormous costs to organizations and
society as a whole (Porath and Pearson, 2013). Victims of incivility develop negative job and
organizational attitudes, have lower levels of well-being, and show drops in performance,
amongst others, all of which have severe financial ramifications (Schilpzand et al., 2016).
Although the extant research on workplace incivility has addressed on a wide array of
outcomes, most of this research has been limited to studying direct effects of incivility.
Schilpzand et al. (2016) noted that it is time to go beyond examining direct effects, and
“investigate mediators, moderators, and boundary conditions of the impact of incivility on
attitudes, behaviors and outcomes”(p. S68). In response to their call, we examine one
underlying mechanism through which supervisor-initiated incivility may affect outcomes.
Specifically, we propose that the effect of incivility on task and citizenship performance will
be mediated by work engagement. We draw on conservation of resources (COR) theory
(Hobfoll, 1989), self-enhancement theory (Pfeffer and Fong, 2005), and atten tion-related
theories (Kahneman, 1973; Kanfer and Ackerman, 1989) to propose a mediational role for work
Personnel Review
Vol. 47 No. 3, 2018
pp. 709-726
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0048-3486
DOI 10.1108/PR-01-2017-0022
Received 26 January 2017
Revised 13 June 2017
Accepted 5 August 2017
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0048-3486.htm
709
Supervisor
incivility
engagement in the relationships between incivility and task and citizenship performance.
In addition, drawing on social exchange theory (Blau, 1964), and in particular, the norm of
reciprocity (Gouldner, 1960), we propose that trust in supervisor will moderate this mediated
relationship, such that when trust is highthe negative effect of incivility on workengagement
and the downstream outcomes of task andcitizenship performance is strongerthan when trust
is low. Thus,we not only propose and test an underlying mechanismby which incivilityaffects
task and citizenship performance but also test for whom these effects are more pronounced.
We make three specific contributions to the literature. First, we present a theoretical
account and empirical test of how supervisory uncivil behavior affects different types of
subordinate performance. There is hardly any scholarship that has studied incivility and
engagement in relation to performance (for an exception, see Chen et al., 2013).
Understanding the mechanisms explaining the link between incivility and performance is
important not only for theory building, but also for the development of more efficient and
powerful interventions (MacKinnon and Fairchild, 2009). Second, we consider trust as an
important boundary condition for the indirect effect of incivility on performance through
work engagement. Trust is the foundation upon which relationships are built and is an
important variable affecting human relationships at all levels (Mayer and Gavin, 2005). By
examining how trust interacts with incivility to affect work engagement and downstream
outcomes, we further knowledge of consequences of incivility for work-related outcomes
and provide insight into the conditions under which the indirect effect occurs. Third, we
hypothesize that the negative effect of incivility will be exacerbated for subordinates who
have more (as opposed to less) trust in their supervisors. While the positive benefits of trust
are widely acknowledged, we test the possibility that trust does not mitigate but might
actually exacerbate the negative effects of incivility. If this is the case, it would indicate that
creating a trusting environment may actually lead to poorer outcomes, if incivility prevails.
Theory and hypotheses development
Workplace incivility
Workplace incivility is defined as low-intensity deviant workplace behavior with an
ambiguousintent to harm (Anderssonand Pearson, 1999, p. 457).Estimates suggest that from
71 to 96 percent of employees are exposed to workplace incivility (Cortina et al., 2001). It is
recognized as a problem worldwide affecting employees in a wide variety of jobs and
professions (Schilpzand et al., 2016). In addition to financial costs, the human costs borne by
employeessubjected to workplace incivility are quitesevere (Porath and Pearson,2013). Thus,
workplace incivility is not only an economic drain but also insidious in its effects on
employees. Incivility could be viewed as a psychological contract breach (Rousseau, 1989) and
a substantialbody of research hasdocumented its negativeconsequences (e.g. Haoet al., 2007).
Incivility may stem from different sources, including coworkers, supervisors, and
customers. In the current study, we focus on supervisor-initiated incivility because of the
impact bad leaders have on their subordinates: bad supervisors are a major health hazard;
impose enormous medical costs on society, and degrade the quality of life of organizational
members (Hogan and Kaiser, 2005). Research has shown that managerial failure has less to
do with managers lacking “the right stuff”and more to do with managers doing “the wrong
stuff”(Gentry et al., 2015), such as losing temper, intimidation, bullying, being cold and
arrogant, being insensitive to others and other such uncivil behaviors (Furnham and Taylor,
2004; Hogan and Hogan, 2001).
Workplace incivility and performance
Targets of incivility show emotional distress, lower levels of energy and motivation,
and higher turnover intentions (Bowling and Beehr, 2006; Bunk and Magley, 2013;
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