Research Roundup

Incivility at work includes rudeness, demeaning attitudes, exclusion, and hurtful words, but as Graso (2023) notes in this commentary, while civility should be promoted, ‘[t]he unexamined pursuit of civility, if characterised by inconsistent definitions of harm and inappropriate allegations of uncivil acts, runs the risk of fostering its own toxicity spiral.’

Those accused of incivility may seldom recognise themselves as villains, but could justify their actions on account of, for example, harsh performance management tactics ‘or they might invoke their own pressures and work demands as reasons for their own misbehaviour.’ It is commonplace, argues Graso (2023) that interactions between professionals who are committed to mastering their occupation often contain elements of friction. One outcome might entail a drift from an otherwise robust and healthy exchange of views towards a more aggressive encounter without clear warning signs.

So, while the exercise of civil behaviour is a worthy aim in the workplace, it is almost inevitable that ‘human imperfections and mutual incompatibilities will likely continue hindering efforts to foster civility.’ Despite this, one is dutybound, in the interests of organisational cohesion, ‘to address multiple sources of incivility, including both those originating from people perpetrating mistreatment and those stemming from perceptions.’