Workplace incivility, emotional intelligence, counterproductive workplace behaviour, organisational citizenship behaviour and organisational commitment in South African employees
Date
2021
Authors
Dady, Hayley Y
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Abstract
Many studies have investigated the effects of workplace incivility as a form of job stress and have established that workplace incivility has multiple negative impacts upon an employee’s well-being. within the context of this research, workplace incivility was investigated in relation to its effects on counterproductive workplace behaviour, organisational commitment and organisational citizenship behaviour. Building upon Lazarus and folkman’s transactional model of stress and coping, this research endeavour also aimed to examine the moderating effect of emotional intelligence on the relationships between workplace incivility and counterproductive workplace behaviour, organisational commitment and organisational citizenship behaviour. Participants were able to access and complete six surveys online, namely, a self developed demographic survey, Cortina’s Workplace Incivility Scale, Spector’s 10-Item Short Version of the Counterproductive Work Behavior Checklist, Spector’s 10-Item Short Version of the Organisational Citizenship Behavior Checklist (OCB-C), Meyer and Allen’s Organisational Commitment Questionnaire (OCQ) and the Schutte Self Report Emotional Intelligence Test (SSEIT). This resulted in a sample of 150 employees from various industries within the South African context. Results of this research endeavour indicated that workplace incivility was significantly correlated with counterproductive workplace behaviour as well as the moderator variable, emotional intelligence. Simple regression analyses revealed that workplace incivility resulted in increased counterproductive workplace behaviour but not organisational commitment and organisational citizenship behaviour. However, it is noteworthy that workplace incivility did show correlations to the sub-factors of affective and continuance organisational commitment. These findings were, in part, supported by previous literature and empirical studies. While emotional intelligence was found to have a positive effect on all of the outcome variables iv mentioned above, it did not have a moderating effect on the relationships between workplace incivility and the outcome variables. Secondary analysis of demographical variables indicated that experiences of workplace incivility varied depending on an individual’s age. Additionally, limitations of this research, recommendations for future research on this topic and practical recommendations were discussed.
Description
A research report submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts by Research Report in the field of Psychology to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2021