A Meta-Analytic Examination of the Effects of Workplace Incivility on Discretionary Work Behaviors

Abstract

Despite numerous research findings supporting the deleterious effect of experiencing workplace incivility on employee discretionary work behaviors, our theoretical understanding of the psychological mechanisms that underlie these relationships is relatively piecemeal. The major purpose of the current meta-analysis is to clarify the relationships between workplace incivility and discretionary work behaviors and their intervening mechanisms. Drawing from social exchange theory, affective events theory, and self-regulation theory, we examine three related yet distinctive psychological processes – i.e., social exchange quality, negative emotional reactions and psychological strain – that transmit the effects of experienced workplace incivility on two types of discretionary work behaviors – i.e., organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) and counterproductive work behavior (CWB). A meta-analytic path analysis based on the current study’s meta-analytic findings (k = 128) and relevant existing meta-analytic findings indicates that the negative relationship between workplace incivility and OCB is not direct, but primarily mediated through social exchange quality and, to a lesser extent, negative emotional reactions. In contrast, the positive relationship between workplace incivility and CWB is not only direct but also mediated through negative emotional reactions, and, to a lesser extent, social exchange quality and psychological strain. Implications of these findings for relevant theory and practice will be discussed along with study limitations and future research directions.