Impact of Workplace Incivility on Work-Family Conflict: The Mediating Role of Emotional Exhaustion and Moderating Role of Job Experience

Abstract

: This study tests the role of emotional exhaustion as a mediating mechanism between workplace incivility instigated by three sources (i.e., customers, co-workers and supervisors) and work-family conflict (WFC). We test the role of job experience as a boundary condition affecting the indirect relationship between supervisor incivility and WFC via emotional exhaustion. The sample consists of 235 front-line restaurant workers employed in casual and fine-dining restaurants in Lahore, Pakistan. Structural equation modeling is used to test the hypothesized relationships. Customer incivility, coworker incivility and supervisor incivility are positively associated with WFC. Emotional exhaustion mediates the relationship between workplace incivility instigated by the three sources listed above and WFC. Job experience strengthens the positive indirect effect of supervisor incivility on WFC via emotional exhaustion. However, job experience does not affect the positive indirect effect of customer incivility and co-worker incivility on WFC via emotional exhaustion. The WFC literature mostly employs job experience as a control variable. This study is the first to examine job experience as a boundary condition affecting the indirect link between supervisor incivility and WFC via emotional exhaustion.