The Influence of Perceived Organizational Politics on Workplace Incivility Among Private and Public Employees in Ogun State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study examined the influence of perceived organizational politics on workplace incivility. A total of four hundred (400) participants ( M = 200: F = 200) were randomly selected from private and public organizations in Ogun State, Nigeria. A battery of psychological instruments was used in the collection of data for this study which include: Workplace Incivility Scale and Perception of Organizational Politics Scale. Descriptive statistical methods, Pearson’s product moment correlation and Independent Sample t-tests were used to analyse data in order to test the five hypotheses formulated. The findings show that perceived organizational politics had a significant influence on workplace incivility. This implies that, the lower the level of perception of organizational politics, the lower the report of incivility and vice versa ( t = 5.26, p <0.05). Furthermore, a significant positive relationship existed between perceived organizational politics and workplace incivility ( r = .331, p <0.05). It also revealed that there was a significant difference in the report of incivility among private and public employees. Employees from public organizations reported significantly higher workplace incivility. However, the result indicated that age and gender had no significant influence on workplace incivility. Based on these findings, management should put measures in place to minimize perceived organizational politics in order to reduce uncivil behaviour in workplace.