Workplace incivility during organizational socialization: how new managers, varying in moral identity, perceive (mis)fit

Abstract

PurposeThis study aims to investigate the mediating role of perceived person-organization (P-O) fit in the relationship between workplace incivility and affective organizational commitment (AOC) and the moderating effect of moral identity. The context is set in the organizational socialization process of externally hired managers.Design/methodology/approachA theoretical model was developed based on social identity theory. With the help of Alumni offices of 4 Master of Business Administration (MBA) programs in Vietnam, 461 MBA graduates recently hired as managers were invited to participate in the study. A time-lagged survey was conducted and resulted in data from 386 participants. Hypotheses were tested using latent moderated structural equation method (LMS).FindingsPerceived P–O misfit partially mediated the negative effect of workplace incivility on managers' AOC. The moderating impact of moral identity was also found such that the positive association between workplace incivility and perceived P-O misfit was stronger when moral identity was higher.Research limitations/implicationsThis study's limitations are threefold. First, the relatively new appearance of MBA programs in Vietnam made it difficult for us to conduct longitudinal research. Second, this study focused on MBA graduates as externally hired managers, a population that, as mentioned earlier, comes from a polite and respectful environment. Third, the current study mainly used self-evaluation to measure factors which might not be fully objective and reflect externally hired managers' situation. Future research could strengthen this method by equipping it with the evaluations of other organization members.Practical implicationsA clash of identities generated by value incongruence when externally hired managers experience incivility should be recognized and mitigated during socialization. More attention should be paid to managers with moral identities.Originality/valueThe study extends the organizational socialization literature in two ways. The first way is by elucidating how a negative organizational factor – workplace incivility – leads to socialization failures. The second way is by exploring the impacts of relatively new self-identity facets, including MBA graduates as externally hired managers and moral identity.