Patterns and profiles of response to incivility in the workplace.

The authors draw on stress and coping theory to understand patterns of individual response to workplace incivility. According to data from 3 employee samples, incivility tended to trigger mildly negative appraisals, which could theoretically differentiate incivility from other categories of antisocial work behavior. Employees experiencing frequent and varied incivility from powerful instigators generally appraised their uncivil encounters more negatively. They responded to this stressor using a multifaceted array of coping strategies, which entailed support seeking, detachment, minimization, prosocial conflict avoidance, and assertive conflict avoidance. These coping reactions depended on the target’s appraisal of the situation, the situation’s duration, and the organizational position and power of both target and instigator. Implications for organizational science and practice are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Junk logic: The abuse defense in sexual harassment litigation.

Recently, some defense-oriented authorities have proposed that a history of childhood sexual abuse can be used to attack virtually every aspect of a sexual harassment claimant's case, including the issues of unwelcomeness, reasonableness, damages, and even credibility. The authors critiqued these claims, arguing that they are not only grounded in faulty logic and fallacious reasoning but furthermore ignore or distort the large body of data that contradict them. Using evidence from 2 empirical studies, they argued that there is no scientific evidence for the claims of the "abuse defense" and provided a discussion of the dangers it poses to the integrity of the scientific contribution to judicial decision making. They concluded by briefly describing an alternative to the traditional method of damages determination that circumvents some of its most regressive aspects. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Antecedents and consequences of sexual harassment in organizations: A test of an integrated model.

Sexual harassment of women in organizational settings has recently become a topic of interest to researchers and the general public alike. Although numerous studies document its frequency, the development of conceptual models identifying antecedents and consequences of harassment has proceeded at a slower pace. In this article, an empirical test of a recently proposed conceptual model is described. According to the model, organizational climate for sexual harassment and job gender context are critical antecedents of sexual harassment; harassment, in turn, influences work-related variables (e.g., job satisfaction); psychological states (e.g., anxiety and depression); and physical health. On the basis of a sample of women employed at a large, regulated utility company, the model's predictions were generally supported. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Coping with sexual harassment: Reconceptualizing women's resistance.

This study explored the underlying structure of women's coping with sexual harassment from a rational-empirical approach. On the basis of multidimensional scaling, clustering, and confirmatory factor analysis across 8 data sets, 4 clusters of coping behaviors emerged, with little variance across the data sets. These clusters bear resemblance to Moos and colleagues' (C. J. Holahan, R. H. Moos, & J. A. Schaefer, 1996; R. Moos, 1992; R. H. Moos & J. A. Schaefer, 1993) distinction between coping strategies that differ in both method and foci. The four clusters that emerged are behavioral engagement, behavioral disengagement, cognitive engagement, and cognitive disengagement. This framework provides insight into the complex forms that women's coping with sexual harassment takes and has important legal implications. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Raising voice, risking retaliation: Events following interpersonal mistreatment in the workplace.

This study advances the literature on workplace deviance, addressing retaliation victimization in the context of interpersonal mistreatment. Using survey data from 1,167 public-sector employees, the authors investigated experiences of work retaliation victimization and social retaliation victimization among employees who have vocally resisted interpersonal mistreatment. Regression analyses suggest that different victim voice mechanisms trigger different forms of retaliation, depending on the social positions of the mistreatment victim and instigator. Discriminant function analyses demonstrate lower professional, psychological, and physical well-being among mistreated employees who have been further victimized with retaliation. These analyses also reveal health-related costs associated with victim silence--that is, enduring mistreatment without voicing resistance. Results are interpreted in light of theory on power, emotions, and justice in organizations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personal and workgroup incivility: Impact on work and health outcomes.

This article develops a theoretical model of the impact of workplace incivility on employees' occupational and psychological well-being. In Study 1, the authors tested the model on 1,158 employees, finding that satisfaction with work and supervisors, as well as mental health, partially mediated effects of personal incivility on turnover intentions and physical health; this process did not vary by gender. Study 2 cross-validated and extended these results on an independent sample of 271 employees, showing negative effects of workgroup incivility that emerged over and above the impact of personal incivility. In both studies, all results held while controlling for general job stress. Implications for organizational science and practice are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Incivility in the workplace: Incidence and impact.

This study extends the literature on interpersonal mistreatment in the workplace by examining the incidence, targets, instigators, and impact of incivility (e.g., disrespect, condescension, degradation). Data were collected from 1,180 public-sector employees, 71% of whom reported some experience of workplace incivility in the previous 5 years. As many as one third of the most powerful individuals within the organization instigated these uncivil acts. Although women endured greater frequencies of incivility than did men, both genders experienced similarly negative effects on job satisfaction, job withdrawal, and career salience. Uncivil workplace experiences were also associated with greater psychological distress; however, indices of psychological and physical health were relatively unaffected. The authors discuss these findings in the context of organizational and cognitive stress theories. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)