The relationship between workplace incivility and depersonalization towards co-workers: Roles of job-related anxiety, gender, and education

Dirk De Clercq, Inam Ul Haq and Muhammad Umer Azeem

Journal of Management & Organization, 2020, vol. 26, issue 2, 219-240

Abstract: This study contributes to management scholarship by unpacking the relationship between employees' exposure to workplace incivility and their exhibition of depersonalization towards co-workers, according to the mediating effect of job-related anxiety and the moderating effects of gender and education. Time-lagged data from employees in Pakistani organizations show that an important reason workplace incivility enhances depersonalization towards co-workers is that employees feel anxious about their jobs. This mediating role of job-related anxiety is particularly salient among male and higher-educated employees, possibly because they suffer from resource losses in the form of dignity threats when they are treated with disrespect. For organizations, this study accordingly pinpoints a key mechanism by which disrespectful workplace treatment can escalate into depersonalization towards co-workers (enhanced job-related feelings of anxiety), as well as how the strength of this mechanism might depend on individual factors.

Date: 2020
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cup:jomorg:v:26:y:2020:i:2:p:219-240_7

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