The Corporate International
Vol. 1, Issue 1 - 2017
© Eureka Journals 2017. All Rights Reserved. www.eurekajournals.com
THE IMPACT OF WORKPLACE INCIVILITY ON END OF WORK
NEGATIVE AFFECT: MEDIATING ROLE OF ANGER AND
MODERATING EFFECT OF EMOTIONAL STABILITY
ERUM NAZ AKHTAR
*
, AYESHA SHAHID
**
, SALMAN SARWAR
***
ABSTRACT
This study specifically aims at determining the association between workplace
incivility and end of work negative affect by investigating the intervening role
of anger and buffering role of emotional stability. The survey was completed
by self-administered questionnaire and data was gathered from employees
working in four public sector universities of Pakistan. The total sample size of
data was 150. Results indicate that workplace incivility positively and
significantly influences end of work negative effect. In addition, anger
mediates between workplace incivility and end of work negative affect.
Whereas emotional stability buffers the impact of workplace incivility on
anger in a way that high emotional stability weakens the relationship of
workplace incivility and anger. The implications of these findings are also
discussed.
KEYWORDS: Workplace Incivility, End Of Work Negative Effect, Anger,
Emotional Stability, Social Learning.
Workplace incivility is defined as “low intensity
deviant behavior with ambiguous intent to
harm the target, in violation of workplace
norms for mutual respect” (Andersson &
Pearson, 1999, p. 457). Workplace incivility
happens quite often at work; in a nationwide
survey, 10% of respondents reported to have
witnessed workplace incivility on a daily basis
(Pearson, Andersson, & Porath, 2005), and 98%
of all workers that were sampled by Porath,
Pearson, and colleagues had experienced
workplace incivility at work (Porath & Pearson,
2013). Because of its high prevalence,
workplace incivility has drawn many
researchers’ attention and a number of studies
have uncovered its impact on targets. For
example, workplace incivility was found to be
associated with reduced satisfaction with the
job, supervisor, and coworkers (Cortina,
Magley, Williams, & Langhout, 2001; Lim & Lee,
2011), lower intention to stay (Griffin, 2010),
and decreased mental and physical health (Lim,
Cortina, & Magley, 2008). A recent study has
identified the association of workplace incivility
on End-of-Work Negative Affects and found
that WI is positively related with EWNA (Zhou,
Yan, Che, & Meier, 2015).
*
Capital University of Science and Technology, Islamabad.
**
Research Officer, Institute of Business and Information Technology, University of The Punjab, Lahore.
***
Research Scholar and Regional Head, Superior Group of Colleges and The Spirit Schools System, Pakistan.
Correspondence E-mail Id: editor@eurekajournals.com