Workplace Incivility in Digital Meetings: An Investigation of the Behavior and How it is Associated with Work Motivation

Abstract: Workplace incivility has been shown to affect the individual and organization negatively. Studies have also indicated that workplace incivility is a relatively common phenomenon in Sweden. In connection with the pandemic, working life has become increasingly digital, which has normalized video meetings. Therefore, more knowledge is requested about workplace incivility in digital meetings. This present cross-sectional study addresses this gap in research and aims to contribute knowledge about workplace incivility. More specifically, the research investigates workplace incivility that individuals have experienced or witnessed in digital meetings. The thesis also aims to investigate how workplace incivility in digital meetings is associated with work motivation. The present study is based on quantitative and thematic analysis. An Internet survey was distributed to ten different authorities in Sweden. A total of 92 answers were collected from the Internet survey. The findings from the present study indicate that workplace incivility is a relatively common phenomenon among Swedish authorities and that its frequency could be slightly more common in digital meetings. The findings also revealed that the most common form of the behavior was that a supervisor or coworker paid little to no attention to the respondents' or others' opinions. However, the study did not find any differences in digital incivility across different groups and could not find any significant correlation between incivility in digital meetings and work motivation. The study is the first to explore the relationship between the factors. Ultimately, this study opens the idea of a new way of exploring workplace incivility.