Workplace incivility as a social process: how witnessing incivility relates to uncivil conduct, well-being, job satisfaction and stress

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between witnessed workplace incivility from both colleagues and supervisors, and instigated incivility. How witnessed workplace incivility from colleagues and supervisors relate to psychosocial factors such as well-being, job satisfaction and stress was also investigated. An online-based questionnaire was issued to members of the Swedish Hotel and Restaurant Workers Union, with 2647 respondents, rendering a response rate of 16.5 %. Scales measuring witnessed incivility from colleagues and superiors and personally instigated incivility, together with measures of well-being, job satisfaction and stress-levels were included in the questionnaire. Four separate multiple regressions revealed witnessed colleague and supervisor incivility to significantly explain variance in all four models, relating witnessed colleague and supervisor incivility to instigated incivility, lower levels of well-being, lower levels of job satisfaction and higher levels of stress. The implications of these findings were discussed.