Day-level fluctuations in stress and engagement in response to workplace incivility: A diary study

Abstract

Previous research into workplace incivility, or rude and discourteous behaviour, has focused on between-person relationships. This study extends this research by using a diary design to examine the effect of experiences of incivility at work on two outcomes, stress and engagement, at a within-person level. Two potential moderators of the incivility-outcome association were also examined: the job resource of perceived supervisor support and the personal resource of core self-evaluation. Diary survey data were collected eight times over a four-week period from 130 security employees both in the field and at the corporate offices of a security firm in Australia. Data was analysed with multilevel modelling. Participants were found to have higher levels of stress on the days when they experienced more incivility, but high supervisor support reduced this effect. However, a negative relationship between incivility and daily engagement was only significant for those with low core self-evaluation. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for interventions aimed at reducing the negative effects of workplace incivility.