IMPLICATIONS OF EXPERIENCING WORKPLACE INCIVILITY

Abstract

Workplace incivility is a ubiquitous unethical phenomenon that has burgeoned extensively in the last two decades. A diverse range of studies spanning different organisational settings supports the premise that workplace incivility has severe long-term implications that should not be overlooked. This is especially true for service-based industries like the hospitality sector. Since the hospitality industry is so exclusively profit-driven at the expense of providing high-quality service, it creates a highly stressful and volatile work atmosphere that may incite subtle misbehaviours and even escalate to aggression among employees. Previous literature has established that workplace incivility is a grave concern across the hotel industry, disrupting the work, deteriorating well-being and hampering individual as well as organisational performance. Thus, the present study undertakes the task of exploring the implications of workplace incivility in the hospitality sector of Delhi/NCR, a cosmopolitan segment and capital of India. In order to demonstrate the damaging effects of workplace rudeness on Indian hospitality professionals' intentions to leave and their tendency to hide knowledge, the current study employs resource-based and exchange theories. For this purpose, a survey was undertaken with a sample of 326 participants working in the budget hotels of Delhi/NCR, India. The collected data was analysed using SPSS, AMOS and Hayes PROCESS Macro. The findings reveal that hotel employees undergo depersonalisation as a result of incivility, which further leads to hiding knowledge and developing intentions to quit their organisations. The study also establishes an individual resource – psychological capital that can help dampen the effect of incivility on the targets. Although these dimensions have been used in previous studies either alone or in combination with other variables, no study has fully defined these ideas and examined the interrelated ways in which one influences the other. Therefore, this study offers an uncharted and unexplored conceptual model that seeks to contribute to the incivility as well as the hospitality literature. The current study aims to raise awareness among hospitality managers and organisations regarding the seriousness of the incivility issue and provides insight into the techniques that may be able to prevent this type of behaviour in the workplace.