Political identity dissimilarity, workplace incivility, and declines in well-being: A prospective investigation

Political affiliation dissimilarity: Exploring lone affiliate employees' work attitudes and experiences

Political affiliation is an important demographic variable that has been relatively neglected in the organizational literature. At present, it is unclear how political dissimilarity between employees and their coworkers affects employees' attitudes and experiences, and whether traditional theories are applicable to this unique form of diversity. Based on time-lagged data from a sample of working Americans (N = 360), we found that lone affiliates (employees who work with coworkers who do not share the same political affiliation) experienced lower levels of positive attitudes than majority affiliates (employees who work with coworkers who do share the same political affiliation). Specifically, in Republican majority organizations, Democrats had lower job satisfaction and affective commitment compared to Republicans. This difference was not found in Democrat majority organizations. Interestingly, these trends were not found for negative experiences, such as incivility from coworkers and depletion. Unaffiliated employees had a unique set of attitudes and experiences in that they suffered the most in organizations with no clear affiliation. Theoretical and practical implications, limitations, and future directions are also discussed.

Workplace incivility and knowledge hiding: a research agenda

Purpose

Contemporary organizations report a sharp increase in the incidences of workplace incivility. The purpose of this paper is to capture the impact of workplace incivility on the victimized employee's knowledge-hiding behaviours. The paper proposes that the victim will hide knowledge by playing dumb, evasive hiding and rationalized hiding behaviour.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper first focusses on a review of literature on workplace incivility and summarizes the findings through a conceptual review model. Subsequently, the paper puts forth a conceptual model depicting the relationship of incivility with knowledge hiding.

Findings

Drawing from the affective events theory, the paper demonstrates that incivility will arouse negative emotions in the victim, enticing the individual to respond by engaging in knowledge hiding. It establishes knowledge hiding to be more than just a consequence of reciprocal exchange relationships. The authors also propose this positive relationship to vary with gender.

Originality/value

The paper draws attention towards the counterproductive knowledge behaviours that can be stirred as a result of negative emotional experiences. It explores the employee’s response to an active form of workplace mistreatment, workplace incivility. It advocates the need to check uncivil and disrespectful behaviours in the organization so as to build a healthy work environment.