Supervisors’ Role in Mitigating Coworker Incivility: Implications for Workplace Ethics

Abstract

Drawing on cognitive appraisal theory and an appraisal perspective of justice, this study investigates how and when coworker incivility impairs employee psychological well-being. We propose and test a moderated mediation model where perceived job stress mediates the negative effect of coworker incivility on psychological well-being, and this indirect effect is buffered by supervisor interpersonal justice. We tested our model across three studies: a three-wave survey establishing mediation (Study 1; N = 144), a cross-sectional field study of the full moderated mediation model (Study 2; N = 172), and a vignette experiment establishing causality (Study 3; N = 225). Results consistently showed that coworker incivility diminishes psychological well-being by increasing employees’ perceived job stress. Importantly, this indirect effect is attenuated when supervisors demonstrate high levels of interpersonal justice. This study expands the literature on workplace incivility and psychological well-being by empirically demonstrating that employees perceive their jobs as more stressful and experience poorer psychological well-being after interacting with uncivil coworkers; yet supervisors can play a critical role in mitigating these effects. Furthermore, we highlight the ethical implications by emphasizing the contingency effect of supervisors’ interpersonal justice in mitigating incivility and fostering an ethical workplace for all employees.