Organizational Justice and Employee Well-being: Workplace Incivility

This article discusses the issue of workplace incivility, which negatively affects employee well-being and organizational productivity. The author shares a personal experience of being a victim of rude and disrespectful behavior in the workplace and highlights the need for sensitivity training and a mechanism to address concerns.

Assessment 3 – Organizational justice and employee well-being
I want to talk about rude and disrespectful behavior that has become almost like an epidemic in
my organization. A few months back, I was left feeling humiliated by a few of my peers. I
became a part of a new team a year back for a new project. The details of the project were
similar to something that I had previously worked on and was transferred for handholding the
new team. I tried my best to become a part of the informal group of the team and most of them
included me in their camaraderie. A few of them however, did not like the new addition to their
team and they did not mince their words while letting me know so. I chalked it up to their
immaturity at the start but it did not stop and eventually worsened over time. A few of my
colleagues started excluding me from their social gatherings, monthly post-work dinners, and
even grew silent when I walked by in the office. I tried talking to them but it was to no avail.
They just plainly denied doing so and asserted that maybe I was being too sensitive. The
incident that acted as the proverbial last straw on the camel’s back for me occurred a few weeks
back during work hours. The implementation plan of the project had been rolled out and there
was to be a formal meeting with the senior leadership team to iron out the creases. A day before
the presentation, I got to know of a few changes that had been made in the plan that I was not
made aware of. I knew from previous experience that the changes would not go well with the
seniors. I understand being excluded from the social circle, but this sort of behavior where I was
not included in a work problem that I actually knew about did not go down well with me. On
confronting the concerned people, they retaliated by publicly humiliating me and even
questioning my competence. They said they could very well manage on their own and I was just
a burden to their team.
I understand from a preliminary research that such behavior, characterized as workplace
incivility (Andersson & Pearson, 1999) is quite common in Australia and globally as well
(Griffin, 2010). This dark side of OB as it is cited in academic literature attributes to various
negative outcomes for the victims as well as the organization including loss of productivity,
absenteeism, stress, burnout, job dissatisfaction, and in some cases, aggressive behavior that got
escalated to violence (Rosen, Koopman, Gabriel, & Johnson, 2016; Schilpzand, De Pater, &
Erez, 2016). I spoke to a few of my friends in the office and realized that the perpetrators
routinely got away with publicly reprimanding their colleagues, disrespecting them, and

engaging in rude behavior. When the issue was raised with them or their supervisors, the victims
were blamed for being too sensitive and not being team players. I understand that sometimes,
the stress of the job or problems on the personal front can lead to individuals letting out their
frustration on their peers. Many of us let such events slide considering the frequency of such
events is not too high. Many of us, including myself, talk to our peers about such incidents, let
out some steam and then go back to work. We understand the interpersonal dynamics and
related sensitivities of working in teams. Habitual acts of such behavior, however do not go
down well with me. My organization does have a code of conduct and expects everyone to
behave with normal civility and humanity. There is however no mechanism to address the
concerns of the victims or witnesses of uncivil behaviors.
I eventually took up the matter with my seniors and requested for a transfer to my old team
which I was granted. I, however, feel that our HR needs to incorporate a sensitivity training for
all employees about how seemingly benign acts of rude and disrespectful behaviors can trigger
an emotional response in a few people, even if the intent was not present (Porath & Pearson,
2012, 2013). Additionally, a mechanism to address the concerns of the victims and the
perpetrators needs to be put in place for future.

References
Andersson, L. M., & Pearson, C. M. (1999). Tit for tat? The spiraling effect of incivility in the
workplace. Academy of management review, 24(3), 452-471.
Griffin, B. (2010). Multilevel relationships between organizational-level incivility, justice and
intention to stay. Work & Stress, 24(4), 309-323.
Porath, C. L., & Pearson, C. M. (2012). Emotional and behavioral responses to workplace
incivility and the impact of hierarchical status. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 42,
E326-E357.
Porath, C., & Pearson, C. (2013). The price of incivility. Harvard business review, 91(1-2), 115-
121.
Rosen, C. C., Koopman, J., Gabriel, A. S., & Johnson, R. E. (2016). Who strikes back? A daily
investigation of when and why incivility begets incivility. Journal of Applied
Psychology, 101(11), 1620.
Schilpzand, P., De Pater, I. E., & Erez, A. (2016). Workplace incivility: A review of the
literature and agenda for future research. Journal of Organizational behavior, 37, S57-
S88.