A culture of incivility? Individual and workplace level effects of workplace incivility and civility norms on perceived quality of work and burnout

While workplace incivility has been described as a shared stressor in organizations, it has predominately been studied on an individual level of analysis. Few studies have explored shared perceptions of workplace incivility, and how shared perceptions relate to organizational or individual outcomes. The aim of this study was to explore how workplace incivility and civility norms, on both an individual and workplace level, relate to perceived quality of work and indicators of burnout. Questionnaires were collected from N = 257 respondents, across fifteen different workplaces, providing data on both the individual and workplace level. The results showed that experienced incivility, but not civility norms, predicted quality of work (negatively) and burnout (positively) on both the individual and workplace level. Moreover, the relationship between workplace civility norms and burnout as well as perceived quality of work was mediated by workplace level incivility. Taken together, there was an additive impact of workplace level incivility on both perceived work quality and burnout beyond the individual level. The findings support that incivility can be conceptualized as a workplace level problem which consequently could reflect the social culture of a work unit, rather than shortcomings of individuals.