Exploring The Interplay of Psychological Distress, WorkplaceIncivility, and Counterproductive Work Behavior:An Equation System for ManufacturingIndustries in Pakistan

This study examines how workplace incivility affects counterproductive work behavior in Pakistani manufacturing using fuzzy regression to address a practical problem: traditional regression gives point estimates, but managers need cost ranges to plan realistically. Survey data from 395 employees across pharmaceutical, food, and textile sectors provides the basis for this analysis. Structural equation ‎modeling shows that psychological distress partially mediates the relationship (30%), aligning with prior research. However, fuzzy regression reveals something traditional methods miss: this mediation proportion actually ranges from 12% to 74% depending on individual differences. Prospect theory helps explain why employees with higher loss aversion respond more intensely when incivility defies their expectations about workplace treatment. The fuzzy approach offers practical advantages. It produces bounded estimates that ‎support scenario-based budgeting, doesn't require parametric assumptions that workplace data often violate, and explicitly acknowledges ‎that survey responses aren't perfectly precise measurements. For Pakistani manufacturers working with limited resources, these bounded ‎estimates enable three-tiered budgeting: conservative plans using lower bounds, target budgets using center estimates, and contingency ‎reserves for upper bounds. This matches how organizations already handle other uncertain investments. The findings also suggest that ‎mental accounting biases likely contribute to underinvestment in workplace interventions costs get dispersed across departments while ‎intervention expenses consolidate in training budgets‎.