Rudeness and Recovery: The Effect of Micro-breaks in Reducing Negative Consequences of Workplace Incivility

1 online resource (131 pages) : PDF

2020

University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Workplace incivility leads to negative outcomes for employees and organizations (Schilpzand, De Pater, & Erez, 2016). It is difficult to completely eradicate due to the ambiguity and subtlety of many uncivil behaviors; however, it is important to seek ways to reduce the negative outcomes. In the current dissertation, I examine the role of micro-breaks on employees who experience incivility. Although previous research has considered work breaks as a counterproductive response to incivility (Reio & Ghosh, 2009), the current study proposes that short, micro-breaks taken while at work may instead serve as a resource that provides employees momentary recovery from experienced incivility at work. In addition, by using a within-person, experience sampling approach, the current study considers the more immediate influence of short-term fluctuations in incivility which may differ from those associated with past or prolonged exposure. Data were collected from 75 working adults who responded to three surveys a day over two work weeks (10 days). Findings support previous research showing negative consequences of incivility on emotions and well-being. Furthermore, mixed findings suggest that the effectiveness of micro-breaks on different outcomes is influenced by the type of activity pursued (i.e., relaxation, cognitive, social, or nutrition). Although not all micro-break activities as defined in this study were effective on their own, when considered as a whole, micro-break activity was a significant moderator in the relationship between incivility and anger such that the relationship between incivility and anger was lower on days in which employees engaged in more micro-break activities. In turn, anger mediated the day-level relationship between incivility and well-being. These results suggest that employees should consider activities that are most effective in helping them to cope with incivility-induced feelings of anger (e.g., irritation or frustration) when trying to make the most out of their micro-break experience.

doctoral dissertations

Organizational behavior
Social psychology
Psychology, Industrial

Ph.D.

Discrete Emotions
Effort-Recovery
Experience Sampling Methods
Incivility
Micro-Breaks
Workplace Recovery

Organizational Science

Ruggs, Enrica

Banks, George
McGonagle, Alyssa
Shanock, Linda

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 2020.

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Harrington_uncc_0694D_12564

http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.13093/etd:1941