Curtailing the Reciprocal Effect of Coworkers’ Incivility: Does Psychological Capital Buffer the Relationship?
Keywords:
Coworkers’ incivility, Counterproductive work behavior, Psychological capitalAbstract
Relying upon norms of reciprocity, incivility spiral and conservation of resources theory, this study investigated the buffering role of psychological capital in the relationship between experienced coworkers’ incivility and faculty deviant workplace behavior (counterproductive work behavior) taking participants from Ethiopian public university full time academicians. The descriptive-correlational research design was used, while data collected were analyzed using correlation and moderated regression method (Process macro tool). Population of the study were comprised of all full time faculty teaching in five randomly selected public university of Ethiopia and 320 useable questionnaires were collected from the final respondents. The researchers’ used standardized questionnaire and conducted confirmatory factor analysis in order to measure coworker incivility, counterproductive work behavior and psychological capital. The findings of the study revealed that about 80.4% of respondents have experienced uncivil behaviors from coworkers at least once or twice during the last year. Coworkers’ incivility has a significant, positive relationship with counterproductive work behavior; psychological capital is negatively related to counterproductive work behavior and finally individuals having higher psychological capital engage in less deviant behaviors. Thus, psychological capital significantly buffered the relationship of coworkers’ incivility and counterproductive work behavior. Limitations were discussed and recommendations were forwarded for the management bodies of the study area.
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