McDonough School of Business, Georgetown University.
Department of Management, Technology and Strategy, Grenoble Ecole de Management.
J Appl Psychol. 2015 Sep;100(5):1527-41. doi: 10.1037/apl0000016. Epub 2015 Mar 23.
Workplace incivility is rampant and on the rise-with costs to individuals and organizations. Despite the increased need for civility, little is known about potential individual benefits of civility, defined as behavior involving politeness and regard for others in the workplace, within workplace norms for respect (Andersson & Pearson, 1999). Recent research has suggested that being civil may be hazardous to influence, power, and income (see Forni, 2002; Judge et al., 2012).Yet, throughout history, civil behavior has been extolled because it paid dividends to the person who behaved well. The focus of this research is whether that holds true in organizations. Using social exchange theory, we developed hypotheses about how civility benefits people, and investigated this in 2 studies. First, in a 2-wave social network study of a research and development department (n = 31) of a biotechnology firm, we found that people who perceived a colleague as civil would be more likely to seek that person out for work advice and to see that person as a leader. The more the individual was perceived as civil by others in his or her network, the better his or her performance. Being sought out for work advice and being viewed as a leader mediated this effect. In the second experiment (n = 162), we extended our understanding of what drove these benefits. We found that people who are civil were perceived as warm and competent, and these positive perceptions, in turn, helped to explain the benefits garnered. We discuss theoretical and practical implications.
工作场所的粗野行为猖獗且呈上升趋势，这给个人和组织都带来了损失。尽管人们对文明行为的需求日益增加，但对于文明行为（定义为在工作场所规范的尊重范围内涉及礼貌和尊重他人的行为）可能给个人带来的潜在好处却知之甚少。最近的研究表明，保持文明可能会对影响力、权力和收入造成危害（见 Forni，2002；Judge 等人，2012）。然而，纵观历史，文明行为一直受到赞扬，因为它给表现良好的人带来了回报。本研究的重点是这种情况在组织中是否成立。我们使用社会交换理论，提出了关于文明行为如何使人们受益的假设，并在两项研究中对此进行了调查。首先，我们对一家生物技术公司的研发部门（n = 31）进行了为期 2 波的社会网络研究，发现认为同事文明的人更有可能向该同事寻求工作建议，并认为该同事是领导者。个人在其网络中被他人认为越文明，他的表现就越好。寻求工作建议和被视为领导者会影响这种效果。在第二项实验中（n = 162），我们扩展了对驱动这些好处的因素的理解。我们发现，文明的人被认为是热情和有能力的，而这些积极的看法反过来又有助于解释所获得的好处。我们讨论了理论和实践意义。
