Workplace incivilities: the role of interest conflicts, social closure and organizational chaos

Abstract

Workplace incivility — that is, negative relational dimensions of employment with consequences for worker integrity and dignity — affects millions every year. In this article, the ‘organizational misbehaviour’ and ‘workplace chaos’ literatures offer building blocks for a conception wherein workplace incivility is viewed as emanating from the joint and sometimes interconnected influence of organizational processes and status-based social closure. The resulting multi-method analyses draw on coded information on incivility, organizational context, and relational and status dynamics from a large population of organizational ethnographies (N=204). Analyses reveal that all forms of incivility except sexual harassment are rooted in organizational chaos. Qualitative re-immersion into these ethnographic accounts provides further insights into how conflicts endemic to paid employment and broader social closure projects surrounding class, race, and gender play a role as well, albeit often in distinct ways.