Incivility and gender: considering instigator/target gender interactions

Abstract

In this study, I examine gender dyads, especially considering gender minorities, and how uncivil behaviour would effect negative and positive affect, interactional justice, affective commitment, and turnover intentions. In particular, I use the Dysempowerment Model (Kane & Montgomery, 1998) to explain how incivility leads to these negative outcomes. In addition, selective incivility (Cortina, 2008) is incorporated to illustrate how gender of the target may result in higher rates of polluters, thus different (more significant) outcomes for female and gender minority targets. Finally, I integrate gender status literature to hypothesize gender effects based on the manager’s (instigator) gender. A 2 (incivility vs. control) x 3 (manager gender: male, female, transgender) x 3 (participant/target gender: male, female, transgender) vignette-based pseudo-experiment was conducted to test the hypotheses. Data collection was done online, and participants were recruited through online means (Amazon Mechanical Turk, Social Media recruitment, and Prolific). The main effects for incivility manipulation were all significant, but the gender x incivility interaction effects were mainly nonsignificant. The significant results support that relatively common, but rude, behaviours can cause tangible changes in negative affect, interactional justice, job commitment, affective commitment, and positive affect. Some unexpected interactions were found with respect to intentions to quit. Implications for future research and practitioners are discussed.