The Effect of Witnessed Incivility on Instigated Incivility: Focused on Mediating Effect of Stress

Purpose Although the research stream of incivility consistently has focused on this concept for about twenty years, researchers’ interests have merely reached at the witnessed incivility. Because of the lack of studies on the witnessed incivility, this study tries to identify the relationship witnessed incivility has with the other variables. Design/Methodology/Approach In detail, the research model examined the bad outcome that an employee who witnessed incivility gets stresses that make the employee instigates incivility. To analyze the research model, the sample data was composed of 210 respondents who work for Korean companies, and the data analyzed by the covariance structural equation modeling method. Findings As a result, it is examined that witnessed incivility has positive effect on workplace stress, and workplace stress had positive effect on the outcome variable, instigated incivility. it is also analyzed that witnessed incivility has significant indirect positive effect on the outcome variable via the bootstrapping method. The result means incivility at workplace can spread out thorough the way of witnessed incivility to the other colleagues. Research Implications The most important implication is that this study found out the new possible bad consequence of incivility, which implies the more studies needs to be focused on the witnessed incivility. Moreover, this study also commits to examine the empirical possibility of incivility spiral.