EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Understanding workplace incivility has become a burning topic in the past years and this can be
evidenced by the increasing number of scholarly articles / comments on social media and increase
in counseling services offered on and off the workplace. Workplace incivility is defined as low-
intensity deviant behavior with ambiguous intent to harm the target (Anderson and Pearson, 1999).
Incivility is carried out by the people and to the people in the organization. We found many articles
on this topic which have been conducted overseas, but not in Pakistan. During our literature review,
we found a questionnaire named “Uncivil Workplace Behavior Questionnaire (UWBQ)” which
we customized for our research to be used in Pakistan. In addition, we also included some
qualitative and quantitative questions.

We learnt that there were three distinct types of incivility: experienced incivility, witnessed
incivility, and, Instigated (or prompted) incivility.

Workplace incivility may lead to ‘the business invisible cost / loss’. Anderson and Pearson first
introduced the concept of the incivility spiral. We studied from various perspectives: societal, legal
and academic. Also, during our literature review, we learnt regarding worker and Organizational
Antecedents and Outcomes Framework.

As per the literature review, the key leaders of the organizations, such as, Human Resources
Personnel or Team Leaders may take the following steps: define and standardize incivility, provide
managers with effective tools to manage incivility before it spirals out of control and study
workplace incivility separately for each department: the results may vary within an organization

Forty respondents were approached belonging to healthcare companies in Karachi where majority
were less than 35 years of age and with less than 10 years of experience. The questionnaire had 10
(ten) sections: Interruptions, Abusive Supervision, Inappropriate jokes, Alienation (Social
exclusion), Free-riding / Social Loafing, Gossip / Rumors, Hostility, Lack of Respect,
Inconsiderate and Verbal Attacks.

Through the survey it was learnt that respondents mostly frequently get interrupted in meetings by
supervisors, respondents agree that their boss shouted at them, jokes were made at the minority
group, professional jealousies play an important role in social exclusion, people taking credit for
work they did not conduct and gossiping was the favorite past time. However, respondents
defended the organization when other employees were criticizing it, which is a positive sign.

It was concluded that Healthcare Industry was very stressful where every nano second lead to life
and death situation. However, even then we must all respect each other and adhere to being civil
n the workplace.

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In order to ensure ‘workplace civility’, it was recommended that the Human Resources leaders
should built a mechanism and a system commencing from the recruitment and selection phase of
an employee, during the implementation of Performance Management System and via training and
development. In addition, many companies can also introduce a ‘hotline’ via phone or through
email for the management to manage.

Thus, there is a lot of room for further research in this topic which could be spread acorss
companies, across industries, across provinces in Pakistan.

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 PREFACE

We are witnessing an age where human interaction is at its peak owing to the concept of global
village and information age. However, we cannot ignore the ‘HOW’ part of human interactions at
the work places.

At the workplace, the topic of incivility is a ‘taboo’ subject, which is discussed behind closed doors
with colleagues or secretly with friends and family. The employees usually face workplace
incivility from supervisors, peers and at times from subordinates. The victims usually tolerate
‘incivility’ in silence, till they separate from the company on a ‘good note’. The other path is to
openly raise voice against incivility and then leave the organization on a ‘sour note’.
However, we feel that this topic plays an integral and important role in one’s life. Knowingly or
unknowingly, willingly or unwillingly, workplace incivility keeps replaying in our cognitive
minds. In recent years, the topic of cognitive ergonomics is gaining momentum.

Cognitive ergonomics is a branch of ergonomics that emphasis on the mental processes involved
in handling information. It is also known as brain ergonomics. Cognitive ergonomics mainly deals
in mental processes, such as, attention, perception, memory, decision-making and learning. Some
organisations are implementing good cognitive ergonomic practices. It means they are finding the
equilibrium amongst human cognitive abilities, limitations and the environments in which people
work. Today, workplaces demand complexity and are more technological. Thus, the importance
of cognitive ergonomics is increasing so that it can lead to high productivity. In addition, cognitive
ergonomics has lasting consequences on the rest of the biological parts of human body. Also, the
thoughts created by cognitive ergonomics has lasting impressions on oneself, one’s family, friends,
colleagues and society at large.
However, researchers are still trying to break-through the illnesses caused by the mind and the
relevant solutions.

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER 1
1.0 Introduction ………………………………………………….. 6

CHAPTER 2 : RESEARCH ………………………………………… 8

2.0 Research Question (Hypothesis) …………………………….. 8
2.1 Background to the Study …………………………………….. 8
2.2 Research Methodology ………………………………………. 9
2.3 Purpose of the Research ……………………………………… 9
2.4 Research Objectives ………………………………………….. 9
2.5 Significance of the Study ……………………………………. 10

CHAPTER 3 : SAMPLING & DATA COLLECTION …………… 11

3.0 Sampling Technique …………………………………………. 11
3.1 Data Collection ………………………………………………. 11
3.2 Sample Size ………………………………………………….. 11
3.3 Technical Input and areas of in-depth Investigation ………… 11

CHAPTER 4 : QUESTIONNAIRE ………………………………… 13

4.0 Research Questionnaire ……………………………………… 13
4.1 Analysis and Interpretation of Data ...………………………… 16
4.2 Demographics ………………………………………………… 16
4.3 Actual words /comments used in the workplace ……………... 32

CHAPTER 5 : SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, CONCLUSION AND

RECOMMENDATION ………………………… 33
5.0 Limitations …………………………………………………. 34
5.1 Conclusion …………………………………………………. 35
5.2 Recommendation for HR personnel ……………………….... 36
5.3 Recommendation ……………………………………………. 37

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CHAPTER 6 : LITERATURE REVIEW ………………………… 39
6.0 Incivility Defined …………………………………………….. 39
6.1 Types of Incivility …………………………………………… 39
6.2 The Business Invisible Cost/Loss …………………………… 40
6.2 Ways to Decrease / Mitigate Business Invisible Cost / Loss ... 40
6.3 Concept of Incivility Spiral ………………………………….. 40
6.4 The Societal Perspective ………………………………………. 42
6.5 The Legal Perspective …………………………………………. 42
6.6 The Academic Perspective ……………………………………. 42
6.7 The Healthcare Perspective …………………………………… 42
6.8 Worker and Organizational Antecedents and Outcomes
Framework …………………………………………………… 43
6.9 Individual Perspective ………………………………………… 43
6.10 Organizational Perspective …………………………………… 44

CHAPTER 7 : ACTION PLAN FOR THE REPORT ………........ 45

7.0 Action Plan …………………………………………………… 45

CHAPTER 8 : REFERENCES ……………………………………. 46

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 CHAPTER 8
REFERENCES

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