Workplace incivility is a common denominator that frequently take place as employees interact among themselves and with customers, and must be managed by employers and team leaders so that it does not negatively impact employee effectiveness, productivity, delivery of effective customer service and profitability. Incivility in the workplace is a seemingly harmless behaviour that hinders employee effectiveness and lowers productivity. It is commonplace nowadays in various offices, particularly in the services industry and public sector. It is a major cause of employee ineffectiveness but unfortunately it has not been receiving the right attention from employers of labour and management well enough to create enduring search for appropriate solutions in order to improve productivity.
The experiences of workers in their interactions with their larger environment mask the attention that should have been given to workplace incivility. Generally, there is insecurity in the society. There is negligence of the electorate in governance. The leaders take advantage of the led. Most times, there is no electricity supply. There is no pipe borne water. There is no good road. The streets are not clean. Oblivious of what it is, and indifferent to this government insensitivity to the electorates, people resort to self help. They generate light for themselves. They bore holes to get water. They collectively grade their own roads to make them serviceable. They clean their streets. The proportion of public service rendered by government is so minimal that citizens (who in turn are employees of companies) endure or are indifferent to this high level of government incivility to the electorates.
In another development, there is abuse at home. Work-life balance is so compromised that couples struggle to raise families with a minimum standard of contemporary life. There is aggression on the streets. Tempers are short, and fights are rife. There is rage on the road. Drivers do not respect basic driving and traffic rules. Road users do not find motivation on their own to obey rules without the presence of law enforcement agencies. People are generally vulnerable, and basically suffering and smiling. The toxic level of the larger society tends to make workplace incivility pales into insignificance. However, there is a need to expose the incivility among employees as one of the major causes of employee ineffectiveness and lack of productivity so that team leaders can identify the symptoms and treat them, creating an atmosphere of courtesy and respect among workforce. If the philosophy of effective customer service is built of courteous consideration for users of services, and the organization is getting results, it therefore suggests that incivility among employees will be counterproductive.
In order to underscore the seriousness of workplace incivility, we will consider this commonplace scenario. Let us take a case of a departmental meeting of seven members: Ade, Abu, Chidi, Titi, Christopher, Chukwu and Bintu. Ade, who chaired the meeting was busy entertaining the members with unrelated stories of his recent trip exploits. Abu kept working his smartphone under the table to check his missed calls and interact on social media. Chidi was working with his ipad whilst pretending to be amused by Ade’s stories. Titi kept excusing herself and stepping out of the meeting room to receive phone calls in response to a client’s ‘urgent’ calls – she did this on more than eight occasions within thirty minutes. Christopher was reading the newspaper as the meeting was going on. Chukwu and Bintu were exchanging notes between each other and passing these notes to each other through others across the table because they sat at different ends of the table. All the participants represent a type of behaviours we frequently exhibit in the office. These behaviours constitute workplace incivility and result in employee ineffectiveness and lack of
productivity.
Workplace incivility is a broad spectrum of deviant behaviours that employees exhibit in the office and are characterized by the absence of courteous consideration for the feelings and rights of other workers. The measure of effective customer service is to treat customers well, respect their feelings and needs, and handle them with courtesy and respect. When this level of behavioural performance is missing in the interactions of employees, incivility is manifest.
Workplace incivility qualifies as counterproductive work behaviour. It manifests as a low intense activity with indistinct or unclear intent (most authors popularly refer to this as ambiguous intent) to harm the target when compared with other forms of workplace toxic behaviours such as harassment, bully, aggression and violence. However, it shares common denominators with these toxic behaviours in the sense that there is an instigator, a target, the offending behaviour (classify it as irritating, annoying, or unacceptable) and the outcome that is certainly counterproductive.
Babatunde Fajimi, Management Consultant and Business Coach writes from Ikorodu, Lagos.
