Workers’ observation of uncivil leadership: Is tolerance for workplace incivility a gendered issue?

In the context of organizational psychology, this study aimed to examine workers’ gender biases in tolerance when observing leaders’ incivility in the workplace. Based on role congruity theory, this paper proposes analyzing the gender differences in workers’ evaluations of awareness and tolerance of...

ver descrição completa

Detalhes bibliográficos
Autores: Carmona-Cobo, Isabel, Garrosa Hernández, Eva, Lopez-Zafra, Esther
Formato: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2021
País:España
Recursos:Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
Repositorio:Biblos-e Archivo. Repositorio Institucional de la UAM
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:repositorio.uam.es:10486/697679
Acesso em linha:http://hdl.handle.net/10486/697679
https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su13116111
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palavra-chave:Gender
Leadership
Observers
Organizations
Role congruity
Workers
Workplace incivility
Psicología
Descrição
Resumo:In the context of organizational psychology, this study aimed to examine workers’ gender biases in tolerance when observing leaders’ incivility in the workplace. Based on role congruity theory, this paper proposes analyzing the gender differences in workers’ evaluations of awareness and tolerance of workplace incivility considering the gender of a leader who commits different incivility behaviors against an employee. Moreover, we posit that the type of incivility is also gendered. A sample of 547 workers (male and female) randomly played the roles of observers whereby they rated a scenario describing a leader (male or female) who publicly humiliates and openly doubts an employee’s judgment (overt incivility—agentic), or leaves out and pays little attention (covert incivility— communal) to an employee. The results indicate that male workers tolerated incivility less when role incongruence occurred, such as when male leaders used covert incivility. In contrast, female workers were consistently less tolerant when role congruence occurred with the leader’s gender, such as when male leaders were overtly uncivil. Furthermore, compared to males, female workers were more aware and less tolerant of incivility when a female leader was overtly or covertly uncivil. This paper provides empirical insights and fulfills an identified need to study how gender bias in workplace incivility can be enabled in organizations. The implications for practice can drive the development of prevention strategies within the field of management and human resources.