Silent Strain: The Emotional Cost of Workplace Incivility in Quality Control Management

This paper systematically explored the literature to establish the mediating role of emotional labour, surface acting and deep acting in the relationship between workplace incivility from co-workers and superiors and emotional exhaustion. Grounded in Affective Events Theory (AET) and Conservation of Resources (COR) Theory, the paper illustrates how quality control (QC) managers, tasked with precision and compliance, face a dual burden of technical rigour and emotional regulation. The findings from the literature challenge industries to recognize emotional labour not as an individual responsibility but as a structural issue, where uncivil environments undermine well-being and quality outcomes. Surface and deep acting are critical links between incivility and emotional exhaustion. The framework presented in this paper challenges organizations to reconceptualize workplace interactions as behavioural issues and systemic drivers of emotional attrition. Mapping the mediating role of emotional labour offers QC professionals and organizational leaders actionable insights to disrupt the incivility-exhaustion cycle through targeted emotional skills training and cultural interventions. Theoretical and practical implications for quality control management in manufacturing settings are discussed. This paper calls for organizational strategies that mitigate incivility while equipping QC managers with emotional resilience, ensuring product standards and human sustainability.