IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/bushor/v60y2017i5p707-714.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

What happened to civility? Understanding rude behavior through the lens of organizational justice

Author

Listed:
  • Lilly, Juliana D.

Abstract

The ability to have polite conversation between individuals who disagree with one another seems to be a rare quality today. Organizational justice theory may help explain why rude behavior seems so prevalent and whether the rudeness in politics and society creates a polarized environment that could impact the workplace. Three recent legal decisions concerning healthcare, same-sex marriage, and the Michael Brown case, along with three workplace examples of deliberate rudeness, are examined to analyze the polarization of opposing viewpoints and the incivility that resulted from these situations. When a decision is viewed as a win-lose situation and people perceive the decision process as unfair, losers in the decision may feel threatened and react by engaging in deviant behavior that is uncivil. Winners may also engage in behavior that is uncivil and intolerant of opposing viewpoints. The result is a cycle of incivility that may include character assassination, protests, and a diminished willingness to compromise. Managers should be cognizant of the dangers of rude behavior and create a workplace environment that counters productivity interference caused by incivility and inability to compromise. I suggest specific steps to help stop workplace incivility before it starts.

Suggested Citation

  • Lilly, Juliana D., 2017. "What happened to civility? Understanding rude behavior through the lens of organizational justice," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 60(5), pages 707-714.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:bushor:v:60:y:2017:i:5:p:707-714
    DOI: 10.1016/j.bushor.2017.05.014
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0007681317300927
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.bushor.2017.05.014?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Greenberg, Jerald, 1993. "Stealing in the Name of Justice: Informational and Interpersonal Moderators of Theft Reactions to Underpayment Inequity," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 54(1), pages 81-103, February.
    2. Ambrose, Maureen L. & Seabright, Mark A. & Schminke, Marshall, 2002. "Sabotage in the workplace: The role of organizational injustice," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 89(1), pages 947-965, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kim, Andrea & Moon, Jinhee & Shin, Jiseon, 2019. "Justice perceptions, perceived insider status, and gossip at work: A social exchange perspective," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 30-42.
    2. Danping Shao & Erhua Zhou & Peiran Gao, 2019. "Influence of Perceived Socially Responsible Human Resource Management on Task Performance and Social Performance," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-22, June.
    3. Ozgur Demirtas, 2015. "Ethical Leadership Influence at Organizations: Evidence from the Field," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 126(2), pages 273-284, January.
    4. John, Leslie K. & Loewenstein, George & Rick, Scott I., 2014. "Cheating more for less: Upward social comparisons motivate the poorly compensated to cheat," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 123(2), pages 101-109.
    5. Ambrose, Maureen L., 2002. "Contemporary justice research: A new look at familiar questions," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 89(1), pages 803-812, September.
    6. Sangeeta Sahu & Avinash D. Pathardikar, 2014. "Job Cognition and Justice Influencing Organizational Attachment," SAGE Open, , vol. 4(1), pages 21582440145, February.
    7. Stea, Diego & Foss, Nicolai J. & Christensen, Peter Holdt, 2015. "Physical separation in the workplace: Separation cues, separation awareness, and employee motivation," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 33(6), pages 462-471.
    8. van Dijke, Marius & Wildschut, Tim & Leunissen, Joost M. & Sedikides, Constantine, 2015. "Nostalgia buffers the negative impact of low procedural justice on cooperation," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 15-29.
    9. Dezső, Linda & Loewenstein, George, 2019. "Self-serving invocations of shared and asymmetric history in negotiations," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    10. Kim, Jungkeun, 2019. "The impact of different price promotions on customer retention," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 95-102.
    11. Shubo Liu & Qianlin ZHU & Feng Wei, 2019. "How Abusive Supervision Affects Employees’ Unethical Behaviors: A Moderated Mediation Examination of Turnover Intentions and Caring Climate," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(21), pages 1-14, October.
    12. Christian Koch, 2021. "Can reference points explain wage rigidity? Experimental evidence," Journal for Labour Market Research, Springer;Institute for Employment Research/ Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), vol. 55(1), pages 1-17, December.
    13. Ariff Syah Juhari & Muhammad Awais Bhatti & Shishi Kumar Piaralal, 2016. "Service Quality and Customer Loyalty in Malaysian Islamic Insurance Sector Exploring the mediating effects of Customer Satisfaction," International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, Human Resource Management Academic Research Society, International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, vol. 6(3), pages 17-36, March.
    14. van Dalen, H.P. & Henkens, K., 2015. "Why Demotion of Older Workers is a No-Go Area for Managers," Other publications TiSEM cef69d5e-bcc2-4082-b9fa-0, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    15. Galeotti, Fabio & Kline, Reuben & Orsini, Raimondello, 2017. "When foul play seems fair: Exploring the link between just deserts and honesty," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 451-467.
    16. McColl-Kennedy, Janet R. & Patterson, Paul G. & Smith, Amy K. & Brady, Michael K., 2009. "Customer Rage Episodes: Emotions, Expressions and Behaviors," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 85(2), pages 222-237.
    17. Leung, Kwok & Zhu, Yongxin & Ge, Cungen, 2009. "Compensation disparity between locals and expatriates: Moderating the effects of perceived injustice in foreign multinationals in China," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 44(1), pages 85-93, January.
    18. Clive Boddy, 2014. "Corporate Psychopaths, Conflict, Employee Affective Well-Being and Counterproductive Work Behaviour," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 121(1), pages 107-121, April.
    19. Eric A. Fong, 2010. "Relative CEO Underpayment and CEO Behaviour Towards R&D Spending," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(6), pages 1095-1122, September.
    20. James J. Lavelle & Robert Folger & Jennifer G. Manegold, 2016. "Delivering Bad News: How Procedural Unfairness Affects Messengers’ Distancing and Refusals," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 136(1), pages 43-55, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:bushor:v:60:y:2017:i:5:p:707-714. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/bushor .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.