Workaholism and Workplace Incivility : the Role of Stress and Psychological Capital

Abstract

The current study aimed to fill a gap in the research on incivility in the workplace by investigating who is more prone to engage in uncivil work behaviors. The connection between workaholism, incivility, stress, and psychological capital (PsyCap) was investigated on a sample of 176 employed adults who completed a questionnaire that assessed these four variables in relation to their current job. Results indicated that participants who scored higher on workaholism and stress were more likely to report engaging in uncivil behaviors. Additionally, participants who scored higher on PsyCap were less likely to report engaging in uncivil behaviors. Furthermore, workaholism was positively associated with stress, while PsyCap was negatively associated with stress. Workaholism was also significantly associated with PsyCap. Mediation and moderation analyses indicated that although the variables had significant zero-order correlations amongst each other, stress did not mediate the relationship between workaholism and incivility. Additionally, PsyCap did not moderate the relationship between the stress variable and incivility, thus, the prediction that the greater the level of PsyCap the weaker the relationship between stress and incivility, was not supported. Findings, study limitations, future research, and practical implications are discussed.