Little incidents of incivility can hamper professional relationships

Uncivil behaviour, even little incidents, at the workplace can harm professional relationships and everyday interactions at organisation, new research has said.

The research showed that uncivil acts or microaggressions have been cited as a major cause of an employee's turnover, poor workplace climate and job dissatisfaction. In the long run, incivility impacts the productivity of an organisation and weakens the work structure.

"When we think about incivility we think about something major, but it doesn't have to be," Jia Wang, Associate Professor at Texas A&M University in the US, said in a statement. "Most of the time it's the little things accumulated in your daily life that make a huge impact," Wang added.

The research created awareness regarding the leadership in an organisation to reduce workplace incivility. As suggested, the leaders need to develop behaviour statements which would further define uncivil behaviour on both the personal and organisational level.

"If I was holding a workshop session, I would have [an employer] sit down and brainstorm as many statements as they could. I would have them think about things they have observed and experienced and what they would consider uncivil," Wang said.

The research also suggested that it is important for the leaders to take a look at their own actions and determine whether they are being civil to their employees or not. A leadership team has to be willing to engage in conversations with and take feedback from colleagues.

"To me, incivility is a culture thing and culture change does not happen overnight. But, you can educate people to be culturally aware and culturally competent," Wang noted. Also, the researchers found that human resource professionals can play a key role in this process by discussing about the policies and recommendations that can be held accountable among the colleagues at any organisation.