How to stop workplace incivility from creating a toxic work culture

“When people are rude in the workplace to us – and even just around us, not specifically to us, but we see it, we're witnesses – that actually damages our wellbeing.”

So says Andrei Lux, Lecturer of Leadership and the Director of Academic Studies at the Edit Cowan University’s School of Business and Law, in talking about research he has done looking at workplace incivility.

Lux and his team looked at the psychological wellbeing of nurses in Australia – how safe they are mentally and how capable they are in the workplace. And they wanted to test the effects of workplace incivility on that psychological wellbeing.

“What we found is that, not surprisingly, there was a strong, detrimental effect,” he said.

Detecting workplace incivility

Workplace incivility refers to any comments, language, behavior, gestures, that can be interpreted as rude, uncivilized, hurtful. And these behaviours can lead to a toxic work culture, according to Lux.

“It's not at the level of something like a racial slur, or sexist remark or harassment,” he told HRD Australia. “Those are the more overt forms of abuse, which are well documented. It’s the stuff like rolling your eyes, sighing, tsking… undermining people's credibility, so belittling them in front of others.”

It can be challenging to detect instances of workplace incivility because it’s so subjective, Lux said.

“We've got a clearly defined ideas about what racism and sexism is. These have been tested in the law,” he said. “But when people feel hurt by others’ behavior, that's enough — that's incivility. Your experience is legitimate.”

Business leaders set the tone

These behaviors are more concerning when they come from business leaders as they set the tone for an organisation.  

“People will watch leaders for cues about what kind of behavior is acceptable and appropriate, whether consciously or not, so they set the norm, the tone, on their teams, on their organisations,” Lux said.

When leaders are engaging in incivility, it's particularly damaging for two reasons, he said.

“One is this cascading effect where other people think that's acceptable, that's how we should interact with one another, and then they emulate and follow the lead. So then incivility proliferates throughout the organisation.

“The other issue is that they're in a privileged position of power.”

As leaders have more authority, control and power, that power asymmetry can be particularly dangerous because it can leave their subordinates in a vulnerable position, Lux said.

“You're supposed to be looking after them and their best interests,” he said. “You have a responsibility to take care of them. Some of that responsibility is explicit in our laws and professional practice guidelines. Some of it is implicit, where we feel that we should be looked after and be able to trust our leaders. So when they're the ones who are rude to us, it's particularly damaging because that psychological contract is broken, [and] we no longer feel safe with that.”

If employees don’t feel safe, there can be no trust, information sharing or collaboration.

“All of a sudden, I'm now spending my energy protecting myself from you as my leader rather than focusing on the work,” said Lux.

How to prevent workplace incivility

A first step in resolving the issue is by having an informal conversation using the “BIFF technique” – be brief, informative, friendly and firm – when discussing the issue with the perpetrator, he said.

“The perpetrator of the incivility can have absolutely no intent to be rude to be uncivil,” Lux said. “In fact, maybe there are all sorts of incidents you can imagine where they thought it was collegial.”

But should the harm persist, then it should be escalated to management.

“If it's getting to the point where someone feels hurt or feels harm, that's when managers need to intervene,” he said.

The research also looked at the leadership behaviours that can reduce incivility and help improve wellbeing. One of the key solutions is to have authentic leadership.

“It's about being keenly aware of your values, your strengths, your weaknesses; being transparent in your interaction with others; but also mindful of how your leadership affects them, seeking feedback to try and help improve your interaction with others,” Lux said. “So there's a deep concern in how you influence other people with your leadership behavior.”

What the researchers found is that authentic leaders who are mindful of values, and who look for transparent interaction with others, actually reduced incivility in the workplace. They also set norms of conduct and behavior that were more collegial and more professional.

“Once there was less incivility, there was better wellbeing,” he said.

For businesses, it’s also about looking at what type of leadership style your managers use.

“Think about training, think about selection from an HR perspective, [think] about providing some of these skills, having conversations about values, having conversations about how that affects other people,” Lux said. “That can be really powerful and helpful to reduce these kinds of issues before they become prevalent.”