What should I say? Testing ways to reduce fear and increase disclosure of incivility in reference checks.

We utilize signaling theory as a foundation for testing ways to decrease reference providers' fear of adverse consequences and increase disclosure of workplace incivility in reference checks. We focus on three reminders-commonly recommended by practitioners-that may be sent to reference providers in the instructions prior to the reference check: reminders of applicant consent, qualified privilege, and confidentiality. 420 supervisors were recruited via Prolific.co to complete a hypothetical reference check for the employee with whom they least like to work. Participants were randomly assigned to one of eight conditions in a two (applicant consent reminder: yes/no) X two (qualified privilege reminder: yes/no) X two (confidentiality reminder: yes/no) between-subjects design. Instructions before the reference check were manipulated in a manner that corresponded to their experimental condition, after which they completed measures of fear and incivility. Results showed no main effects, but two interactions. Applicant consent and qualified privilege interacted in relation to fear of adverse legal consequences, and confidentially and qualified privilege interacted in relation to reports of applicant incivility (p < .10). Collectively, our largely null findings suggest that reference checks may be a limited tool for incivility prevention.

Investigating the implications of changes in supervisor and organizational support.

Workers tend to experience many benefits when they work for supportive supervisors and organizations. But what happens when workers experience changes in perceived support, more or less support than they typically experience? We studied family-supportive supervision (FSS) and perceived organizational support (POS) to test how changes in the perception of support in response to the COVID-19 pandemic may influence workers. Three waves of survey data from 368 workers in the United States and Canada were collected as the human and economic toll of COVID-19 manifested. Random-intercepts cross-lagged panel analyses were used to differentiate between stable associations and the within-person changes of interest. Stable associations among variables were consistent with prior research, but cross-lagged effects painted a complex picture that offered reasons for hope and concern. As hypothesized, we observed evidence for gain cycles such that there were reciprocal positive associations between FSS and POS, and higher-than-normal POS was associated with greater job satisfaction. However, remaining hypotheses were not supported, as changes in FSS and POS were not significantly associated with job insecurity, and heightened FSS was associated with higher levels of anxiety and depression. Our study reinforces prior findings by showing that employees generally benefit when working for supportive supervisors and organizations, while also suggesting that episodic changes in FSS and POS may have limited impacts on workers. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Can incivility be informative? Client incivility as a signal for provider creativity.

Workplace incivility is generally viewed as a deleterious interpersonal stressor. Yet, alternative theories suggest that incivility may have instrumental implications for some targets. Applying signaling theory, we study client-provider relationships in a health care context to unpack linkages between incivility enacted by organizational outsiders and work creativity responses by employee targets. We argue that providers leverage information from client incivility to provide more creative care over time. In Study 1 (N = 186), results suggest that clients may use incivility to signal perceptions of poor treatment quality to providers. In Study 2 (N = 416), results from topic modeling of qualitative data show that providers observe client incivility and believe it can contain valuable information about client satisfaction. In Study 3 (N = 503), providers reported their experiences of client incivility and creativity (incremental and radical) in client care over five waves of data to capture the incubation time that providers may need to reflect on instances of incivility. Employing trait-state-occasion modeling, our findings show that episodic (i.e., higher than normal) client incivility had positive lagged relationships with incremental and radical provider creativity, suggesting that time is needed for providers to process the information contained in the client incivility signal and creatively modify treatment plans. Theoretical and practical implications for workplace incivility and creativity are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Living a calling and perceived work ability in domestic violence services.

Calling involves experiencing a sense of purpose to engage in work that benefits others. We contribute to the literature by studying living a calling, which we conceptualize as a resource, to examine how and why it is related to perceived work ability (i.e., one's perception of their ability to continue working in their current job) among women working in domestic violence services. We propose that by living out one's calling, domestic violence services workers may perceive fewer of the salient interpersonal demands in their jobs (relationship conflict among colleagues, workplace incivility from clients served), which may partially explain a linkage to greater perceived work ability. We tested hypotheses using 2-wave survey data. The results suggest that there are direct and indirect positive relations between living a calling and perceived work ability. Workers living out their calling perceive less relationship conflict among colleagues, which partially explains the positive relation with perceived work ability. However, we did not find support for the similarly proposed mediating role of perceived client incivility. Theoretical implications for studying calling and practical implications for career counselors and organizations are discussed. For example, career counselors may consider the presence of a calling when exploring clients' career development in domestic violence work, whereas social service providers may benefit by selecting employees for whom the work aligns with their calling and creating opportunities for their calling to be lived out to facilitate perceived work ability. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Can Civility Norms Boost Positive Effects of Management Commitment to Safety?

We proposed that civility norms would strengthen relationships between management commitment to safety and workers' safety motivation, safety behaviors, and injuries. Survey data were obtained from working adults in hazardous jobs-those for which physical labor is required and/or a realistic possibility of physical injury is present (N = 290). Results showed that management commitment positively related to workers' safety motivation, safety participation, and safety compliance, and negatively related to minor injuries. Furthermore, management commitment to safety displayed a stronger positive relationship with safety motivation and safety participation, and a stronger negative relationship with minor worker injuries when civility norms were high (versus low). The results confirm existing known relationships between management commitment to safety and worker safety motivation and behavior; furthermore, civility norms facilitate the relationships between management commitment to safety and various outcomes important to worker safety. In order to promote an optimally safe working environment, managers should demonstrate a commitment to worker safety and promote positive norms for interpersonal treatment between workers in their units.

The Emergence of Family-specific Support Constructs: Cross-level Effects of Family-supportive Supervision and Family-Supportive Organization Perceptions on Individual Outcomes.

Implicit to the definitions of both family-supportive supervision (FSS) and family-supportive organization perceptions (FSOP) is the argument that these constructs may manifest at a higher (e.g. group or organizational) level. In line with these conceptualizations, grounded in tenants of conservation of resources theory, we argue that FSS and FSOP, as universal resources, are emergent constructs at the organizational level, which have cross-level effects on work-family conflict and turnover intentions. To test our theoretically derived hypotheses, a multilevel model was examined in which FSS and FSOP at the unit level predict individual work-to-family conflict, which in turn predicts turnover intentions. Our hypothesized model was generally supported. Collectively, our results point to FSOP serving as an explanatory mechanism of the effects that mutual perceptions of FSS have on individual experiences of work-to-family conflict and turnover intentions. Lagged (i.e. overtime) cross-level effects of the model were also confirmed in supplementary analyses. Our results extend our theoretical understanding of FSS and FSOP by demonstrating the utility of conceptualizing them as universal resources, opening up a variety of avenues for future research. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Civility norms, safety climate, and safety outcomes: a preliminary investigation.

Working environments that are both civil and safe are good for business and employee well-being. Civility has been empirically linked to such important outcomes as organizational performance and individuals' positive work-related attitudes, yet research relating civility to safety is lacking. In this study, we link perceptions of civility norms to perceptions of safety climate and safety outcomes. Drawing on social exchange theory, we proposed and tested a model in 2 samples wherein civility norms indirectly relate to safety outcomes through associations with various safety climate facets. Our results supported direct relationships between civility and management safety climate and coworker safety climate. Additionally, indirect effects of civility norms on unsafe behaviors and injuries were observed. Indirect effects of civility norms on unsafe behaviors were observed through coworker safety climate and work-safety tension. Indirect effects of civility norms on injuries were observed through management safety climate and work-safety tension for full-time employees, although these effects did not hold for part-time employees. This study provides initial evidence that researchers and practitioners may want to look beyond safety climate to civility norms to more comprehensively understand the origins of unsafe behaviors and injuries and to develop appropriate preventive interventions.

An empirical investigation of the relationship among forms of workplace mistreatment.

Organizational researchers argue that workplace mistreatment scholarship is hampered because of the wide variety of constructs studied. To investigate this concern, we conducted an item-level analysis of the relationship among workplace mistreatment experiences to assess construct overlap. Employed students reported how similar 17 mistreatment experiences were to one another (i.e., from measures of sexual harassment, generalized harassment, and incivility) and subject matter experts indicated the degree to which each experience represented several dimensions including Buss's (1961) dimensions (i.e., verbal/physical, active/passive, and direct/indirect) and others (i.e., sexual/ nonsexual and intentional/accidental). Nonsexual forms of mistreatment (i.e., generalized harassment and incivility) were perceived similarly despite their different conceptual definitions, whereas sexual harassment experiences were relatively distinct. Implications of the findings are discussed.

A multilevel model of the effects of equal opportunity climate on job satisfaction in the military.

To date, minimal work has explored associations between equal opportunity (EO) climate and employee work attitudes, and no known research has investigated the effects of EO climate beyond the individual level. We address these gaps in the literature by testing a multilevel structural equation model in which effects of EO climate are considered at both the individual and unit levels. At the individual level, we predicted that psychological EO climate would be directly associated with job stress and job satisfaction, as well as indirectly related to job satisfaction via stress. In addition, cross-level associations between unit EO climate and job stress and job satisfaction were hypothesized to be mediated by cohesion. Findings supported the proposed model; hypothesized relations were supported at both levels of analysis. We conclude with a discussion of the findings, study limitations, and directions for future EO climate research.