Nursing Publications
The Impact of Civility Interventions on Employee Social Behavior, Distress, and Attitudes
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
11-2011
Journal
Journal of Applied Psychology
Volume
96
Issue
6
First Page
1258
Last Page
1274
URL with Digital Object Identifier
http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0024442
Abstract
Although incivility has been identified as an important issue in workplaces, little research has focused on reducing incivility and improving employee outcomes. Health care workers (N = 1,173, Time 1; N = 907, Time 2) working in 41 units completed a survey of social relationships, burnout, turnover intention, attitudes, and management trust before and after a 6-month intervention, CREW (Civility, Respect, and Engagement at Work). Most measures significantly improved for the 8 intervention units, and these improvements were significantly greater than changes in the 33 contrast units. Specifically, significant interactions indicating greater improvements in the intervention groups than in the contrast groups were found for coworker civility, supervisor incivility, respect, cynicism, job satisfaction, management trust, and absences. Improvements in civility mediated improvements in attitudes. The results suggest that this employee-based civility intervention can improve collegiality and enhance health care provider outcomes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved).
