Date of Award
Spring 4-2012
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education (EdD)
Department
Education
First Advisor
Dr. Lynda Leavitt
Second Advisor
Dr. Sherrie Wisdom
Third Advisor
Dr. Beth Kania-Gosche
Abstract
The purpose of this sequential mixed methods study was to examine and determine the level of incivility in the workplace as a growing problem from the perceptional views of graduate students enrolled in accelerated degree programs for graduate studies in Business Administration, Criminal Justice Administration, Gerontology, Health Management, and Human Resource Management at a private Midwestern university. Modest research on the subject of incivility in the workplace has emerged only recently to identify the problem exists in today‘s workforce, while studies inclusive of diverse populations of employees with short and long term career paths and ranges of employment service years are not visible in the literature. As a baseline for this study, a populace of 405 working graduate students defined what constitutes civil and uncivil behavior in the workplace. Through survey instrumentation and interview discussion the researcher gathered demographics from participants including gender and generation, determined similarities and differences, as well as established common themes. Several measurable impacts of incivility in the workplace were examined to uncover participant views towards employee job satisfaction, employee productivity, and the effectiveness of employees and their management‘s responsiveness towards identifying and sustaining incidents of incivility in the workplace. Additional examination of verbal and non-verbal behaviors associated with incivility in the workplace, perceptions of employees‘ awareness of their own contributions to incivility in the workplace, and uses of technology in the workplace as E-Incivility were included in this study. iv Results generated from quantitative data revealed a weak significance between the demographic groups of working graduate student perceptions towards incivility as a growing problem in the workplace, employee job satisfaction, and job productivity. Subsequent results from additional quantitative data showed faint correlations of working graduate students effectiveness in preventative measures as well as their own contributions of incivility in the workplace. Interview discussions validated perceptions and beliefs that technology use in the workplace is a growing problem of E-Incivility. Conclusively, content from interview discussions provided the researcher insight of whether incivility in the workplace occurs in sporadic bursts or as a daily recurring pattern, resulting in the researcher‘s determination that reinstating civility is of great importance.
Recommended Citation
Greene, Ashley E., "An Inquiry into Workplace Incivility: Perceptions of Working Graduate Students" (2012). Dissertations. 488.
https://digitalcommons.lindenwood.edu/dissertations/488
Rights
Copyright 2012