Exploring the puzzle of civility

Whether and when team civil communication influences team members’ role performance

Datos Bibliográficos

ID9889751
AutoresYihao Liu (0000-0003-3270-9797, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA, autor de correspondencia), Dana R Vashdi (0000-0003-3644-2129, University of Haifa), Thomas Cross (University of Florida), Thomas C Cross (University of Florida), Peter Bamberger (0000-0002-0344-8199, Tel Aviv University), Amir Erez (0000-0002-2320-4984, University of Florida)
Año2020
Volumen73
Número2
Páginas215-241
Fecha de publicación2020-02-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaHuman Relations (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0018-7267 • E-ISSN: 1741-282X
EditorialSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0018726719830164
OpenAlexW2920841078
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas1
Referencias citadas56

Does ‘being nice’ to each other always improve employee performance? Although research on workplace incivility has been growing, little is known about the flip side of it – workplace civility. In fact, different theoretical perspectives have suggested that civility could have positive (i.e. the flexibility perspective) or negative (i.e. the heuristics perspective) cognitive implications. In the current research, we examined whether and when workplace civility (operationalized as team civil communication) influences team members’ role performance in two studies. In Study 1, we recorded team civil communication among 108 teams of students who participated in a team-based simulation, and found that team civil communication enhanced team members’ role performance. In Study 2, we observed and coded 186 real-time surgeries conducted by surgical teams from a health-care center. Results showed a more nuanced and complex pattern regarding the influence of team civil communication, insofar as it enhanced team members’ role performance in teams with less complex tasks, but the effect decreased or even flipped to negative when team task complexity increased. These findings suggest that civility can have both positive and negative influences on performance, with the net effect being contingent upon the broader environmental demands faced by the team

Civility · Incivility · Management · Operationalization · Operations management · Perspective (graphical · Political science · Politics · Public relations · Task (project management · Team composition · Team effectiveness · Applied Psychology · Engineering · Job Satisfaction and Organizational Behavior · Law · Psychology · Social Psychology · Team Dynamics and Performance · Workplace Violence and Bullying