Perceived Injustice And Workplace Incivility:the Role Of Psychological Distress,State Self-esteem,and Emotional Regulation

In recent years, more research has been focused on various aspects of aggressive behaviors ranging from physical violence and harassment to milder forms of psychological aggression, all of which can be seen as counterproductive work behavior (Pearson, Andersson, & Porath, 2005). One of these factors is workplace incivility, a subtle form of interpersonal negativity characterized by disrespect and rudeness (Andersson & Pearson, 1999). These behaviors constitute the basis of norms for consequent behavior, which influences the whole organization through unconducive climate. Although some studies have focused on workplace incivility, where they explored the victims and consequences of incivility, yet at little attention has been paid to the antecedents of workplace incivility. Previous research indicates that organizational pressures are among the potential causes of workplace incivility, like changes at work, causing uncertainty regarding downsizing, job demands, restructuring and mergers, new technologies for communication, work and information overload, compressed time and deadlinesThe present research aims to identify potential antecedents of workplace incivility, through examining the possibility that the perception of organizational injustice could induce incivility at the workplace. This study investigates the mediating roles of psychological distress and state self-esteem to understand the relationship of the three dimensions of perceived injustice (i.e.,distributive, procedural and interactional) with workplace incivility. The study also evaluates whether emotional regulation moderates the effect of perceived injustice dimensions on psychological distress and state self-esteem.The current research used a quantitative research methodology to investigate the relationship between the proposed hypotheses. Two studies were conducted using a sample from various public and private organizations of Pakistan. The confirmatory factor analysis was conducted through AMOS 21; the descriptive statistics analysis with SPSS 21, and SPSS PROCESS macro was used for multiple regression analysis. Analysis of the Study 1 data (N=347), collected from employees working in a variety of organizations, (supervisor-subordinate matching dyads) indicates that psychological distress and state self-esteem mediates the effects of distributive and procedural injustice on workplace incivility. The results of study 1 also support that emotional regulation moderates the effects of distributive and procedural injustice on psychological distress and state self-esteem. After four months of study 1,a survey of study 2 (N=236) was administered from those respondents who responded in study 1 (employee-coworker matching dyads). The results of study 2 reveal that psychological distress and state self-esteem mediates the effects of distributive and procedural injustice on workplace incivility. Moreover, the study finds that emotional regulation moderates the effects of perceived DU on psychological distress and state self-esteem.The findings of this research highlight the fact that emotional regulation, psychological distress,and state self-esteem are important mechanisms between the relationship of injustice and workplace incivility. The inclusion of these constructs is a key to understanding the relationships among perceived injustice, and work-related outcomes. The paper concludes with a sound discussion comprising of theoretical and practical implications.