Mulcahy, Susan (2015) The Relationship Between Employees’ Appraisals of Work Pressure, and Job Autonomy and their Perceptions Workplace Incivility. Honours thesis, University of Southern Queensland. (Unpublished)
Abstract
Workplace incivility (WI) is an expensive and pervasive phenomenon facing contemporary workplaces. In order to limit it's occurrence it is important that organisations determine the underlying antecedents. The purpose of the present study was twofold. It sought to examine whether and to what extent (a) work pressure and (b) job autonomy mediate the relationship between perceived workplace civility climate and the experience of incivility in the workplace. A final sample of 168 working adults, sourced from a range of mental health, public health, disability, and youth service organisations across Australia completed a voluntary online survey. The measures administered to participants included: Perceived Workplace Civility Climate (PWCC) scale, Stress at Work scale, Control at Work scale, and Workplace Incivility (WI) scale. Maximum likelihood and principal axis factoring were conducted to assess the optimal number of factors for all measures prior to path analysis via structural equation modelling. The factor analyses of the PWCC scale revealed two factors which were labelled Maintaining a Civil Climate (PCC1) and Maintaining Respect in the Workplace (PCC2). The analysis of the WI scale also revealed two factors labelled Workplace Ostracism (WI1) and Workplace Disrespect (WI2). The results partially supported the hypothesised mediated relationships as work pressure did not mediate the relationship between both PCC1 and PCC2 with WI1 and WI2, but work pressure significantly predicted employees' perceptions of WI1 (β = .20) and WI2 (β = .24). Whilst, job autonomy fully mediated the relationships between PCC1 (β = .44) and WI1 (β = -.50) and WI2 (β = -.25), it was found to only partially mediate the relationship between PCC2 (β =.31) and WI1 and WI2, as there was also a significant direct relationship between PCC2 and WI2 (β = -.36). Hence, it seems reasonable to conclude that high levels of work pressure and low levels of job autonomy are both important antecedents of experienced WI. A limitation of this study was that it was focussed solely on participant perceptions of WI and did not take into account that participants may also be perpetrators of incivility. Future research would benefit from examining WI from both targets and perpetrators' perspectives, in order to have a greater understanding of how incivility is perpetuated in the workplace.
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| Item Type: | Thesis (Non-Research) (Honours) |
|---|---|
| Item Status: | Live Archive |
| Additional Information: | Current UniSQ staff and students can request access to this thesis. Please email research.repository@unisq.edu.au with a subject line of SEAR thesis request and provide: Name of the thesis requested and Your name and UniSQ email address |
| Faculty/School / Institute/Centre: | Historic - Faculty of Health, Engineering and Sciences - School of Psychology and Counselling (1 Jan 2015 - 31 Dec 2021) |
| Supervisors: | Tony Machin |
| Qualification: | Bachelor of Science (Honours) |
| Date Deposited: | 26 Aug 2025 01:44 |
| Last Modified: | 26 Aug 2025 01:44 |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | workplace incivility, work pressure, job autonomy, civility climate |
| Fields of Research (2008): | 17 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences > 1799 Other Psychology and Cognitive Sciences > 179999 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences not elsewhere classified |
| Fields of Research (2020): | 52 PSYCHOLOGY > 5299 Other psychology > 529999 Other psychology not elsewhere classified |
| URI: | https://sear.unisq.edu.au/id/eprint/52602 |
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