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Objective: The objective of the current study was to examine psychosocial maladjustment related to adolescents’ appraisals of workplace sexual behavior. Method: High school aged adolescents with formal work experience completed a survey containing a battery of scales. Results: Descriptive statistics addressing frequency of exposure showed that 45% of adolescent men reported at least one incident of sexual behavior directed at them personally, and 24% of adolescent women reported the same. Results further indicated that adolescent men reporting a positive experience after being targeted by direct sexual behavior at work also showed signs of internal maladjustment, such as depression and anxiety. Conclusions: Gender role strain model, which suggests that the male adolescents experienced trauma when conforming to hyper-masculine norms that call for acceptance of sexual behavior, was offered to explain why male adolescents differed from female adolescents in associations between sexual behavior appraisal and maladjustment.

The purpose of this research was to adapt and validate a multidimensional instigated incivility scale. Previously, instigated incivility research has used unidimensional scales, measures designed for specific occupations (e.g., nursing), item subsets of larger scales, or scales designed for experienced incivility that assumes a change of referent will not impact the scale. This research formally validates the change of referent from experienced incivility to instigated incivility, and offers a scale designed for wide range of occupations with demonstrated advantages over a popular unidimensional scale. Study 1 proposes a second-order factor structure of the measure. Surveying a sample of 472 individuals, the study confirms the measure’s ability to predict additional variance in interpersonal deviance over a previous measure of instigated incivility, as well as provide greater detail relating to a multi-faceted personality dimension (narcissism). Study 2 uses a unique sample of 642 participants and expands the nomological network of the scale by demonstrating the correlational and predictive relationships to a network of related constructs identified by past research. The results of Study 1 identify that the multidimensional factor structure of UWBQ-I remains intact when changed from an experienced incivility scale. Regression and dominance analyses demonstrate that the UWBQ-I provides additional variance accounted for over Blau and Andersson’s (2005) scale, capturing a larger portion of the instigated incivility construct domain. Additionally, the advantages of a multidimensional framework are identified by relating the scale sub-facets to equally specific dimensions of narcissism. Study 2 further supported the validation of the UWBQ-I by replicating a large network of relationships that have been previously identified in incivility research. Considerably less research has been dedicated to instigated than to experienced incivility research. The present studies offer a scale that may contribute to increased research by providing more specific relationships between facets of incivility and constructs such as personality. Greater understanding of the detailed relationships may help researchers further identify antecedents and consequences and aid practitioners in developing interventions to understand and quell instigated incivility in the workplace. Although research has used a scale such as this, the validity of the scale has never been demonstrated. This research establishes the appropriateness of the past use of such scales and also offers researchers a standard, validated measure to incorporate in a broad range of occupations for future incivility research.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine leader-member exchange (LMX) and perceived organizational support (POS) as moderators of the relationship between psychological contract violation and workplace incivility. Design/methodology/approach – An online survey was administered to employed adults. Findings – The association between violation and incivility was more pronounced when levels of LMX and POS were higher. Research limitations/implications – The correlation design limits the ability to draw causal inferences. Affect models, including but not limited to affect infusion model (AIM), offer a useful framework for enhancing understanding of incivility and other forms of counterproductive work behaviors. Practical implications – The study has contributed to knowledge about contract violation’s implications for work behaviors, such as incivility. Managers sensitive to the dynamics of contract breach may prevent feelings of violation by communicating clearly and often about expectations, resources, and procedures. Social implications – Organizational and societal leaders may be well served by knowledge about preventing people’s intense responses to perceived violation by appropriately responding to perceived breach. Originality/value – The study draws upon AIM as a novel approach to understanding conditions under which negative emotions are most likely to relate to workplace incivility. Moreover, the roles of social exchange variables LMX and POS have heretofore been unexplored as moderators of the violation-incivility relationship.

The primary objective of this research was to examine both transactional and transformational leadership styles as serving in the role of moderators in the relationship between organizational justice and work engagement. An online survey was administered to 348 respondents. Results supported the hypothesis that the positive relationship that both distributive and procedural justice held to work engagement would be more pronounced among employees experiencing low transactional leadership than among employees experiencing high transactional leadership. This set of results is consistent with the principles of leader fairness theory, which suggests that a low transactional leadership style elicits uncertainty about one’s social self in the context of the workplace, and this state of uncertainty incites an employee’s intensified desire to seek justice-related information.

The primary objective of this research was to examine both procedural and interactional justice perceptions as moderators of the relationship between psychological contract violation and workplace incivility. Affect Infusion Model (AIM) was used as a theoretical basis for predicting an interaction in which there was, in general, a positive relationship between violation and incivility. However, a stronger relationship between contract violation and incivility was predicted under high-justice conditions, compared to low-justice conditions, due to the deeper, more elaborate information processing needed to reconcile a psychological contract violation occurring in an otherwise just organization. An online survey was administered to 975 U.S. respondents. The hypotheses were confirmed. Results indicated that the positive relationship between violation and instigated incivility was stronger among employees reporting a just work environment. Implications for applying AIM to organizational settings are discussed.

The research questions addressed gender differences in the subjective appraisal of teens experiencing sexual harassment, and the psychosocial maturation of male and female teens appraising such events as threatening to their well-being. Using survey methodology, U.S. undergraduate women (n = 316; 85% White Caucasian) and men (n = 270; 85% White Caucasian) reported on their earliest formal work experiences (participants’ average age was M = 19.03, SD = 1.87). Results indicated that women, more than men, were more upset by, and were more likely to label an event as, sexual harassment. Results further demonstrated that men, particularly men who appraised harassment as bothersome and relied on behavioral coping, reported detriment to maturity outcomes of autonomy and social responsibility. Implications for a “wimpy male” hypothesis are discussed.