Family incivility and instigated workplace incivility: How and when does rudeness spill over from family to work?

Extant research has documented the role of workplace-related factors in eliciting uncivil employee behaviors in the workplace, while the role of family-related variables has been largely overlooked. Drawing on the work-home resources model and the conservation of resources theory, the present study attempts to bridge this gap in the literature by exploring the relationship between family incivility and instigation of incivility towards subordinates in the workplace. In addition, this study examines the intervening role of family emotional exhaustion and the buffering role of mindfulness and LMX within the proposed relationship. Results based on time-lagged survey data collected from 282 supervisor-subordinate dyads indicate that family emotional exhaustion mediates the relationship between family incivility and instigated workplace incivility. Results also indicate that mindfulness weakens the impact of family incivility on family emotional exhaustion, while LMX dampens the impact of family emotional exhaustion on instigated workplace incivility. Further, results suggest that mindfulness and LMX together mitigate the overall impact of family incivility on instigated workplace incivility through family emotional exhaustion. This study is an attempt to explore the spillover effects of family-related variables on uncivil employee behaviors in the workplace. Additionally, this study offers new insights with respect to the boundary conditions that may help to alleviate the ramifications of family incivility in the workplace. The results of this study may be utilized by managers in developing appropriate measures to prevent the incidence of uncivil behavior in the workplace.

Automated summary

This study examines the impact of family incivility on uncivil employee behaviors in the workplace, finding that family emotional exhaustion mediates this relationship while mindfulness and LMX play buffering roles. The results suggest that family-related variables have spillover effects on workplace behaviors and offer new insights for managers to prevent uncivil behavior.