Workplace incivilities: the role of interest conflicts, social closure and organizational chaos

Workplace incivility - that is, negative relational dimensions of employment with consequences for worker integrity and dignity - affects millions every year. In this article, the 'organizational misbehaviour' and 'workplace chaos' literatures offer building blocks for a conception wherein workplace incivility is viewed as emanating from the joint and sometimes interconnected influence of organizational processes and status-based social closure. The resulting multi-method analyses draw on coded information on incivility, organizational context, and relational and status dynamics from a large population of organizational ethnographies (N=204). Analyses reveal that all forms of incivility except sexual harassment are rooted in organizational chaos. Qualitative rea immersion into these ethnographic accounts provides further insights into how conflicts endemic to paid employment and broader social closure projects surrounding class, race, and gender play a role as well, albeit often in distinct ways.