An identification-based model of workplace incivility and employee creativity: evidence from China

Research has consistently demonstrated that experienced incivility or witnessed incivility produce a wide array of deleterious outcomes. However, few studies investigate experienced incivility and witnessed incivility in tandem. It remains unknown that whether witnessed incivility could exacerbate the negative consequences triggered by experienced incivility. Drawing on social identity theory, we investigate how experienced incivility impedes employee creativity at work via reduced perceived insider status (PIS) and the moderating role of witnessed incivility. Using a longitudinal sample consisting of 306 supervisor-subordinate dyads in China, results showed that workplace incivility was negatively related to employee creativity, and employee PIS mediated this relationship; witnessed incivility moderated the negative relationship between workplace incivility and PIS and the indirect effect of PIS. The present study supported the identity perspective in understanding workplace incivility, highlighting the pivotal roles of employees' identification in the consequences of workplace incivility at work.