Graduation Year

2008

Document Type

Thesis

Degree

M.A.

Degree Granting Department

Psychology

Major Professor

Paul E. Spector, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Walter C. Borman, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Joseph Vandello, Ph.D.

Keywords

Workplace Incivility, Organizational Climate, Occupational Stress, Safety, Counterproductive Workplace Behaviors

Abstract

The goal of this study was to extend the concept of safety climate into the aggression research domain. In order to address this goal I developed and validated the perceived workplace civility climate scale (PWCC), which assesses the extent to which employees perceive the importance an organization places upon managing and preventing acts of incivility and verbally aggressive actions in the workplace. The factor analytic results produced three factors: (1) Intolerance, (2) Response, and (3) Policies and Procedures. All dimensions demonstrated adequate reliability and correlated significantly to hypothesized stressors and strains. Lastly, correlation results (i.e., convergence) between self- and peer reports provided support that PWCC is a form of climate within organizations. Regression analyses indicated that the PWCC dimensions of intolerance and response are important predictors of individual and organizational strains.

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