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In this article we introduce the concept of workplace incivility and explain how incivility can potentially spiral into increasingly intense aggressive behaviors. To gain an understanding of the mechanisms that underlie an "incivility spiral," we examine what happens at key points: the starting and tipping points. Furthermore, we describe several factors that can facilitate the occurrence and escalation of an incivility spiral and the secondary spirals that can result. We offer research propositions and discuss implications of workplace incivility for researchers and practitioners.
You should follow honorable mean and vent your wrath on the wicked (Disticha Catoni, A Medieval Textbook, as quoted in Elias, 1982: 63).
Civility traditionally has been viewed by society as a source of power in American culture means of gaining favor and asserting cultural superiority-an acceptable ploy for attaining social advantage. The spread of civility has served to muffle the issue of class, softening the divisions between rich and poor and employers and employees (Elias, 1982; Morris, 1996). In scholarly work authors have suggested civility serves as the vehicle for providing answers to unanswered questions of conduct (Bellah, 1970) and have linked civility to such related phenomena as the necessity for ritualized behavior in light of divorce (Johnson, 1988), the foundation for human rationality necessary for successful education (Shulman & Carey, 1984), and the courteous treatment of professional colleagues in correspondence and feedback (Roberts, 1985).
Nonetheless, civility is not only functional or instrumental but holds moral implications as well. The basis for civility is love of thy neighbor-a demonstration of respect for fellow human beings (Carter, 1998; Elias, 1982; Wilson, 1993). Carter has referred to civility as "the sum of the many sacrifices we are called to make for the sake of living together" (1998:11) and Wilson as "a way of signaling the existence of selfcontrol" (1993: 83). Although manifest in varied ways, norms concerning how people ought to behave in order to live cooperatively can be witnessed in every community and culture (Elias, 1982; Goffman, 1967; Hartman, 1996). Thus, civility, as a moral standard, can be considered a virtue.
According to some social scientists and historians (e.g., Carter, 1998; Chen & Eastman, 1997; Elias, 1982; Erickson, 1962; Goffman, 1967), the need for civility becomes even greater when the interactions...