Development and validation of the uncivil workplace behavior questionnaire

Abstract

This article describes the development and validation of a new measure of workplace incivility, the Uncivil Workplace Behavior Questionnaire (UWBQ). Participants included 5 samples of Australian adult employees (total N=368). Principal axis factoring of the UWBQ yielded 4 interpretable factors (Hostility, Privacy Invasion, Exclusionary Behavior, and Gossiping), all of which exhibited high internal consistency. The 4-factor structure received further support from a confirmatory factor analysis on a hold-out sample. A series of correlation and regression analyses revealed that the UWBQ subscales exhibited sound convergent, divergent, and concurrent validity. The psychometric properties of the UWBQ are contrasted with those of the Workplace Incivility Scale (L. M. Cortina, V. J. Magley, J. H. Williams, & R. D. Langhout, 2001), to the authors' knowledge the only other measure of the workplace incivility construct available to date.