Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2018 Dec 14;8(12):e021874.
doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2018-021874.

Impact of workplace incivility in hospitals on the work ability, career expectations and job performance of Chinese nurses: a cross-sectional survey

Shu'e Zhang #  1 , Chongyi Ma #  2 , Dexin Meng  3 , Yu Shi  1 , Fengzhe Xie  1 , Jinghui Wang  1 , Xinpeng Dong  4 , Jiao Liu  5 , Shuang Cang  6 , Tao Sun  1
Affiliations

Impact of workplace incivility in hospitals on the work ability, career expectations and job performance of Chinese nurses: a cross-sectional survey

Shu'e Zhang et al. BMJ Open. .

Abstract

Objectives: The objectives of this study were to investigate new nurses' experiences of workplace incivility; verify the mediating role of work ability in the relationship between workplace incivility and job performance and examine the moderating role of career expectations in the relationship between workplace incivility and job performance.

Design: This cross-sectional survey was conducted in China in May 2016.

Settings: The research settings included 54 cities across 29 provinces of China.

Participants: Of the 903 participants recruited, 696 new nurses (<3 years of nursing experience) agreed to complete the online questionnaire of the study. The effective response rate was 77.1%. The inclusion criteria were voluntary participation, <3 years of nursing experience and recognition as a registered nurse. The exclusion criteria were refusal to participate, >3 years of nursing experience or not recognised as a registered nurse.

Results: New nurses (60.7%) experienced some level of workplace incivility in the previous year, and it was more frequent among those with higher educational degrees. Work ability mediated the relationship between workplace incivility and job performance, and this relationship was moderated by career expectations.

Conclusion: Incivility towards new nurses was relatively common in the workplace. Workplace incivility impairs job performance by weakening the work ability of new nurses. Higher career expectations may buffer workplace incivility and contribute to the maintenance of job performance by buffering the detrimental effects of workplace incivility.

Keywords: career expectation; job performance; new nurses; work ability; workplace incivility.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Conceptual framework of the study.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Standardised regression coefficients for the relationship between workplace incivility and job performance as mediated work ability. Standardised regression coefficients for the relationship between workplace incivility and job performance as mediated work ability, controlling for work ability, is in parentheses.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Graphical representation of the interaction between workplace incivility and career expectation predicting job performance interference.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Andersson LM, Pearson CM. Tit for tat? the spiraling effect of incivility in the workplace. Acad Manage Rev 1999;24:452–71. 10.5465/amr.1999.2202131 - DOI
    1. Schilpzand P, De Pater IE, Erez A. Workplace incivility: A review of the literature and agenda for future research. J Organ Behav 2016;37(4):S57–S88. 10.1002/job.1976 - DOI
    1. Liu C. A literature review on workplace incivility. Chinese Journal of Management 2012;9:1092–8.
    1. Bambi S, Guazzini A, De Felippis C, et al. . Preventing workplace incivility, lateral violence and bullying between nurses A narrative literature review. Acta Biomed 2017;88:39 10.23750/abm.v88i5-S.6838 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Oyeleye O, Hanson P, O’Connor N, et al. . Relationship of workplace incivility, stress, and burnout on nurses’ turnover intentions and psychological empowerment. J Nurs Adm 2013;43:536–42. 10.1097/NNA.0b013e3182a3e8c9 - DOI - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources