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. 2021 Nov 11:12:746205.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.746205. eCollection 2021.

Your Care Mitigates My Ego Depletion: Why and When Perfectionists Show Incivility Toward Coworkers

Muhammad Ali Hussain  1 , Lu Chen  1   2 , Lusi Wu  1
Affiliations

Your Care Mitigates My Ego Depletion: Why and When Perfectionists Show Incivility Toward Coworkers

Muhammad Ali Hussain et al. Front Psychol. .

Abstract

Drawing on ego depletion theory and trait activation theory, this study examines why and when employee perfectionism personality is linked with incivility toward coworkers. The study indulges ego depletion as a mediator between perfectionism personality and incivility toward coworkers, with coworker empathic concern moderating the relationship between perfectionism personality and ego depletion. A three-waved questionnaire was incorporated with sample of 253 employee-coworker dyads. Our findings demonstrate that dimensions of perfectionism personality are positively associated with incivility toward coworkers. In addition, our study confirms that ego depletion mediates the relationship between self-oriented perfectionism, other-oriented perfectionism, and incivility toward coworkers. Furthermore, our study shows that high levels of coworker empathic concern weakens the direct effect of self-oriented perfectionism on ego depletion along with the indirect effect of self-oriented perfectionism on incivility toward coworkers. Theoretical and practical implications of the study are discussed in the organizational context.

Keywords: ego depletion; empathic concern; incivility; other-oriented perfectionism; self-oriented perfectionism.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Theoretical model.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Interactive effect of self-oriented perfectionism and coworker empathic concern on ego depletion.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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