A Moderated Mediation Model Between Perceived Incivility and Instigated Incivility on Workplace: A Cross-Cultural Daily Diary Study

Workplace incivility is a common issue experienced by employees around the globe. However, studies observing and interpreting cultural variation in workplace incivility across multiple countries are quite limited. Drawing from the stressors-emotion model, we aimed to investigate how perceived workplace incivility leads to next-day instigated incivility toward coworkers via increased negative affect (NA) at the end of the workday between Chinese and Pakistani employees. Data were collected through snowballing from 100 Chinese and 115 Pakistani employees over 10 consecutive workdays. We found that perceived incivility enhanced one's after-work negative affect, which led to increased instigated incivility the next morning. Moreover, a higher level of self-regulation mitigates the relationship between perceived incivility and after-work negative affect. The higher level of state-mindfulness mitigates the relationship between after-work negative affect and instigated incivility the next morning. Although the first path of mediation was not significant among Chinese, there was a significant moderating effect on this relationship in both groups. In addition, this effect was weaker among Chinese than among Pakistanis. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed, along with limitations and a future research agenda.