Change of Heart, Change of Mind, or Change of Willpower? Explaining the Dynamic Relationship Between Experienced and Perpetrated Incivility Change

As organizational scholarship increasingly recognizes the dynamic nature of interpersonal stressors like workplace incivility, the present study investigates workplace incivility change and the mechanisms through which it affects employees. Whereas prior research demonstrates that employees who experience workplace incivility are likely to engage in similar behavior because of depleted self-control, the current investigation draws on Metcalfe and Mischel's (1999) dual-process model to examine additional affective and cognitive mechanisms underlying this dynamic process. We propose that interceding changes in negative affect and cognitive rumination also mediate the dynamic relationship between experienced and perpetrated incivility change. We test our predictions using latent change score modeling with data from 481 employees surveyed four times across 3 months. Results show that the relationship between experienced and perpetrated incivility change is driven by a change in negative affect and that the dynamic indirect effect via negative affect change is moderated by individual differences in psychological detachment. Implications for science and practice are discussed.