Cultural variation in individual's responses to incivility by colleagues of different rank: The role of descriptive and injunctive norms

Moon, C.; Weick, M.; Uskul, A.K.

doi:10.1002/ejsp.2344

Cultural variation in individual's responses to incivility by colleagues of different rank: The role of descriptive and injunctive norms

Moon, C.; Weick, M.; Uskul, A.K.

Authors

C. Moon

Professor Mario Weick mario.weick@durham.ac.uk
Professor

A.K. Uskul

Abstract

The present research sought to establish how cultural settings create a normative context that determines individuals’ reactions to subtle forms of mistreatment. Two experimental studies (n = 449) examined individuals’ perceptions of high- and low-ranking individuals’ incivility in two national (Study 1) and two organizational (Study 2) cultural settings that varied in power distance. Consistent across studies, the uncivil actions of a high-ranking perpetrator were deemed more acceptable than the uncivil actions of a low-ranking perpetrator in the large power distance cultural settings, but not in a small power distance cultural setting. Differing injunctive norms (acceptability), but not descriptive norms (perceived likelihood of occurrence), contributed to cultural variations in the level of discomfort caused by incivility. In addition, perceptions of descriptive and injunctive norms coincided, but differed markedly in their associations with discomfort. We discuss the practical and theoretical implications of these findings.

Citation

Moon, C., Weick, M., & Uskul, A. (2018). Cultural variation in individual's responses to incivility by colleagues of different rank: The role of descriptive and injunctive norms. European Journal of Social Psychology, 48(4), 472-489. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2344

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	Oct 4, 2017
Online Publication Date	Dec 20, 2017
Publication Date	Jun 1, 2018
Deposit Date	Sep 12, 2018
Publicly Available Date	Dec 20, 2018
Journal	European Journal of Social Psychology
Print ISSN	0046-2772
Electronic ISSN	1099-0992
Publisher	Wiley
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	48
Issue	4
Pages	472-489
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2344
Keywords	Incivility, Norms, Power, Culture, Hierarchy.
Related Public URLs	https://kar.kent.ac.uk/67190/

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Copyright Statement
This is the accepted version of the following article: Moon, C., Weick, M. & Uskul, A. K. (2018). Cultural variation in individual's responses to incivility by colleagues of different rank: The role of descriptive and injunctive norms. European Journal of Social Psychology 48(4): 472-489 which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2344. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance With Wiley Terms and Conditions for self-archiving.