Rethinking rudeness: the nuanced impact of workplace e-mail incivility on cognitive performance

Abstract

This research builds on prior work examining the relationship between perceived incivility in workplace e-mail and task performance. This study proposed attribution theory and self-determination theory as helping to explain the widely supported negative relationship between incivility and performance. The study design was between-subjects and implemented experimental vignette methodology (EVM) to determine if exposure to an uncivil e-mail impacted perceptions of blame attribution and thwarted fundamental needs as well as subsequent performance on a working memory task. Results based on a sample of 411 working adults recruited on Prolific reveal that, contrary to ample evidence indicating that incivility is detrimental to performance, the incivility-performance relationship appears to be more nuanced than the literature suggests. Findings introduce additional complexity to the experience of incivility: they provide evidence that the level of perceived rudeness might moderate how incivility relates to performance and that some responses, such as external attribution and thwarted relatedness, might even be advantageous to task performance. This work has important implications for how applied psychologists study incivility and understand it in terms of its influence on objective cognitive performance.