U.S. workers face 202 million acts of incivility each day, according to the Society for Human Resource Management, and societal polarization is a top risk identified in the World Economic Forum 2024 Global Risk Report. As societal divides intensify, leaders should cultivate a culture of civility in the workplace to create unity among their teams.
Understanding Incivility—The Obvious and Subtle
Incivility isn’t always over-the-top, aggressive behavior; it can manifest in small ways that cause negative feelings and make others uncomfortable. This mistreatment is unique from bullying and harassment and can be carried out in many ways. Forbes shares the following examples:
- Being rude
- Spreading rumors
- Giving the silent treatment
- Withholding information
- Skipping saying ‘thank you’
Characteristics of Civility
The core of civility is respect, kindness, and courtesy. It requires shared workplace values, empathy for one another, a commitment to positive company culture, and respectful collaboration that allows for disagreements and constructive feedback.
Civility can have numerous positive impacts on employees and the workplace. In the best-case scenario, everyone practicing civility can lead to better working relationships and improved outputs and final products. At a minimum, practicing civility should help manage conflict and keep interactions neutral and polite if positivity isn’t possible.
Cultivating Civility at Work
According to Gallup, managers alone are responsible for 70% of the variance between highly engaged teams and persistently disengaged teams. And only 12% of managerial candidates are highly proficient in conflict management, according to a survey by Development Dimensions International®.
A level of conflict is normal and can be healthy in the workplace, but leaders must distinguish when conflict is excessive, and incivility becomes the norm. Civility can be promoted in many ways, all customizable to your workforce:
- Incorporate civility in the code of conduct
- Create processes to report inappropriate behavior and subtle incivility
- Listen and document incidents to account for patterns of poor behavior
- Train employees on civility at work and how to respond to incivility
- Exemplify the civility you expect from your team
The consequences of allowing incivility to fester can include low employee morale, reduced engagement, increased turnover, and potential legal considerations should incivility become harassment, bullying, or misconduct. But when civility is a core value modeled by leaders, everyone in the workplace can benefit from mutual understanding, shared respect, and working toward common goals.
