Cyber incivility at the workplace

While cyber incivility is becoming increasingly prevalent at the workplace, research on this topic has been largely anecdotal and not theoretically robust. Drawing from research streams on media richness, social presence and emotions, we develop a research model that examines the relationships between medium characteristics (cue multiplicity, feedback immediacy, social presence) and cyber incivility, which in turn affects emotional responses (anger and anxiety). We also examine the relationships between two negative emotions (anger and anxiety) with approach-oriented (revenge, confrontation) and avoidance-oriented (work withdrawal, avoidance) outcomes. This study extends and contributes to the research stream on cyber incivility and misbehaviors by showing that different emotions arising from cyber incivility motivate people to engage in an approach-focused or avoidance-focused response.