Although incivility has been identified as an important issue in workplaces, little research has focused on reducing incivility and improving employee outcomes. Health care workers (N = 1,173, Time 1; N = 907, Time 2) working in 41 units completed a survey of social relationships, burnout, turnover intention, attitudes, and management trust before and after a 6-month intervention, CREW (Civility, Respect, and Engagement at Work). Most measures significantly improved for the 8 intervention units, and these improvements were significantly greater than changes in the 33 contrast units. Specifically, significant interactions indicating greater improvements in the intervention groups than in the contrast groups were found for coworker civility, supervisor incivility, respect, cynicism, job satisfaction, management trust, and absences. Improvements in civility mediated improvements in attitudes. The results suggest that this employee-based civility intervention can improve collegiality and enhance health care provider outcomes.

Health care providers (n = 1,957) in Canada participated in a project to assess an intervention to enhance workplace civility. They completed surveys before the intervention, immediately after the intervention, and one year later. Results highlighted three patterns of change over the three assessments. These data were contrasted with data from control groups, which remained constant over the study period. For workplace civility, experienced supervisor incivility, and distress, the pattern followed an Augmentation Model for the intervention groups, in which improvements continued after the end of the intervention. For work attitudes, the pattern followed a Steady State Model for the intervention group, in that they sustained their gains during intervention but did not continue to improve. For absences, the pattern reflected a Lost Momentum Model in that the gains from preintervention to postintervention were lost, as absences returned to the preintervention level at follow-up. The results are discussed in reference to conceptual and applied issues in workplace civility.

BackgroundWhen patient safety climate (PSC) surveys are used in healthcare, reporting typically focuses on PSC level (mean or per cent positive scores). This paper explores how an additional focus on PSC strength can enhance the utility of PSC survey data.Setting and participants442 care providers from 24 emergency departments (EDs) across Canada.MethodsWe use anonymised data from the Can-PSCS PSC instrument collected in 2011 as part of the Qmentum accreditation programme. We examine differences in climate strength across EDs using the Rwg(j) and intraclass correlation coefficients measures of inter-rater agreement.ResultsAcross the six survey dimensions, median Rwg(j) was sufficiently high to support shared climate perceptions (0.64–0.83), but varied widely across the 24 ED units. We provide an illustrative example showing vastly different climate strength (Rwg(j) range=0.17–0.86) for units with an equivalent level of PSC (eg, climate mean score=3).ConclusionsMost PSC survey results focus solely on climate level. To facilitate improvement in PSC, we advocate a simple, holistic safety climate profile including three metrics: climate level (using mean or per cent positive climate scores), climate strength (using the Rwg(j), or SD as a proxy) and the shape of the distribution (using histograms to see the distribution of scores within units). In PSC research, we advocate paying attention to climate strength as an important variable in its own right. Focusing on PSC level and strength can further understanding of the extent to which PSC is a key variable in the domain of patient safety.

Colleague civility and respect have an important ripple effect of buffering inevitable work stressors, helping health care providers respond to stress with greater health and resiliency.

Although conflict at work is a fairly common and often distressing occurrence, it is arguably a vital and necessary element of human interaction. Relevant to this special issue on positive psychology, we propose that the necessary short-term intensity of interpersonal conflict can bring about positive longer term consequences, including insight, connection, and strength. We synthesize research from organisational, family, social, and personality psychology identifying factors that support successful conflict responses. Individual factors of cognitive flexibility, an appropriate balance of self–other focus, emotion regulation, and fit of the person to the conflict situation show promise for conflict success and appear to be trainable. Organisational interventions, including individual training, work group conflict training, and mediation, also demonstrate efficacy in building conflict skills. We conclude by proposing implications for conflict resolution interventions and critical directions for future research.