Civility, Respect, Engagement in the Workforce (CREW)

Abstract

This article presents a description and preliminary evaluation of a nationwide initiative by the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) called Civility, Respect, and Engagement in the Workforce (CREW). The goal of CREW is to increase workplace civility as assessed by employee ratings of interpersonal climate in workgroups. Once endorsed by the VHA leadership and adopted by the leaders of particular VHA hospitals, CREW was conducted by local facility coordinators who were trained and supported by the VHA National Center for Organization Development. This article explains the conceptual and operational background of CREW and the approach used to implement the initiative, presents results from two CREW administrations with a total of 23 sites, and reports significant preintervention to postintervention changes in civility at intervention sites as compared to no significant changes at comparison sites within each administration. It discusses these findings in the conceptual (theoretical) and operational (intervention evaluation) context of interventions targeting civility.T his study presents results from a nationwide organization development initiative in the Veterans Health Administration (VHA), which focused on increasing civility in the workplace. The initiative is called Civility, Respect, and Engagement in the Workforce (CREW). We present the conceptual and operational background of CREW, explain the approach that the VHA used to implement it, share initial results, and discuss these findings in the theoretical and operational context of interventions targeting civility. In the CREW framework, and in this article, civility refers to courteous and considerate workplace behaviors within the workgroup (the group of people who work together and report to the same supervisor). More specific dimensions understood to express civil behavior are coworkers' personal interest and respect

Patient safety climate strength: a concept that requires more attention

“…Such a 'grassroots' and group-centred intervention has shown great promise in improving civility climate in healthcare. [27][28][29] Finally, it is important to remember that while PSC levels may be more likely to be positive than negative and studies often report on positive safety climates, it is also possible for a unit to have a strong but negative PSC.…”

The relationship between voice climate and patients’ experience of timely care in primary care clinics

“…Staff relationships characterized by respect, trust, and cooperation also contribute to the perception of a safe voice climate. Lastly, studies of programs in health care (e.g., CREW intervention in the Veterans Health Administration; Osatuke, Moore, Ward, Dyrenforth, & Belton, 2009) and outside of health care (e.g., police departments; Green, 1992) show that programs that highlight communication problems and their effects, provide time for discussion of these issues, and teach strategies for effective communication are associated with climate change.…”

Linking perceptions of role stress and incivility to workplace aggression: The moderating role of personality.

“…Designed by the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) as a group-level intervention, specific CREW processes include encouraging mutual respect and valuing differences among employees, promoting cooperation and teamwork, and identifying and modifying problematic workplace behaviors. CREW has been shown to effectively reinforce norms for civil workplace conduct (Osatuke, Moore, Ward, Dyrenforth, & Belton, 2009). Promoting and maintaining such norms for civility are important because they have been found to buffer the negative effect of poor organizational support on employees' experiences of incivility (Bauerle & Magley, 2010).…”