Theories to Navigate and Understand Workplace Incivility

Theories to Navigate and Understand Workplace Incivility
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Abstract Workplace incivility is a problem that needs to be tackled in the workplace because of its negative impacts. Often, nurses face the wrath and arrogance of senior colleagues who view them as mere subordinates. Often, nurses feel inferior and this affects their job performance. In work settings where there is incivility, cases of medical error, stress, anxiety, and poor patient outcome are increasingly reported. However, these challenges can be solved if appropriate interventions are taken. This study attempts to integrate change Lippitt’s Seven Step change theory into the healthcare setting to change the fortunes of nurses’ stress. The outcome shall be implemented in three nursing schools where they will occasionally report on the milestones developed throughout the process. Table of ContentsAbstract 2Introduction 3Background 4Feasibility Analysis 4Research Translation 8Lippitt’s Seven-Step Change Theory 8Project Setting. 9The IOWA Model of Evidence-Based Practice 9References 13
 Theories to Navigate and Understand Workplace IncivilityIntroductionWorkplace incivility in the healthcare setting is an unfortunate reality that creates negative patient outcomes. Often, physicians wear the superiority tag and denounce nurses as mere subordinates who only exist to help. In a quest to seek recognition, nurses are reminded of their place in the ranking order and the outcome creates conflict and power imbalance. Instances of bullying, violence, sexual harassment and other workplace aggression continue to rise because of incivility. The consequence is a toxic and stressful work environment that results in severe stress and worry. In turn, nurses register negative job performance while patient safety and their overall well-being experience severe implications. This chapter will describe Lippitt’s Seven-Step Change Theory as a method to handle workplace incivility.BackgroundUndoubtedly, workplace incivility is a form of hospital-based violence that has severe consequences on patient outcomes. All of the 10 reviewed articles identified bullying in the hospital setting as a behavior with negative impacts on healthcare. These articles highlighted that workplace bullying harms both patient care and nurses. As cited in Hutchinson and Jackson (2014), many nurses who self-reported verbal abuse has reduced nurse-physician relations that translated into a decrease in overall quality care. Likewise, two studies connected medication errors to unhealthy nurse-physician relations alongside bullying since nurses were reluctant to verify errors in medication. Besides, reports emerged that physicians belittle and offer dismissive comments to the nurses, and many a time they are rude, arrogant, sarcastic, and inattentive to nurses’ requests. As a result, nurses express frustration, stress, depression, anxiety, absent-mindedness, insomnia, and absenteeism because of the toxic work environment. Put together, patients register negative outcomes because nurses and physicians are out to fight. The impact of workplace incivility cannot be overstated. Radical measures need to be adopted to help mitigate these challenges.Feasibility AnalysisMany leaders would agree that incivility is wrong, however, not all can recognize its tangible costs. Victims of incivility sometimes punish their offenders as well as the organization and many of them do not believe their actions are forms of revenge. In essence, workplace incivility negatively impacts an institution's financial bottom line since it stifles the retention of skilled healthcare employees. The underlying business problem is that employees fail to get retained in their respective organizations and this is a major challenge to leaders in healthcare organizations. Businesswise, several human resource professionals alongside departmental heads lack meaningful strategies to address workplace incivility for retaining the highly-skilled workforce (Smith, Morin, & Lake, 2018). In addition, workplace incivility inhibits creativity. For instance, workers who are rudely treated by their mates are less original while undertaking their jobs. Also, performance and team spirit deteriorate. Simply witnessing instances of incivility come with negative consequences. Besides, customers easily turn away in environments that have workplace incivility. In the healthcare setting, this is the equivalent of reduced revenues. Another idea that was generated from this study is that managing incident of incivility are expensive (Smith, Morin, & Lake, 2018). According to many HR professionals, an incident will likely soak up weeks of effort and attention. It becomes hard to mend relationships of employees who have disagreed.The purpose of the feasibility analysis is to address the problem of work incivility in the healthcare setting. The analysis will accomplish this by analyzing three alternative solutions to the problem at hand.From the analysis of the articles, workplace incivility has economic, social, and legal implications in hospitals. If both nurses and physicians are at war, healthcare institutions would lose the economic advantage. Treatment would be inefficient and negative patient outcomes would mean financial loss. Similarly, patients are likely to boycott such facilities thereby reducing revenue. Socially, the working relationship among nurses and physicians would not be productive. Incivility creates a toxic work environment characterized by stress, depression, anxiety, and low self-esteem. Again, hospitals may encounter legal implications whenever a nurse reports a case of incivility.  In other cases, patients may report the hospital for negligence whenever a patient develops complications or dies because of negligence such as misdiagnosis or incorrect medication.In handling workplace incivility, it is vital to consider various options. Taming these harmful practices requires a thoughtful and multipronged approach. Notably, many hospitals are prioritizing this matter on their agenda in commendable ways thereby ensuring that patients are not negatively impacted by the unnecessary damage that emerges because of incivility.The first solution is to increase employee engagement (Schenck, 2017). In a healthcare setting, work teams are important to qualified health care, and the team climate is a vital aspect that impacts employee behavior and outcomes. Employee engagement can be implemented through training, performance management interviews, team building, and action plans. The underlying technique for increasing employee engagement entails having present managers on the floor with the employees, constantly asking questions and soliciting feedback. The economic feasibility of this solution would mean extra financial resources channeled to training, team building, and action plans. Financial resources are likely to further drain any hospital in its quest to reduce incivility. Structurally, employee engagement would mean creating more spaces for interactions between supervisors. Constantly moving around to seek answers from nurses require a spacious environment. Operationally, nurses would have to be aware of several instances of incivility that they will report to their supervisors. Nurses become more knowledgeable through training.The second solution is to hire for civility. Healthcare organizations can avoid bringing incivility into the workplace. This is achieved when HR professionals put civility to the fore when hiring (Schenck, 2017). Often, it is important to give the team members a say about their potential new employees since they are likely to pick up behavior that would be suppressed in official interviews. As such, employees will evaluate their prospective teammates. Notably, some applicants are strong on paper but make the team uncomfortable in particular ways. This method will help weed out candidates with low emotional intelligence. The economic feasibility of this solution is that the interview panel must bring an expert in emotional intelligence who can interview these people. This will come with additional financial costs.The third solution is to reward the good and penalize the bad behavior. Reward good behavior motivates many employees and their counterparts will also express good behavior (Schenck, 2017). In a healthcare setting plagued with incivility, rewarding good behavior as a method of demanding change will inspire the r...