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The Long Road to Employment: Incivility Experienced by Job Seekers

American Psychological Association
Journal of Applied Psychology
Authors:
Abdifatah A Ali at Michigan State University
Abdifatah A Ali
Ann Marie Ryan at Michigan State University
Ann Marie Ryan
Brent J. Lyons
Brent J. Lyons
Brent J. Lyons
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Mark G. Ehrhart at University of Central Florida
Mark G. Ehrhart
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Abstract

This study addresses how job seekers' experiences of rude and discourteous treatment-incivility-can adversely affect self-regulatory processes underlying job searching. Using the social-cognitive model (Zimmerman, 2000), we integrate social-cognitive theory with the goal orientation literature to examine how job search self-efficacy mediates the relationship between incivility and job search behaviors and how individual differences in learning goal orientation and avoid-performance goal orientation moderate that process. We conducted 3 studies with diverse methods and samples. Study 1 employed a mixed-method design to understand the nature of incivility within the job search context and highlight the role of attributions in linking incivility to subsequent job search motivation and behavior. We tested our hypotheses in Study 2 and 3 employing time-lagged research designs with unemployed job seekers and new labor market entrants. Across both Study 2 and 3 we found evidence that the negative effect of incivility on job search self-efficacy and subsequent job search behaviors are stronger for individuals low, rather than high, in avoid-performance goal orientation. Theoretical implications of our findings and practical recommendations for how to address the influence of incivility on job seeking are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record
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The Long Road to Employment: Incivility Experienced by Job Seekers
Abdifatah A. Ali and Ann Marie Ryan
Michigan State University
Brent J. Lyons
Simon Fraser University
Mark G. Ehrhart
San Diego State University
Jennifer L. Wessel
University of Maryland
This study addresses how job seekers’ experiences of rude and discourteous treatment—incivility— can
adversely affect self-regulatory processes underlying job searching. Using the social– cognitive model
(Zimmerman, 2000), we integrate social– cognitive theory with the goal orientation literature to examine
how job search self-efficacy mediates the relationship between incivility and job search behaviors and
how individual differences in learning goal orientation and avoid-performance goal orientation moderate
that process. We conducted 3 studies with diverse methods and samples. Study 1 employed a mixed-
method design to understand the nature of incivility within the job search context and highlight the role
of attributions in linking incivility to subsequent job search motivation and behavior. We tested our
hypotheses in Study 2 and 3 employing time-lagged research designs with unemployed job seekers and
new labor market entrants. Across both Study 2 and 3 we found evidence that the negative effect of
incivility on job search self-efficacy and subsequent job search behaviors are stronger for individuals low,
rather than high, in avoid-performance goal orientation. Theoretical implications of our findings and
practical recommendations for how to address the influence of incivility on job seeking are discussed.
Keywords: job search incivility, goal orientation, job search self-efficacy, job search intensity
“I had a terrible experience with one job interviewer. He was rude,
childish and not that professional. I was offered the job but declined
the offer.”
“I had an interview with [blank] at [blank]. She was very rude to me
as well as [to] others. After I left the facility I had no faith that my
application would even be passed on to an employer or that it would
even make it out of her office”—(Job seekers from this study’s
sample).
Job seekers often face challenges that make the process of
gaining employment arduous. This stressful period is replete with
setbacks and rejections, but despite such difficulties, job seekers
need to persist with their job search efforts in order to secure
employment (Kanfer, Wanberg, & Kantrowitz, 2001). The extent
to which job seekers persist throughout the job search is largely
dependent on how they perceive and interpret their job search
experiences (Wanberg, 2012). As illustrated in the above quotes,
job seekers experience rude and discourteous interactions with
interviewers and recruiters and these experiences may in turn
affect not only their organizational attraction and job choice but
also their subsequent job search motivation and behaviors (e.g.,
submitting job applications, attending recruitment events), which
drive job search success.
Although conceptual work in the job search literature has shed
light on the importance of studying how contextual features affect
the job search process, including job search motivation and be-
haviors (Wanberg, Basbug, van Hooft, & Samtani, 2012), to date,
there has been little empirical effort in this matter. We have
learned a great deal about the role individual difference factors
such as personality (e.g., Five Factor Model, proactive personality;
McArdle, Waters, Briscoe, & Hall, 2007;Zimmerman, Boswell,
Shipp, Dunford, & Boudreau, 2012) and demographic variables
such as race and gender (Boswell, Roehling, & Boudreau, 2006)
play in the job search process. However, this body of literature has
not empirically considered to what extent negative experiences
originating from the job search context influence job seeker mo-
tivation and behaviors. In this study, we therefore extend the job
search literature by examining the role job search incivility plays
in influencing motivational processes underlying job searching.
Incivility is broadly defined as low-intensity conduct that is
ambiguous in intent but violates social norms and injures its targets
(Andersson & Pearson, 1999). Perceiving incivility has been
shown to negatively affect a wide range of employee and organi-
This article was published Online First October 5, 2015.
Abdifatah A. Ali and Ann Marie Ryan, Department of Psychology,
Michigan State University; Brent J. Lyons, Beedie School of Business,
Simon Fraser University; Mark G. Ehrhart, Department of Psychology, San
Diego State University; Jennifer L. Wessel, Department of Psychology,
University of Maryland.
We thank Talya Bauer and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful
comments and feedback. Additionally, we thank Phil Gardner, Executive
Director of Career Services Network and the Collegiate Employment
Research Institute at Michigan State University, for his assistance with
recruitment and data collection. Also, the first author gratefully acknowl-
edges the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship
Program for providing financial support for the preparation of this article.
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Abdifatah
A. Ali, Department of Psychology, Michigan State University, East Lan-
sing, MI 48823. E-mail: aliabdi1@msu.edu
This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.
This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.
Journal of Applied Psychology © 2015 American Psychological Association
2016, Vol. 101, No. 3, 333–349 0021-9010/16/$12.00 http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/apl0000055
333
... Fourth, our investigation contributes to the incivility literature more generally by furthering an understanding of how targets make sense of incivility experiences. Examinations of incivility targets' sensemaking in response to incivility have been largely absent from the extant literature (Schilpzand et al., 2016), which focuses mostly on targets' cognitive perceptions of instigator's intent to harm or control (Marchiondo et al., 2018), and job seekers sensemaking (Ali et al., 2016). This prior research on target's sensemaking has largely overlooked how the characteristics of the instigator influence target's sensemaking. ...
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... While this finding corroborates Crossley and Highhouse (2005) finding, it contradicts that of Koen et al. (2010). These contradictory findings may be assumption and findings in goal orientation research (Elliot & Harackiewicz, 1996;van Hooft, 2014) and highlight the importance of mastery goal in job search (Ali et al., 2016). On the other hand, PAGO drives people to search more haphazardly but less focused and exploratory. ...
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... Future studies should also consider variables related to state negative affect. For example, some research (e.g., Ali et al., 2016) shows that perceived hostility contributes negatively to job search self-efficacy. Other studies have revealed a relationship between goal appraisal and negative affect and that co-rumination differs for various levels of Springer Nature journal content, brought to you courtesy of Springer Nature Customer Service Center GmbH ("Springer Nature"). ...
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