Abstract
“It’s too much to expect in an academic setting that we should
all agree, but it’s not too much to expect discipline and unvarying
civility.” – John Howard, former Australian Prime Minister
Civility is one of those words that rings of a bygone era.
It is relegated to that vocabularic archive, along with words
such as ‘cravat’ and ‘whence’. Yet the very notion of civility,
if not the actual use of the word in modern vernacular, is
still very much applicable to present day conduct and still
a central component of productive working relationships.
In the reverse, incivility or uncivil behaviour run contrary
to such productive relationships and promote discord and
workplace disharmony. Uncivil behaviour includes rudeness,
taunting, being unapproachable, rejecting the opinions or
challenging the credibility of others, harassing, or keeping
people waiting (Anthony & Yastik, 2011; Authement, 2016;
Cleary & Horsfall, 2010). Overt aggression and threats are
obvious and thereby more easily rejected, but less overt
behaviors are more open to interpretation and may be perceived as being acceptable by others or simply ignored,
particularly in different contexts (Clark, 2008). Incivility
encompasses inappropriate communication and a basic lack
of respect and regard for others in general (Eka et al., 2016).
all agree, but it’s not too much to expect discipline and unvarying
civility.” – John Howard, former Australian Prime Minister
Civility is one of those words that rings of a bygone era.
It is relegated to that vocabularic archive, along with words
such as ‘cravat’ and ‘whence’. Yet the very notion of civility,
if not the actual use of the word in modern vernacular, is
still very much applicable to present day conduct and still
a central component of productive working relationships.
In the reverse, incivility or uncivil behaviour run contrary
to such productive relationships and promote discord and
workplace disharmony. Uncivil behaviour includes rudeness,
taunting, being unapproachable, rejecting the opinions or
challenging the credibility of others, harassing, or keeping
people waiting (Anthony & Yastik, 2011; Authement, 2016;
Cleary & Horsfall, 2010). Overt aggression and threats are
obvious and thereby more easily rejected, but less overt
behaviors are more open to interpretation and may be perceived as being acceptable by others or simply ignored,
particularly in different contexts (Clark, 2008). Incivility
encompasses inappropriate communication and a basic lack
of respect and regard for others in general (Eka et al., 2016).
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1-3 |
| Number of pages | 3 |
| Journal | Issues in Mental Health Nursing |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | E-pub ahead of print - 01 Feb 2022 |
