Can incivility be informative? Client incivility as a signal for provider creativity

Area of Science:

• Organizational Behavior
• Healthcare Management
• Psychology

Background:

• Workplace incivility is typically viewed as a negative interpersonal stressor.
• However, alternative theories propose incivility may yield instrumental benefits.
• Signaling theory offers a framework to understand these dynamics.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the relationship between client incivility and healthcare provider creativity.
• To explore how providers interpret and utilize client incivility as a signal.
• To determine if client incivility can positively influence creative care responses over time.

Main Methods:

• Study 1: Survey of 186 participants to assess client incivility signaling.
• Study 2: Topic modeling of qualitative data from 416 participants on perceived information in incivility.
• Study 3: Longitudinal study (5 waves) with 503 participants using trait-state-occasion modeling to link incivility and creativity.

Main Results:

• Clients may use incivility to signal dissatisfaction with treatment quality.
• Providers perceive client incivility as a source of information regarding client satisfaction.
• Episodic client incivility demonstrated a positive lagged relationship with both incremental and radical provider creativity.

Conclusions:

• Client incivility can serve as a valuable signal for healthcare providers, prompting creative adjustments in care.
• A temporal element is crucial; providers need time to process incivility signals and translate them into creative solutions.
• Findings challenge the purely negative view of incivility, highlighting its potential instrumental value in healthcare settings.