The effects of passive leadership on workplace incivility

Summary In this article, we examine the effects of passive leadership on workplace incivility across two studies. Study 1 examines passive leadership–incivility relationships in a sample of employee–supervisor dyads, and Study 2 examines these relationships in a sample of employee–coworker dyads. Results from these studies suggest that passive leadership has a significant direct effect on behavioral incivility and an indirect effect through experienced incivility. Moreover, our results suggest that the relationship between experienced incivility and behavioral incivility is conditional on the level of passive leadership, such that the effect of experienced incivility on behavioral incivility is stronger at higher levels of passive leadership. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.