Sambandet mellan ociviliserat beteende på arbetsplatser och psykisk hälsa

Sammanfattning: This master thesis in psychology is part of a research project financed by the Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare (FORTE). The purpose of the present study was to examine the relationship between workplace incivility and mental health. It was also of importance if the instigator of incivility was a superior or a colleague and whether this affected the relationship between incivility and mental health. Furthermore, the purpose was to investigate if women and men differed in the amount of reported incivility and if sex had an influence on the relationship between incivility and mental health. The third purpose was to evaluate the reliability of Workplace Incivility Scale (WIS) and the hybrid scale General Mental Health (GPH). To answer the research questions a quantitative survey including 225 participants was conducted. The results showed a negative relationship between incivility and mental health and this relationship was stronger if superiors were the instigators of incivility. However, the sex of the participants was of no importance for the reported amount of incivility or the relationship between incivility and mental health. The reliability of WIS and GPH was psychometrically sound with alpha values of .89 and .91. One important conclusion was the identification of the difficulty to distinguish incivility from bullying. More central is the conclusion that incivility has a negative influence on people’s mental health and that superiors have an important role for the psychosocial workplace environment.