Experienced workplace incivility, anger, guilt, and family satisfaction: The double-edged effect of narcissism

Abstract Little research has focused on the role of specific discrete emotions (i.e. anger, guilt, sadness, and fear/anxiety) and individual differences (i.e. narcissism) when investigating the effect of incivility. The current research aims to examine the effect of experienced workplace incivility on employees’ family satisfaction through emotions and the moderating effect of narcissism. 167 employees were asked to think about a previous experience of uncivil treatment or a fictional character and then completed the measurements of narcissism, discrete emotions including anger, guilt, sadness, and fear/anxiety, and family satisfaction. The results showed that employees who recalled an experience of workplace incivility instigated by their coworkers or supervisors would report low levels of family satisfaction and this effect was mediated by their intense emotional reactions of anger and guilt towards uncivil treatment. Moreover, we found narcissism yielded a double-edged effect. On the one hand, narcissistic employees responded to incivility with higher levels of anger and consequently experienced lower levels of family satisfaction. On the other hand, narcissists were less inclined to experience guilt when confronted with incivility, which allowed them to sustain family satisfaction. Our findings support our hypotheses, demonstrating that narcissism has complex effects on the relationships between incivility and discrete emotions.