Mindsets and mannerisms: humanistic and mechanistic mindset as antecedents of (in)civility

Incivility what causes employees to enact (un)civil behaviors is lacking. In this article, we explore employees’ mindsets as possible antecedents of how uncivilly and civilly they interact with other team members. We begin by introducing two potential mindsets employees are likely to adopt toward situations—a “mechanistic” mindset and a “humanistic” mindset. We then conduct an observational field study (Study 1) and an online experiment (Study 2). In our observational field study, we observe medical emergencies at an acute and emergency care (A&E) department, and code medical practitioners’ behaviors toward their team members with a pre-validated coding scheme. In our online experiment, we explore the likelihood that participants will enact civil and uncivil behaviors toward their team members after being instructed to adopt either a mechanistic or a humanistic mindset. Our findings draw attention to how psychological mindsets can influence the extent to which (un)civil interactions occur within teams and organizations.