İşyeri Nezaketsizliğinin İşe Yabancılaşmaya Etkisinde Duygusal Tükenmişliğin Aracı Rolü: Sağlık Çalışanları Üzerine Bir Araştırma

Abstract

Purpose – Incivility behaviors exhibited and exposed to for various reasons in the work environment can have negative consequences for both employees and the organization. This study aims to examine the mediating role of emotional exhaustion in the effect of workplace incivility on work alienation.
Design/methodology/approach – In this research, which adopted a correlational survey design as one of the quantitative research methods, the population consisted of employees working in healthcare institutions across Türkiye as of 2024, while the sample comprised 429 healthcare employees reached through convenience and snowball sampling methods. The research data were obtained with an online survey form prepared via “Google Forms”. Statistical analyses were conducted with IBM SPSS 25.0 and IBM AMOS 24.0 programs to test the research model and hypotheses.
Results – It was found that workplace incivility significantly affected work alienation and emotional exhaustion, and emotional exhaustion significantly affected work alienation. However, emotional exhaustion was found to have a partial mediating role in the effect of workplace incivility on work alienation. The structural model showed that a significant 59.6% of the variance in work alienation was explained by workplace incivility and emotional exhaustion.
Discussion – The study shows that workplace incivility and emotional exhaustion play an important role in increasing the work alienation levels of healthcare workers. Moreover, the findings indicate that workplace incivility affects work alienation through the mediating role of emotional exhaustion. Although the findings are parallel to the findings in the literature, the study also has some limitations. However, the fact that no study has been found that addresses workplace incivility, work alienation and emotional exhaustion together within a model and examines the mediating role of emotional exhaustion in the effect of workplace incivility on work alienation will contribute to the academic literature. In addition, this study emphasizes that workplace incivility behaviors and types should be determined, incivility behaviors should be controlled and managers should take precautions in this regard.