From Incivility to Polarization: A Proposed Reciprocal Model of Workplace Division

Workplace incivility and workplace polarization represent two increasingly significant challenges in contemporary organizations. Although both phenomena have been studied extensively, their interrelationship remains underdeveloped in organizational behavior research. This conceptual study develops an integrative multilevel framework proposing how workplace incivility and workplace polarization may become reciprocally connected over time within the organizational context. Drawing on the Incivility Spiral Model, Organizational Justice Theory, and Social Identity Theory, the study proposes that repeated interpersonal incivility may contribute to identity-relevant interpretations and identity threat, which may, in turn, strengthen in-group/out-group differentiation. Trust erosion and emotional contagion may complement this process through relational and affective-transmission mechanisms, creating conditions that may support the emergence of workplace polarization. In turn, workplace polarization may reshape civility norms across perceived group boundaries and make expectations of respectful treatment increasingly group-contingent, thereby increasing the likelihood that subsequent workplace incivility will be directed toward perceived out-group members. The central contribution of this study is to explain how ambiguous interpersonal mistreatment may become interpreted as group-based disrespect and theorize how workplace polarization may make expectations of respectful treatment increasingly contingent on perceived group membership. The proposed model further identifies ethical leadership, organizational justice, psychological safety, and diversity climate as distinct contextual conditions that may influence different stages of the incivility-to-polarization pathway, rather than uniformly moderating the entire reciprocal process. By conceptualizing workplace incivility and workplace polarization as potentially reciprocally linked cross-level processes, this study contributes to theory development on workplace mistreatment, intergroup dynamics, and organizational division. It also outlines directions for longitudinal, experimental, multilevel, and network-based research to empirically examine the proposed relationships and highlights practical implications for fostering more respectful, cohesive, and inclusive work environments.