Reassessing the workplace incivility scale in restaurant service encounters

Purpose This study provides a context-specific psychometric examination of a Chinese-translated and customer-adapted workplace incivility scale used to assess customer-to-employee incivility in restaurant service encounters. Design/methodology/approach A quantitative field survey was conducted with 873 frontline restaurant employees in Zhuhai, China. The original English-language measures were translated into Chinese using translation and back-translation procedures. The analyses included the general partial credit model within an item response theory framework, confirmatory factor analysis, internal-consistency reliability analysis, local-independence diagnostics and preliminary criterion-related testing using matched customer-satisfaction indicators. Findings In the present sample, the seven response categories showed poor differentiation and unusually high inter item correlations. After category consolidation and item reduction, the candidate four-item version with four categories showed clearer category functioning, better model fit, no substantial local dependence and a stronger but still modest negative association with customer satisfaction. These findings are context specific and do not establish a universally superior WIS. Research limitations/implications The findings show that scale properties may change after translation and contextual adaptation. Independent replication and further validation are needed before broader use. Subject to such validation, the abbreviated format may support brief monitoring of customer incivility but should not be used as a general diagnostic tool or as the sole basis for evaluating individual employees. Practical implications Subject to further validation, the candidate abbreviated format may offer a less burdensome instrument for voluntary pulse surveys and post-shift monitoring of customer incivility among frontline employees in comparable Chinese restaurant-service contexts. It should not be used as a general diagnostic instrument or as the sole basis for evaluating individual employees. Social implications More efficient monitoring of customer incivility may help restaurant organisations identify service conditions associated with employees' exposure to disrespectful customer behaviour and develop more supportive frontline practices. Originality/value This study distinguishes item-level functioning from response-category functioning in an adapted workplace incivility scale and demonstrates the importance of re-evaluating established measures after translation and contextual adaptation. Its contribution lies in examining how translation, source adaptation, event-based administration and response-format modification jointly relate to scale functioning rather than proposing a universal replacement for the original workplace incivility scale.