Impact of workplace incivility on ego depletion and promotive voice behavior: The mediating role of servant leadership

This study applied ego depletion theory, job demands–resources theory, and conservation of resources theory to define customer incivility and coworker incivility as elements of hindrance stress that occur in a sales environment, and examine their effect on salespeople. We proposed that customer incivility and coworker incivility would deplete workers’ self-regulatory resources, which, in turn, would hinder their use of promotive voice behavior. We also examined whether the relationship between workplace incivilities and ego depletion was influenced by the supervisory resource of servant leadership. Our sample comprised 219 salespeople in South Korea. The results supported all hypotheses, except for the moderating effect of servant leadership on the relationship between coworker incivility and ego depletion. These findings deepen understanding of the ego depletion of salespeople caused by two types of workplace incivility, and highlight the role of managers’ servant leadership in environments featuring hindrance stress.