AIMSS Workplace Incivility Scale

Abstract

The AIMSS Workplace Incivility (WI) Scale (Sümer eter al., 2024), also referred to as the AIMSS WI Scale, is a specialized psychological instrument developed to assess subtle but pervasive forms of workplace mistreatment (WM) and harassment. The scale’s creation involved rigorous initial steps, including focus groups, thematic analysis, and a pilot study to ensure content validity and item relevance. The instrument is available in two forms: a comprehensive 24-item full scale and a condensed 15-item short form. Validation and reliability testing were conducted on Turkish working adult samples recruited online, confirming the scale’s robust psychometric properties, including strong factor structure and high internal consistency.

Keywords

Workplace Incivility, Workplace Mistreatment, Harassment, Organizational Psychology, Employee Interaction, Counterproductive Work Behavior, Organizational Commitment, Burnout, Rating Scale.

Authors

Sümer, H. Canan; Göncü-Köse, Aslı; Toker-Gültaş, Yonca; Acar, F. Pınar; Karanfil, Derya; Ok, A. Başak

Purpose

The primary purpose of the AIMSS Workplace Incivility Scale is to measure low-intensity deviant behaviors that often carry ambiguous intent to harm the target. These behaviors represent breaches of fundamental workplace norms for mutual respect and civility. The scale aims to provide a reliable measure for researchers and organizations to identify the frequency and extent of disrespectful interactions that contribute to a toxic work environment.

By quantifying these subtle acts of incivility, the scale allows for a better understanding of the precursors to more severe forms of mistreatment, thereby facilitating proactive organizational interventions designed to foster a healthier and more respectful organizational climate.

Construct

The central psychological construct measured by the AIMSS WI Scale is Workplace Mistreatment, with a specific focus on Workplace Incivility. Workplace Incivility is characterized by behavior that is rude, discourteous, or displays a lack of regard for others, often violating workplace norms. This construct differentiates itself from explicit harassment or mobbing by its low intensity and the ambiguity surrounding the perpetrator’s intent to cause harm.

The scale operationalizes this construct by asking participants to report how often they have experienced specific uncivil behaviors from coworkers, supervisors, or subordinates over the past year. The items cover a range of disrespectful actions, from ignoring competencies to gossiping and failing to respond to messages.

Validity

The validity of the AIMSS Workplace Incivility Scale was established through multiple methods, confirming its utility and relevance in measuring the intended construct:

• Convergent Construct Validity: The scale successfully demonstrated expected statistical associations with a widely used counterpart measure of mistreatment, indicating that it captures the same underlying construct. Crucially, it also maintained discriminant validity by distinguishing itself from other related but distinct organizational measures.
• Criterion Validity: The scale proved to be effective in predicting relevant organizational outcomes. Specifically, scores on the AIMSS WI Scale were predictive of negative well-being indicators such as burnout and showed a significant inverse relationship with measures of organizational commitment.

Reliability

The internal consistency of the AIMSS WI Scale was assessed using Cronbach’s alpha, yielding high reliability coefficients for both the full and short forms of the instrument:

• Full Scale (24 items): The internal consistency was exceptionally high, with a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.96.
• Short Form (15 items): The abbreviated version also maintained a high level of reliability, reporting a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.93.

These values demonstrate that the items within both versions of the scale are highly homogeneous and reliably measure the underlying construct of workplace incivility.

Factor Analysis

Factor analysis was employed to confirm the dimensional structure of the AIMSS WI Scale, supporting its conceptualization as a unitary construct:

• Principal Component Analysis (PCA): Initial exploratory analysis identified a single-factor solution, which accounted for a substantial 52.47% of the total variance observed in the item set. Item loadings ranged from 0.47 to 0.84, confirming their strong contribution to the primary factor.
• Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA): CFA was utilized to confirm the adequacy of the single-factor model. The model demonstrated acceptable fit indices: SB χ²(252) = 592.642, p < 0.001; χ²/df = 2.35; CFI = 0.903; TLI = 0.893; RMSEA = 0.052 (90% CI: 0.047, 0.058, p = 0.257); SRMR = 0.050. Item loadings in the CFA ranged from 0.46 to 0.85, providing strong statistical evidence for the unidimensional structure of the scale.

Instrument

Test Type: Original Rating Scale

Format: The AIMSS WI Scale is a self-report instrument administered electronically. Items are preceded by the instruction: “My coworkers, supervisor, or subordinates…” Respondents rate the frequency of exposure to these behaviors over the past year using a 5-point scale where 1 = Never and 5 = Always.

Language Available: Turkish (Original Development Language)

Population Group: Human (Male and Female)

Age Group: Adulthood (18 years and older)

Population Details: The scale was validated using samples of working adults recruited online in Turkey.

Test Methodology: Test Validity; Construct Validity; Convergent Validity; Criterion Validity; Test Reliability; Internal Consistency; Factor Analysis; Confirmatory Factor Analysis; Principal Component Analysis.

Keywords

Organizational, Occupational, Career Development, Employee Relations, Workplace Health and Well-Being Measures, Incivility, Rating Scale, Psychometrics, Turkey.

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: Yonca Toker-Gültaş: ORCID

Affiliation Email addresses: H. Canan Sümer: [email protected]

Correspondence Address: H. Canan Sümer, Özyeğin University, Department of Psychology, İstanbul, Turkey, [email protected]

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

Test Year: 2024

Permissions and Files: No information regarding permissions or associated fees is provided in the source material. The authors confirm that no downloadable file is currently available.

Reference’s

Sümer, H. C., Göncü-Köse, A., Toker-Gültaş, Y., Acar, F. P., Karanfil, D., & Ok, A. B. (2024). Incivility, mobbing, and abusive supervision: A tripartite scale development study. The Journal of Psychology: Interdisciplinary and Applied, 158(6), 428–457. https://doi.org/10.1080/00223980.2024.2321881

Items of the AIMSS Workplace Incivility Scale

IMPORTANT: The following scale items must be preserved in their original language and must not be changed in any way.

Item Number	Item Description
1	Gave sloppy answers to my questions.
2	Ignored my work-related competencies .*
3	Acted like I did not exist .*
4	Instead of kindly asking, spoke to me in imperative.
5	Did not apologize to me for a mistake he/she made.
6	Spoked to me rudely in front of others .*
7	Exhibited behaviors implying that he/she considers him/herself superior to me*
8	Took his/her anger toward someone else out on me.
9	Interrupted me, did not let me finish my word .*
10	Made me feel like he/she wasn’t listening to me by being busy with other things .*
11	Didn’t appreciate/thank me when I did my job well.
12	Made a decision without consulting me on a matter I should have been consulted.
13	Talked behind my back, gossiped about me .*
14	Scolded me in front of others .*
15	Made fun of me.
16	Asked uncomfortable personal questions .*
17	Talked to me in an offhand manner against my preference .*
18	Didn’t arrive on time, even though we agreed .*
19	Didn’t greet me or didn’t respond to my greeting .*
20	Didn’t respond or responded late to my work-related messages .*
21	Used slang .*
22	Messed with my stuff without permission .*
23	Read my messages, documents, emails without my permission.
24	Did not return things he/she borrowed from me

Note. *= Items included in the 15-item Short Form.