Discussion: Workplace Environment Assessment

A healthy workplace is important for a successful and well-functioning organization. According to the Clark Healthy Workplace Inventory, my workplace is moderately healthy with a score of 82. The workplace civility level is, therefore moderate. The organization offers various opportunities for professional development, and competitive salaries have effective conflict-resolution measures in place, offers mentorship programs, and there is awareness of the shared organizational vision. These factors contribute toward making the workplace environment a healthy one. However, the workplace environment also has areas that affect its level of civility. These areas also scored low in the assessment, and they include communication, employee satisfaction, and transparency. There lack of standard measures to ensure respectful and transparent communication in the organization. The organization also lacks measures for improving employee satisfaction, leading to low morale and engagement. These factors contribute to average trust in the organization, an average perception of employees as valuable partners in the organization, average collaboration, and average treatment of employees in a respectful manner.

Workplace incivility refers to the seemingly insignificant behaviors that are rude, disrespectful, discourteous, or insensitive, where the intent to harm is ambiguous or unclear (Gui et al., 2022). It is the insensitive behaviors that display a lack of regard for others, in violation of workplace norms for mutual respect (Gui et al., 2022). I have experienced various instances of incivility in my workplace. One of the instances of incivility that I have experienced is public criticism of nurses from senior employees. This once happened to me when I was a new nurse and my supervisor criticized me in front of my patient and her family by telling me that I have behavior of not following instructions accordingly. This was addressed in a rude manner. I am always open to positive criticism but this was done in a demeaning and rude way. It was meant to demean me in front of those who trusted in me and believed that I am competent. Demeaning criticism is far from constructive criticism. Constructive criticism is designed to help one learn and grow. It can also foster better teamwork and communication and improves patient safety. Nobody is perfect, and we all need help living up to our potential from time to time. However, criticism can only be constructive when it offers guidelines on ways one can improve.

Addressing workplace incivility is important in creating a healthy work environment. I took a personal initiative to address the incident. I approached my supervisor later on and informed her how I felt about the criticism. I informed her that I was not aware of not following instructions accordingly, and was open to being criticized in a constructive and respectful manner. Completing tasks accurately and correctly is one of the most important factors in preventing incivility because in most cases incivility is experienced due to failing to do one’s responsibility (Asghari et al., 2017). I requested my supervisor to, instead, help me to learn about my responsibilities and guide me as a new nurse.

References

Asghari, E., Abdollahzadeh, F., Ebrahimi, H., Rahmani, A., & Vahidi, M. (2017). How to prevent workplace incivility?: Nurses' perspective. Iranian Journal of Nursing and Midwifery Research, 22(2), 157. https://doi.org/10.4103/1735-9066.205966

Gui, W., Bai, Q., & Wang, L. (2022). Workplace incivility and employees’ personal initiative: A moderated mediation model of emotional exhaustion and meaningful work. SAGE Open, 12(1), 215824402210798. https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440221079899