What is it about?

Being treated rudely at work may seem like a small issue, but it can seriously affect how employees share knowledge with others. Our study shows that workplace incivility leads people to dwell on negative experiences, which makes them less willing to share ideas and information. Personality plays an important role: employees who are more neurotic are more affected by incivility, while those with higher relational energy—gained from positive, supportive interactions—can better cope and continue to share knowledge. These findings highlight that both individual traits and social resources shape how people respond to incivility. By encouraging civility and building supportive relationships, organizations can protect collaboration, innovation, and long-term performance.

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Why is it important?

This study uniquely explains how workplace incivility hinders knowledge sharing via rumination, integrating social exchange and self-verification theories. It identifies two timely, actionable moderators: neuroticism (which intensifies harm) and relational energy (which buffers it). Using a mixed-methods design, it provides deep, practical insights. The findings matter because they show organizations how to protect knowledge flow—a key asset—by reducing employee rumination, building energizing relationships, and supporting neurotic individuals, offering a direct path to sustain collaboration in challenging work environments.

Perspectives

From my personal perspective, researching and writing this article was a particularly rewarding journey. It began with listening to stories of frustration and resilience in qualitative interviews, which grounded the subsequent quantitative data in real human experiences. The most exciting moment was discovering the dual role of relational energy—not just as a buffer, but as a resource that enables targeted knowledge sharing even in difficult climates. This work solidified my belief that organizational health is not just about eliminating the negative, but proactively cultivating moments of positive connection. I hope readers, whether scholars or practitioners, find in it both a rigorous analysis and a hopeful reminder: that even small, energizing interactions can be a powerful force for sustaining collaboration and humanity at work.

Yudi Zhao
Shanghai Normal University

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This page is a summary of: When workplace incivility arises: can knowledge sharing still survive?, Journal of Knowledge Management, March 2026, Emerald,
DOI: 10.1108/jkm-09-2025-1347.
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