How to Build a Civil Workplace Environment

I have blogged on my "Ethics Sage" blog site before about civility in the workplace and the forces that have created a decline in good behavior. The loss of civility in the workplace mirrors that of society. Today, we experience rudeness more than ever before. People we deal with may not be understanding of our situation. They may lack compassion. They may have a short temper. In short, in today’s world the mantra in all kinds of relationships is the pursuit of self-interest. We rarely experience a community that emphasizes the wellbeing of all of its members, and the workplace is no different.

What is Civility?

Civility represents the quality of our behavior and how we interact with others whether in personal or professional relationships. This is important for business since how we treat others signals who we are and what we value. Moreover, since the essence of ethics lies in how we are with others, civility and ethics are intricately linked.

Incivility in society and in the workplace is on the rise. Virtually all people believe this is so. Every day we witness inconsiderate behavior, ‘in your face’ interaction in communications with others, and other forms of rudeness. We see it in our streets, in the workplace, and even in airplanes!

A new study confirms what you may have already noticed – many people tend to be more aggressive than ever before and nasty when communicating online rather than in-person. The Avast Foundation study finds 1 in 3 respondents believe other online users are "fair game" for offensive comments on social media platforms, and almost two thirds of millennials admit they’ve engaged in rude or offensive behavior online. The study finds 39% of respondents say they will make a nasty comment online because they feel angry about something, while 33% indicate they will do so because they have strong opinions. Additionally, 28% say they are more likely to be aggressive online than offline.

Civility cultivates a civic code of decency. It requires us to discipline our impulses for the sake of others. It demands we free ourselves from self-absorption. By putting ethics into practice in our day-to-day encounters, civility is that moral glue without which our society would come apart.”

The bottom line is ethics and civility are inextricably linked; you can’t have one without the other. This means ethics training in business must include discussions of civil behavior and ethical values.

Civility is more than just politeness. It is about disagreeing without disrespect, seeking common ground as a starting point for dialogue about differences, digging deeper than one’s preconceptions, and teaching others to do the same. Indeed, civility represents a long tradition of moral virtues essential to democracy. Virtues like empathy, humility, integrity, honesty, and respect for others are ideals of democratic engagement. Without civility a society can morph into verbal, accusatory, offensive verbal attacks on one another which is the way things are headed in the U.S. as we see almost on a daily basis through offensive and harmful acts by one person or a group of people towards others.

One way to build a better, more civil society is to advance the cause of greater ethics. We need to think about how our actions affect others in the context of how we would wish to be treated in similar situations. This requires examining our own behavior to better understand how and why we act as we do. What are the virtues that drive our behavior?

The 2024 SHRM Civility Index

According to the 2024 survey on civility at work by the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM), 49.7 is the Civility Index Score (out of 100). Of all U.S. workers surveyed, 44% believe incivility in the U.S. will worsen in 2025. Moreover, 60% believe it is important or very important for their companies to address civil discourse at work in 2025.

The consequences of incivility affect workers personally and businesses overall. Survey respondents who reported more incivility in their workplaces were more likely to say they will leave their job in the next 12 months, that they feel indifferent or do not care about doing a good job at work, and that their job often causes them to have physical reactions (e.g., headaches, fatigue). Moreover, 66% of respondents said that incivility reduces productivity and 59% said it causes a decline in employee morale.

Civility and Leadership in Business

Business leaders wield considerable influence within their organization. It is important for them to model civility to encourage open communication in the workplace. By setting an example of what civility looks like in action, leaders can improve the culture of their organization and create lasting business benefits, including greater productivity and staff retention. Employees at organizations with equitable leadership practices, a set of behaviors that includes appreciating employees’ perspectives, are 19 times more likely to rate the organization’s culture as good or excellent.

Civility in the workplace requires fostering an environment of mutual respect and professionalism, where diverse perspectives are not only accepted but encouraged. It involves maintaining an environment where individuals feel their opinions are valued and open dialogue is encouraged.

Instead of attempting to eliminate disruptive behavior through organizational policies, it’s often more effective for a leader to focus on encouraging positive approaches. Promoting civility runs into fewer regulatory hurdles than discouraging incivility and has the benefit of making employees feel included and trusted to have mature conversations, rather than patronized by restrictive codes of conduct.

How leaders approach sensitive topics and areas of disagreement sends a signal to employees about their organization’s culture. When leaders are willing to engage in civil discussion about contentious topics, they send the signal that it’s normal and healthy to have disagreements and set the expectation that these conversations should avoid becoming disruptive. Leaders do not always have to change the other person’s mind, but they do need to make a good-faith effort to make employees feel heard and valued. Leaders should engage in empathetic and active listening.

Civility and the Internal Work Environment

Jesse Stanchak addresses the issue of how a leader can build an internal environment of respect and responsibility. He points to a survey that shows U.S. leaders are setting a bad example, with 86% saying much of the incivility seen today is caused by leaders’ behaviors and 92% saying the country’s leaders must do a better job of modeling civil behavior.

By encouraging civility in the workplace, leaders should promote a low stress work environment and improved employee morale. It also helps to mitigate employee dissatisfaction that often results in such things as civil rights complaints and lawsuits. The economic impact related to litigation, turnover, productivity and customer dissatisfaction can be devastating to an organization.

To be able to build and maintain itself as a viable entity capable of reaching its full potential, an organization must be able to manage its interpersonal relationships in a manner that promotes positive interactions that are civil and respectful. This is not an easy task considering the myriad personalities, nationalities, religious beliefs, and so on that are found in today’s workplace. Diversity is sought for its own good, but it could create challenges to civility especially if one worker does not understand where another is coming from. What are their motivations in dealing with me?

Achieving civility in the workplace requires the involvement of every employee from top down. Going to work in an environment that doesn’t promote openness, which exists in some businesses today, will make it difficult to build trust, an essential element of a civil workplace.

Benefits of Developing a Civil Workplace

A civil workplace culture yields numerous organizational advantages that are difficult to obtain otherwise. According to the SHRM study, 26% of U.S. workers said it is likely they will leave their job in 2025 because of incivility. One reason may be how they perceive their managers’ commitment to building a civil workplace. Indeed, 68% of respondents to the survey believe that their manager cares more about business objectives than how people are treated at work. Moreover, 74% of workers agreed that their manager or supervisor could have done more to prevent incivility at work. A rather astounding finding is that the collective daily loss to U.S. organizations in terms of productivity and absenteeism due to incivility was $2.8 Billion.

Civility is essential to defining a workplace culture and establishing the foundation for proper business behavior. Leaders must go beyond their internal environment and interactions with employees and act civilly in relationships with all stakeholders. To do otherwise threatens the very existence of the organization and promotes uncivil behavior in other areas of society.

I’ll leave you with a famous quote attributed to Mary Wortley Montagu, an English writer and poet: “Civility costs nothing and buys everything.”

Posted by Steven Mintz, aka Ethics Sage, on February 11, 2025. You can sign up for his newsletter and learn more about his activities at: https://www.stevenmintzethics.com/.