Purpose Workplace incivility (WPI) can erode interpersonal relationships and organizational cohesion, particularly in extreme-pressure environments such as law enforcement. Grounded in this, the purpose of this study is to explore the mediating role of defensive silence in the association among WPI and police personnel’s guanxi in the police department. In addition, the moderating influence of employee vigor was also examined. Design/methodology/approach Data were gathered from 279 police personnel and SPSS; AMOS and PROCESS macros were used for data analysis. Findings The study found that WPI affects police personnel guanxi directly and through defensive silence. It was also found that employee vigor moderated the relationship among WPI and defensive silence. Moreover, this research found that WPI’s indirect effect on police personnel’ guanxi via defensive silence was greater when they have the highest level of vigor. Originality/value This study offers a novel contribution by extending the culturally embedded construct of guanxi to the underexplored setting of Indian police personnel. By integrating WPI, defensive silence and employee vigor into this framework, this study presents an original mechanism explaining how incivility undermines guanxi in a hierarchical Indian organizational environment, making this study novel. This cultural exploration, grounded in Conservation of Resources theory, provides fresh insights into relational resource dynamics in non-Chinese, collectivist contexts – a gap largely overlooked in existing research.
Venkata et al. (Tue,) studied this question.