New survey will help provide the university and its members a better understanding of how to promote respectful treatment in the workplace. / Photo: File Image
Researchers conducting survey on respect in U of M workplaces
University of Manitoba researchers Sandy Hershcovis and Lukas Neville are conducting a survey open to all faculty and staff in which they ask about the degree of civility in our workplace.
Supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the survey is aimed at advancing research into incivility as a form of aggression, and providing the university and its members a better understanding of how to promote respectful treatment in the workplace. The University has endorsed this project, but they will not have access to the data.
“Whether those you work with are perfectly polite or horribly disrespectful, we need to hear your voice,” Hershcovis says. “It’s important that we reach everyone. We’re really grateful to the hundreds of University of Manitoba employees who have shared their experiences so far.”
The survey, conducted in collaboration with researchers at the University of Michigan and the London School of Economics and Political Science, is conducted in three waves. The three surveys track, over the space of a year, the degree to which employees have witnessed incivility and been treated uncivilly themselves, how they respond to these experiences, and how these experiences affect them.
“We’re looking forward to sharing what we learn with all our participants,” Neville adds. “The team plans to summarize their findings, keeping each participant’s individual answers confidential, and send the summaries to the University, the employee unions and staff associations, and to the participants themselves. “We hope that the results of our research will help guide the university in shaping a more respectful work environment.”