Abstract
After four years of working within a college of nursing to improve the work environment through organizational civility initiatives, the members of this civility team are eager to share lessons learned, challenges faced, and insights gained that can help other organizations enhance civility. The team has been inspired by a commitment for collaboration within the college's nursing faculty, supporting staff, and administration. A pair of themes surfaced as the fourth year of data was collected: courage and curiosity combined with patience and perseverance. The primary role of this civility team is to establish actions items based on the data analysis from yearly surveys using Clark's Creating Healthy Work Environments Inventory (Clark, 2016). The civility team meets with the executive leadership team quarterly to discuss the action items, progress with the initiatives, and other issues surfacing within the realm of organizational civility. The team is made up of three faculty members and three staff members representing a diverse perspective from different units and locations within the college. The 20 items included in the Healthy Work Environment Inventory is crafted in a way that survey participants can complete the survey within five minutes. The civility team uses the inventory results to develop a score between 20-100 that rates the organizational civility from a range of unhealthy (20-60) to very healthy (90-100). This data can then be drilled down to discover civility areas in which faculty, staff, and administration report favorably and areas that need improvement. The civility team uses the lowest scoring categories to establish action items that they recommend to the executive leadership team for improvement. This presentation will provide opportunities for participants to see how this civility team translated their evidence to advocate for a healthy work environment. The team is very proud to have this opportunity to share their insights since few civility teams in the world have disseminated their lessons learned within organizational civility initiatives. This is one of the reasons "courage" is included in the themes of the presentation. By revealing the strength and perseverance we have developed over the years, we believe participants of the presentation will take home some added courage and curiosity as they look into their own organizational civility. Courage. Curiosity. Patience. Perseverance. These themes revealed in our journey of organizational civility also surfaced in recent studies about addressing incivility (Al-Jubouri et al., 2021; Bernard et al., 2021; Clark et al., 2021; McGee, 2020;). The themes are also included in a newly revisited concept analysis on civility (Clark et al., 2022). We look forward to being a part of the inspiration offered at this year's conference as we join in the exploration of how nursing collaboration is actively improving work environments.
Sigma Membership
Beta Delta at-Large
Type
Presentation
Format Type
Text-based Document
Study Design/Type
Other
Research Approach
Other
Keywords:
Civility, Perseverance, Workplace Culture
Recommended Citation
Bernard, R. Oscar; Brown, Kimberly; Duffy, Allyson; Lopez, Maikelyn; and Smith, Shar, "Sharing Insights About Organizational Civility After Four Consecutive Years of Clark's Healthy Work Environment Inventories" (2025). Creating Healthy Work Environments (CHWE). 16.
https://www.sigmarepository.org/chwe/2023/presentations_2023/16
Conference Name
Creating Healthy Work Environments
Conference Host
Sigma Theta Tau International
Conference Location
Austin, Texas, USA and Virtual
Conference Year
2025
Rights Holder
All rights reserved by the author(s) and/or publisher(s) listed in this item record unless relinquished in whole or part by a rights notation or a Creative Commons License present in this item record.
Review Type
Abstract Review Only: Reviewed by Event Host
Acquisition
Proxy-submission
Date of Issue
2025-10-14
Sharing Insights About Organizational Civility After Four Consecutive Years of Clark's Healthy Work Environment Inventories
Austin, Texas, USA and Virtual
After four years of working within a college of nursing to improve the work environment through organizational civility initiatives, the members of this civility team are eager to share lessons learned, challenges faced, and insights gained that can help other organizations enhance civility. The team has been inspired by a commitment for collaboration within the college's nursing faculty, supporting staff, and administration. A pair of themes surfaced as the fourth year of data was collected: courage and curiosity combined with patience and perseverance. The primary role of this civility team is to establish actions items based on the data analysis from yearly surveys using Clark's Creating Healthy Work Environments Inventory (Clark, 2016). The civility team meets with the executive leadership team quarterly to discuss the action items, progress with the initiatives, and other issues surfacing within the realm of organizational civility. The team is made up of three faculty members and three staff members representing a diverse perspective from different units and locations within the college. The 20 items included in the Healthy Work Environment Inventory is crafted in a way that survey participants can complete the survey within five minutes. The civility team uses the inventory results to develop a score between 20-100 that rates the organizational civility from a range of unhealthy (20-60) to very healthy (90-100). This data can then be drilled down to discover civility areas in which faculty, staff, and administration report favorably and areas that need improvement. The civility team uses the lowest scoring categories to establish action items that they recommend to the executive leadership team for improvement. This presentation will provide opportunities for participants to see how this civility team translated their evidence to advocate for a healthy work environment. The team is very proud to have this opportunity to share their insights since few civility teams in the world have disseminated their lessons learned within organizational civility initiatives. This is one of the reasons "courage" is included in the themes of the presentation. By revealing the strength and perseverance we have developed over the years, we believe participants of the presentation will take home some added courage and curiosity as they look into their own organizational civility. Courage. Curiosity. Patience. Perseverance. These themes revealed in our journey of organizational civility also surfaced in recent studies about addressing incivility (Al-Jubouri et al., 2021; Bernard et al., 2021; Clark et al., 2021; McGee, 2020;). The themes are also included in a newly revisited concept analysis on civility (Clark et al., 2022). We look forward to being a part of the inspiration offered at this year's conference as we join in the exploration of how nursing collaboration is actively improving work environments.
Description
This college of nursing civility team is eager to share their four-year adventure with you. Using evidence gained from yearly surveys, they will provide insights into four themes that best illustrate their civility journey: courage, curiosity, patience and perseverance.
Target Audience: Clinical, Academic, and Leaders
Themes: Academic, Incivility
Subjects: Faculty (clinical or didctic)