Navigating the pitfalls of incivility: The role of resilience in job search behavior

In a challenging labor market, job seekers often engage in haphazard job search behavior to secure any available job. Integrating Affective Events Theory with the job search literature, this study, using a weekly experience sampling technique, developes a model exploring the influence of weekly experienced incivility on haphazard job search behavior. Data collected over four consecutive weeks from 102 job seekers with 408 observations indicated that experienced incivility was positively related to state negative affect, subsequently increasing haphazard job search behavior. Moreover, resilience moderated the relationship between experienced incivility and state negative affect; high-resilient job seekers experience less state negative affect than low-resilient job seekers. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. •Demonstrates the effect of incivility on job seekers’ emotinal and behavioral consequences.•Introduces a multilevel model to investigate weekly variations in job search behavior.•Shows how resilience mitigates state negative affect from weekly experienced incivility.