Incivility and Higher Education

Featuring chapters written by diverse voices within the academy, Incivility and Higher Education: The Costs of Bad Behavior addresses faculty members behaving badly and how unchecked incivility can lead to a variety of dire repercussions in higher education, including governance gridlocks, increased grievances, impacts to scholarship and research production, loss of trust in the institution, occupational burnout, and more. The text highlights the ways in which incidents of bad behavior and incivility are amplified at the intersection of race and gender, further isolating and causing greater emotional, psychological, and physical distress to minoritized faculty members. Readers learn about the reasons that universities struggle with addressing bad behavior, including the unchecked assumptions and mythmaking about tenure, collective bargaining, and shared governance. The book reviews the remedies that already exist to address bad behavior, why they often aren't invoked, and strategies that can be applied to enact meaningful change. Designed to help institutions cultivate cultures characterized by fairness, respect, trust, and accountability, Incivility and Higher Education is an ideal guide for all stakeholders in higher education, including provosts, deans, staff members, alumni, faculty, chancellors, presidents, and boards.