바로가기메뉴

본문 바로가기 주메뉴 바로가기

logo

The Effect of Frontline Employees' Experienced Customer Incivility on Service Performance

The Journal of Distribution Science / The Journal of Distribution Science, (P)1738-3110; (E)2093-7717
2019, v.17 no.8, pp.107-118
https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.15722/jds.17.8.201908.107
KIM, Minsung
HUR, Won-Moo
KIM, Byung-Soo
  • Downloaded
  • Viewed

Abstract

Purpose - The present study examines the effect of service employees' experienced customer incivility through their emotional exhaustion. We identified service employees' emotion regulation ability as a boundary condition (i.e., moderating variable) that decreased the positive relationship between service employees' experienced customer incivility and their emotional exhaustion. Furthermore, we also investigated the negative relationship between service employees' experienced customer incivility and their service performance via emotional exhaustion. Research design, data, and methodology - Drawing on AET (affective event theory) and COR (conservation of resources) theory, we developed three research hypotheses (i.e., mediation, moderation, and moderated mediation). Online panel survey data from 552 frontline employees at several service organizations (e.g., department stores, retail stores, hotels, restaurants, airlines, banking, insurance company, and etc) in South Korea were examined. To assess two types of validity (i.e., convergent and discriminant validity) and reliability of measurement model, we employed the CFA (confirmatory factor analysis) using M-plus 8.2 software. Internal consistency also was tested by Cronbach' α. In addition, we employed the SPSS PROCESS MACRO 2.16, which was recommended by Hayes (2013, 2015), to estimate mediation, moderation, and moderated mediation effects. Results - As predicted, the negative relationship between service employees' experienced customer incivility and their service performance was mediated by emotional exhaustion. Furthermore, service employees' emotion regulation ability also played a significant moderating role of the relationship between service employees' experienced customer incivility and emotional exhaustion, such that this relationship was less pronounced when service employees had a high level of their emotion regulation ability than when thir emotion regulation ability was low. Service employees' emotion regulation ability further moderated this mediation effect of service employees' experienced customer incivility on service performance through emotional exhaustion. These findings have theoretical implications for employees' experienced customer incivility and emotion regulation ability research and provide managerial implications for practitioners. Conclusions - This study empirically elaborated the previous model of service employees' experienced customer incivility and personal resource (e.g., emotion regulation ability) literature by presenting the findings that service employees' experienced customer incivility influences their service performance via emotional exhaustion and that emotion regulation ability effectively reduces this negative effect.

keywords
Customer Incivility, Emotional Exhaustion, Service Performance, Emotion Regulation Ability

Reference

1.

Al-Hawari, M. A., Bani-Melhem, S., & Quratulain, S. (2019). Do Frontline Employees Cope Effectively with Abusive Supervision and Customer Incivility? Testing the Effect of Employee Resilience. Journal of Business and Psychology, 1-18. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-019-09621-2

2.

Alola, U. V., Olugbade, O. A., Avci, T., & Ozturen, A. (2019). Customer incivility and employees' outcomes in the hotel: Testing the mediating role of emotional exhaustion. Tourism Management Perspectives, 29, 9-17.

3.

Arnold, K. A., & Walsh, M. M. (2015). Customer incivility and employee well-being: testing the moderating effects of meaning, perspective taking and transformational leadership. Work & Stress, 29(4), 362-378.

4.

Andersson, L. M., & Pearson, C. M. (1999). Tit for tat? The spiraling effect of incivility in the workplace. Academy of Management Review, 24(3), 452-471.

5.

Bagozzi, R. P., & Yi, Y. (1988). On the evaluation of structural equation models. Journal of the Academy of Marking Science, 16(1), 74-94.

6.

Bentler, P. M., & Bonnet, D. G. (1980). Significance tests and goodness of fit in the analysis of covariance structures. Psychological Bulletin, 88(3), 588-606.

7.

Ben-Zur, H., & Yagil, D. (2005). The relationship between empowerment, aggressive behaviours of customers, coping, and burnout. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 14(1), 81-99.

8.

Bonanno, G. A. (2001). Emotion self-regulation. In T.J. Mayne & G.A. Bonanno (Eds.), Emotions: Current issues and future directions (pp. 251-285). New York, NY:Guilford Press.

9.

Brotheridge, C. M., & Grandey, A. A. (2002). Emotional labor and burnout: Comparing two perspectives of “people work”. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 60(1), 17-39.

10.

Bunk, J. A., & Magley, V. J. (2013). The Role of Appraisals and Emotions in Understanding Experiences of Workplace Incivility. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 18(1), 87-105.

11.

Campbell, J. P., McCloy, R. A., Oppler, S. H., & Sager, C. E. (1993). A theory of performance. In N. Schmitt & W. C. Borman (Eds.), Personnel selection in organizations (p.35-70). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

12.

Cicchetti, D., Ackerman, B. P., & Izard, C. E. (1995). Emotions and emotion regulation in developmental psychopathology. Development and Psychopathology, 7(1), 1-10.

13.

Cho, M., Bonn, M. A., Han, S. J., & Lee, K. H. (2016). Workplace incivility and its effect upon restaurant frontline service employee emotions and service performance. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 28(12), 2888-2912.

14.

Choi, Y., & Han, J. G. (2018). The negative effects of customer incivility and the moderating role of perceived organizational support for customer incivility. Korean Journal of Management, 26(4), 31-58.

15.

Chi, N. W., & Grandey, A. A. (2019). Emotional labor predicts service performance depending on activation and inhibition regulatory fit. Journal of Management, 45(2), 673-700.

16.

Côté, S., DeCelles, K. A., McCarthy, J. M., Van Kleef, G. A., & Hideg, I. (2011). The Jekyll and Hyde of emotional intelligence: Emotion-regulation knowledge facilitates both prosocial and interpersonally deviant behavior. Psychological Science, 22(8), 1073-1080.

17.

Cortina, L. M., Magley, V. J., Williams, J. H., & Langhout, R. D. (2001). Incivility in the workplace: incidence and impact. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 6(1), 64-80.

18.

Demerouti, E., Bakker, A. B., Nachreiner, F., & Schaufeli, W. B. (2001). The job demands-resources model of burnout. The Journal of Applied Psychology, 86(3), 499-512.

19.

Dormann, C., & Zapf, D. (2004). Customer-Related Social Stressors and Burnout. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 9(1), 61-82.

20.

Fornell, C., & Larcker, D. F. (1981). Evaluating structural models with unobservable variables and measurement error. Journal of Marketing Research, 18(3), 382-388.

21.

Han, S. J., Bonn, M. A., & Cho, M. (2016). The relationship between customer incivility, restaurant frontline service employee burnout and turnover intention. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 52, 97-106.

22.

Handrick, L. (2018). What is an EAP (Employee Assistance Program) & How Does It Work? Fit Small Business. Retrieved July 2, 2019 from https://fitsmallbusiness.com/what-is-an-eap-employee-assistance-program/

23.

Hayes, A. F. (2013). Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: A regression-based Approach. New York, NY: Guilford Press.

24.

Hayes, A. F. (2015). An index and test of linear moderated mediation. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 50(1), 1-22.

25.

Hayes, S. C., Wilson, K. G., Gifford, E. V., Follette, V. M., & Strosahl, K. (1996). Experiential avoidance and behavioral disorders: A functional dimensional approach to diagnosis and treatment. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 64(6), 1152.

26.

Hays, R. D., Hayashi, T., & Stewart, A. L. (1989). A five-item measure of socially desirable response set. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 49(3), 629-636.

27.

Hobfoll, S. E. (1989). Conservation of resources: A new attempt at conceptualizing stress. American Psychologist, 44(3), 513-524.

28.

Hur, W. M., Moon, T. W., & Han, S. J. (2015). The effect of customer incivility on service employees’ customer orientation through double-mediation of surface acting and emotional exhaustion. Journal of Service Theory and Practice, 25(4), 394-413.

29.

Hur, W. M., Moon, T., & Jun, J. K. (2016). The effect of workplace incivility on service employee creativity: the mediating role of emotional exhaustion and intrinsic motivation. Journal of Services Marketing, 30(3), 302-315.

30.

Kang, S. H., Chay, J. H., Lee, J. A., & Hur, W. M. (2016).The effects of service employee's surface acting on counterproductive work behavior: The mediating roles of emotional Exhaustion. Journal of Distribution Science, 14(2), 73-82.

31.

Kang, S. H., & Hur, W. M. (2018). Bridging service employee’s intrinsic motivation and job performance: A moderated mediation model. Journal of Distribution Science, 16(5), 71-81.

32.

Kang, S. H., Hur, W. M., & Kim, M. (2018). The effects of female service managers’ self-determined motivations on job performance. Journal of Distribution Science, 16(12), 69-80.

33.

Karatepe, O. M., & Aleshinloye, K. D. (2009). Emotional dissonance and emotional exhaustion among hotel employees in Nigeria. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 28(3), 349-358.

34.

Kern, J. H., & Grandey, A. A. (2009). Customer incivility as a social stressor: the role of race and racial identity for service employees. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 14(1), 46-57.

35.

Liao, H., & Chuang, A. (2004). A multilevel investigation of factors influencing employee service performance and customer outcomes. Academy of Management Journal, 47(1), 41-58.

36.

Lin, C. C., & Lai, F. Y. (2019). The mechanism and boundary conditions of the relationship between customer incivility and service quality. Journal of Management & Organization, 1-18. doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/jmo.2018.82.

37.

Maslach, C., & Jackson, S. E. (1981). The measurement of experienced burnout. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 2(2), 99-113.

38.

Mayer, J. D., & Salovey, P. (1997). What is emotional intelligence. Emotional development and emotional intelligence. New York, NY: Basic Boks.

39.

Moon, T. W., Hur, W. M., & Choi, Y. J. (2019). How leaders’ perceived emotional labor leads to followers’ job performance: A serial mediation model. Journal of Service Theory and Practice, 29(1), 22-44.

40.

Mauss, I. B., Troy, A. S., & LeBourgeois, M. K. (2013). Poorer sleep quality is associated with lower emotion-regulation ability in a laboratory paradigm. Cognition & Emotion, 27(3), 567-576.

41.

Nunnally, J. C., & Berstein, I. H. (1978). Psychometric Theory. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

42.

Nguyen, H. M., Nguyen, C., Ngo, T. T., & Nguyen, L. V. (2019). The Effects of Job Crafting on Work Engagement and Work Performance: A Study of Vietnamese Commercial Banks. The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business, 6(2), 189-201.

43.

Parasuraman, A., Zeithaml, V. A., & Berry, L. L. (1985). A conceptual model of service quality and its implications for future research. The Journal of Marketing, 41-50.

44.

Park, Y., Fritz, C., & Jex, S. M. (2018). Daily cyber incivility and distress: The moderating roles of resources at work and home. Journal of Management, 44(7), 2535-2557.

45.

Podsakoff, P. M., MacKenzie, S. B., & Podsakoff, N. P. (2012). Sources of method bias in social science research and recommendations on how to control it. Annual Review of Psychology, 63, 539-569.

46.

Rhee, S. Y., Hur, W. M., & Kim, M. (2017). The relationship of coworker incivility to job performance and the moderating role of self-efficacy and compassion at work:The Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) Approach. Journal of Business and Psychology, 32(6), 711-726.

47.

Schaufeli, W. B., & Bakker, A. B. (2004). Job demands, job resources, and their relationship with burnout and engagement: A multi‐sample study. Journal of Organizational Behavior: The International Journal of Industrial. Occupational and Organizational Psychology and Behavior, 25(3), 293-315.

48.

Shin, Y., Hur, W. M., & Choi, W. H. (2018). Coworker support as a double-edged sword: a moderated mediation model of job crafting, work engagement, and job performance. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 1-22. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2017.1407352

49.

Shin, Y., & Hur, W. M. (2019). When Do Service Employees Suffer More from Job Insecurity? The Moderating Role of Coworker and Customer Incivility. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 16(7), 1298.

50.

Shrout, P. E., & Bolger, N. (2002). Mediation in experimental and nonexperimental studies: new procedures and recom mendations. Psychological Methods, 7(4), 422-445.

51.

Sliter, M., Sliter, K., & Jex, S. (2012). The employee as a punching bag: The effect of multiple sources of incivility on employee withdrawal behavior and sales performance. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 33(1), 121-139.

52.

Sobel, M. E. (1982). Asymptotic confidence intervals for indirect effects in structural equation models. Sociological Methodology, 13, 290-312.

53.

Sommovigo, V., Setti, I., & Argentero, P. (2019). The role of service providers’ resilience in buffering the negative impact of customer incivility on service recovery performance. Sustainability, 11(1), 285.

54.

Swider, B. W., & Zimmerman, R. D. (2010). Born to burnout: A meta-analytic path model of personality, job burnout, and work outcomes. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 76(3), 487-506.

55.

Thompson, E. R. (2007). Development and validation of an internationally reliable short-form of the positive and negative affect schedule (PANAS). Journal of Cross-cultural Psychology, 38(2), 227-242.

56.

Thompson, R. A. (1994). Emotion regulation: A theme in search of definition. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 59(2/3), 25-52.

57.

Torres, E. N., van Niekerk, M., & Orlowski, M. (2017). Customer and employee incivility and its causal effects in the hospitality industry. Journal of Hospitality Marketing &Management, 26(1), 48-66.

58.

Van Gelderen, B. R., Konijn, E. A., & Bakker, A. B. (2017). Emotional labor among police officers: A diary study relating strain, emotional labor, and service performance. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 28(6), 852-879.

59.

Van Jaarsveld, D. D., Walker, D. D., & Skarlicki, D. P. (2010). The role of job demands and emotional exhaustion in the relationship between customer and employee incivility. Journal of Management, 36(6), 1486-1504.

60.

Weiss, H. M., & Cropanzano, R. (1996). Affective events theory: A theoretical discussion of the structure, causes and consequences of affective experiences at work. In B. M. Staw & L. L. Cummings (Eds.), Research in organizational behavior (pp.1-74). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.

61.

Wilson, N. L., & Holmvall, C. M. (2013). The development and validation of the Incivility from Customers Scale. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 18(3), 310-326.

62.

Yang, H. C., & Kim, Y. E. (2018). The Effects of Corporate Social Responsibility on Job Performance: Moderating Effects of Authentic Leadership and Meaningfulness of Work. The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business, 5(3), 121-132.

63.

Zhu, J. N., Lam, L. W., & Lai, J. Y. (2019). Returning good for evil: A study of customer incivility and extra-role customer service. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 81, 65-72.

The Journal of Distribution Science