Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T04:41:02.946Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The mechanism and boundary conditions of the relationship between customer incivility and service quality

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 February 2019

Cheng-Chen Lin
Affiliation:
Department of Business Administration, National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, Neipu, Pingtung, Taiwan
Fong-Yi Lai*
Affiliation:
Department of Business Administration, National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, Neipu, Pingtung, Taiwan
*
*Corresponding author: [email protected]

Abstract

This study addresses the causal linkage between customer incivility and service quality through the lens of self-determination theory, according to which need satisfaction as a potential mechanism mediates this relationship. Additionally, it examines the moderating role of surface acting in the relationship between customer incivility and need satisfaction. Dyadic questionnaires were collected from restaurant employees and their customers in Taiwan. A total of 190 employees and 645 customers participated in this study. Results found that need satisfaction mediates the negative relationship between customer incivility and service quality. Surface acting moderates the relationship between customer incivility and need satisfaction as well as the mediation effect of customer incivility on service quality through need satisfaction. Specifically, the indirect effect of need satisfaction on the relation between customer incivility and service quality creativity was more significantly negative at a high level of surface acting than the effect at a low level.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press and Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aiken, L. S., & West, S. G. (1991). Multiple regression: Testing and interpreting interactions. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Andersson, L. M., & Pearson, C. M. (1999). ‘Tit for tat? The spiraling effect of incivility in the workplace’. Academy of Management Review, 24(3), 452471.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aquino, K., & Thau, S. (2009). ‘Workplace victimization: Aggression from the target’s perspective’. Annual Review of Psychology, 60, 125.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ashforth, B. E., & Humphrey, R. H. (1993). ‘Emotional labor in service roles – the influence of identity’. Academy of Management Review, 18(1), 88115.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baard, P. P., Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (2004). ‘The relation of intrinsic need satisfaction to performance and wellbeing in two work settings’. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 34(10), 20452068.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bandalos, D. L., & Finney, S. J. (2001). ‘Item parceling issues in structural equation modeling’. In Marcoulides G. A., & Schumacker R. E. (Eds.), New developments and techniques in structural equation modeling, 269296. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Baranik, L. E., Wang, M., Gong, Y., & Shi, J. (2017). ‘Customer mistreatment, employee health, and job performance: Cognitive rumination and social sharing as mediating mechanisms’. Journal of Management, 43, 12611282.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baumeister, R., & Leary, M. R. (1995). ‘The need to belong: desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation’. Psychological Bulletin, 117(3), 497529.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bentler, P. M., & Chou, C. P. (1987). ‘Practical issues in structural equation modeling’. Sociological Methods and Research, 16(1), 78117.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bitner, M. J., Booms, B. H., & Tetreault, M. S. (1990). ‘The service encounter: Diagnosing favorable and unfavorable incidents’. Journal of Marketing, 54(1), 7184.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bliese, P. D. (2000). ‘Within-group agreement, non-independence, and reliability: Implications for data aggregation and analysis’. In Klein K. J., & Kozlowski S. W. J. (Eds.), Multilevel theory, research, and methods in organizations, 349381. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.Google Scholar
Borucki, C. C., & Burke, M. J. (1999). ‘An examination of service-related antecedents to retail store performance’. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 20(6), 943962.3.0.CO;2-9>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brotheridge, C. M., & Grandey, A. A (2002). ‘Emotional labor and burnout: Comparing two perspectives of people work’. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 60, 1739.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brotheridge, C. M., & Lee, R. T. (2002). ‘Testing a conservation of resources model of the dynamics of emotional labor’. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 7(1), 5767.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brotheridge, C. M., & Lee, R. T (2003). ‘Development and validation of the emotional labour scale’. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 76(3), 365379.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cortina, L. M., Magley, V. J., Williams, J. H., & Langhout, R. D. (2001). Incivility at the workplace: Incidence and impact. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 6(1), 6480.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Deci, E. L., Olafsen, A. H., & Ryan, R. M. (2017). ‘Self-determination theory in work organizations: The state of a science’. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 4, 1943.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (1985). Intrinsic motivation and self-determination in human behavior. New York: Plenum.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (2000). ‘The ‘what’ and ‘why’ of goal pursuits: Human needs and the self-determination of behavior’. Psychological Inquiry, 4(4), 227268.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (Eds.) 2002). Handbook of self-determination research. Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press.Google Scholar
Deci, E. L., Ryan, R. M., Gagné, M., Leone, D. R., Usunov, J., & Kornazheva, B. P. (2001). ‘Need satisfaction, motivation, and well-being in the work organizations of a former Eastern Bloc country’. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 27(8), 930942.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Diefendorff, J. M., Richard, E. M., & Croyle, M. H. (2006). ‘Are emotional display rules formal job requirements? Examination of employee and supervisor perceptions’. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 79(2), 273298.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dormann, C., & Zapf, D. (2004). ‘Customer-related social stressors and burnout’. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 9(1), 6182.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duffy, M. K., Ganster, D. C., & Pagon, M. (2002). ‘Social undermining in the workplace’. Academy of Management Journal, 45(2), 331352.Google Scholar
Edwards, J. R., & Lambert, L. S. (2007). ‘Methods for integrating moderation and mediation: A general analytical framework using moderated path analysis’. Psychological Methods, 12(1), 122.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evans, M. G. (1985). ‘A Monte Carlo study of the effects of correlated method variance in moderated multiple regression analysis’. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 36(3), 305323.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ferris, D. L., Brown, D. J., Berry, J., & Lian, H. (2008). ‘The development and validation of the Workplace Ostracism Scale’. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93(6), 13481366.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gagné, M. (2003). ‘The role of autonomy support and autonomy orientation in the engagement of prosocial behavior’. Motivation and Emotion, 27(3), 199223.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gagné, M., & Deci, E. L (2005). ‘Self-determination theory and work motivation’. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 26, 331362.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldberg, L. S., & Grandey, A. A. (2007). ‘Display rules versus display autonomy: Emotion regulation, emotional exhaustion, and task performance in a call center simulation’. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 12(3), 301318.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gosserand, R. H., & Diefendorff, J. M. (2005). ‘Emotional display rules and emotional labor: The moderating role of commitment’. Journal of Applied Psychology, 90(6), 12561264.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grandey, A. A. (2000). ‘Emotional regulation in the work place: A new way to conceptualize emotional labor’. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 5(1), 95110.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grandey, A. A. (2003). ‘When ‘the show must go on’: Surface acting and deep acting as determinants of emotional exhaustion and peer-rated service delivery’. Academy of Management Journal, 46(1), 8696.Google Scholar
Grandey, A., Dickter, D., & Sin, H.-P (2004). ‘The customer is not always right: Customer verbal aggression toward service employees’. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 25(3), 397418.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grandey, A. A., Diefendorff, J. M., & Rupp, D. E. (2012). Emotional labor in the 21st century: Diverse perspectives on emotion regulation at work (Organization and Management Series). Oxford: Routledge.Google Scholar
Grandey, A. A., Fisk, G. M., Mattila, A. S., Jansen, K. J., & Sideman, L. A. (2005). ‘Is ‘service with a smile’ enough? Authenticity of positive displays during service encounters’. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 96(1), 3855.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grandey, A. A., Kern, J., & Frone, M. (2007). ‘Verbal Abuse from outsiders versus insiders: Comparing frequency, impact on emotional exhaustion, and the role of emotional labor’. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 12(1), 6379.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greguras, G. J., & Diefendorff, J. M. (2009). ‘Different fits satisfy different needs: Linking person-environment fit to employee commitment and performance using self-determination theory’. Journal of Applied Psychology, 94(2), 465477.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gross, J. J. (1998). ‘The emerging field of emotion regulation: An integrative review’. Review of General Psychology, 2(3), 271299.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gross, J. J., & John, O. P. (2003). ‘Individual differences in two emotion regulation processes: Implications for affect, relationships, and well-being’. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85(2), 348362.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Groth, M., & Grandey, A. A (2012). ‘From bad to worse: negative exchange spirals in employee-customer service interactions’. Organizational Psychology Review, 2(3), 208233.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Groth, M., Hennig-Thurau, T., & Walsh, G. (2009). ‘Customer reactions to emotional labor: The roles of employee acting strategies and customer detection accuracy’. Academy of Management Journal, 52(5), 958974.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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, 97106.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harris, L. C., & Ogbonna, E. (2002). ‘Exploring service sabotage: The antecedents, types and consequences of frontline, deviant, antiservice behaviors’. Journal of Service Research, 4, 163183.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harris, L. C., & Reynolds, K. L. (2004). ‘Jaycustomer behavior: An exploration of types and motives in the hospitality industry’. Journal of Services Marketing, 18(5), 339357.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hochschild, A. R. (1983). The managed heart: commercialization of human feeling. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Hofmann, D. A. (1997). ‘An overview of the logic and rationale of hierarchical linear models’. Journal of Management, 23(6), 723744.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hofmann, D. A., & Stetzer, A. (1996). ‘A cross-level investigation of factors influencing unsafe behaviors and accidents’. Personnel Psychology, 49(2), 307339.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hülsheger, U. R., & Schewe, A. F. (2011). ‘On the costs and benefits of emotional labor: A meta-analysis of three decades of research’. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 16(3), 361389.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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), 394413.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Joreskog, K. G., & Sorbom, D. (2006). LISREL for Windows. Lincolnwood, IL: Scientific Software International.Google Scholar
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), 4657.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuhl, J. (2000). The volitional basis of personality systems interaction theory: Applications in learning and treatment contexts’. International Journal of Educational Research, 33(7–8), 665703.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
La Guardia, J. G., Ryan, R. M., Couchman, C. E., & Deci, E. L. (2000). ‘Within-person variation in security of attachment: A self-determination theory perspective on attachment, need fulfillment, and well-being’. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79(3), 367384.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lanaj, K., Johnson, R. E., & Lee, S. M (2016). ‘Benefits of transformational behaviors for leaders: A daily investigation of leader behaviors and need fulfillment’. Journal of Applied Psychology, 101, 237251.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lian, H., Ferris, D. L., & Brown, D. J. (2012). ‘Does taking the good with the bad make things worse? How abusive supervision and leader–member exchange interact to impact need satisfaction and organizational deviance’. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 117, 4152.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
LovelockChristopher, H. Christopher, H. (2001). Services marketing: people, technology, strategy (4th ed.), Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.Google Scholar
Lytle, R. S., & Timmerman, J. E. (2006). ‘Service orientation and performance: An organizational perspective’. Journal of Services Marketing, 20(2), 136147.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mesmer-Magnus, J. R., DeChurch, L. A., & Wax, A. (2012). ‘Moving emotional labor beyond surface and deep acting: A discordance-congruence perspective’. Organizational Psychology Review, 2(1), 653.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morris, J. A., & Feldman, D. C. (1996). ‘The dimensions, antecedents, and consequences of emotional labor’. Academy of Management Review, 21(4), 9861010.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Patrick, H., Knee, C. R., Canevello, A., & Lonsbary, C. (2007). ‘The role of need fulfillment in relationship functioning and well-being: A self-determination theory perspective’. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92, 434457.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pearson, C., Andersson, L., & Porath, C. (2000). Assessing and attacking workplace incivility. Organizational Dynamics, 29(2), 123137.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Podsakoff, P. M., MacKenzie, S. B., Lee, J.-Y., & Podsakoff, N. P. (2003). ‘Common method biases in behavioral research: A critical review of the literature and recommended remedies’. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88(5), 879903.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Porath, C. L., & Erez, A. (2007). ‘Does rudeness really matter? The effects of rudeness on task performance and helpfulness’. Academy of Management Journal, 50(5), 11811197.Google Scholar
Richer, S. F., Blanchard, C., & Vallerand, R. J. (2002). ‘A motivational model of work turnover’. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 32, 20892113.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rupp, D. E., McCance, A. S., Spencer, S., & Sonntag, K. (2008). ‘Customer (in)justice and emotional labor: The role of perspective taking, anger, and emotional regulation’. Journal of Management, 34(5), 903924.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rupp, D. E., & Spencer, S. (2006). ‘When customers lash out: The effects of customer interactional injustice on emotional labor and the mediating role of discrete emotions’. Journal of Applied Psychology, 91(4), 971978.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ryan, R. M. (1995). ‘Psychological needs and the facilitation of integrative processes’. Journal of Personality, 63(3), 297427.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ryan, R. M., & Connell, J. P. (1989). ‘Perceived locus of causality and internalization: Examining reasons for acting in two domains’. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57(5), 749761.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schaubroeck, J., & Jones, J. R. (2000). ‘Antecedents of workplace emotional labor dimensions and moderators of their effects on physical symptoms’. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 21(2), 163183.3.0.CO;2-L>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schneider, B. (1990). ‘The climate for service: An application of the climate construct’. In Schneider B. (Ed.), Organizational climate and culture, 383412). San Francisco: Jossey- Bass.Google Scholar
Scott, B. A., & Barnes, C. M. (2011). ‘A multilevel investigation of emotional labor, affect, withdrawal, and gender’. Academy of Management Journal, 54(1), 116136.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shao, R., & Skarlicki, D. P. (2014). ‘Service employees’ reactions to mistreatment by customers: A comparison between North America and East Asia’. Personnel Psychology, 67(1), 2359.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sheldon, K. M., Elliot, A. J., Kim, Y., & Kasser, T. (2001). ‘What is satisfying about satisfying events? Testing 10 candidate psychological needs’. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 80(2), 325339.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sheldon, K. M., & Niemiec, C. P. (2006). ‘It’s not just the amount that counts: Balanced need satisfaction also affects well-being’. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 91(2), 331341.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shields, A., Ryan, R. M., & Cicchetti, D. (2001). ‘Narrative representations of caregivers and emotion dysregulation as predictors of maltreated children’s rejection by peers’. Developmental Psychology, 37(3), 321337.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Skarlicki, D. P., van Jaarsveld, D. D., & Walker, D. D. (2008). ‘Getting even for customer mistreatment: The role of moral identity in the relationship between customer interpersonal injustice and employee sabotage’. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93(6), 13351347.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Skinner, E. A. (1995). Perceived control, motivation, and coping. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, Inc.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sliter, M. T., Jex, S., Wolford, K., & McInnerney, J. (2010). ‘How rude! Emotional labor as a mediator between customer incivility and employee outcomes’. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 15(4), 468481.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sliter, M. T., 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), 121139.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spector, P. E., & Jex, S. M. (1998). ‘Development of four self-report measures of job stressors and strain: Interpersonal conflict at work scale, organizational constraints scale, quantitative workload inventory, and physical symptoms inventory’. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 3, 356367.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Totterdell, P., & Holman, D. (2003). ‘Emotion regulation in customer service roles: Testing a model of emotional labor’. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 8, 5573.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trope, Y., & Liberman, N. (2003). ‘Temporal construal’. Psychological Review, 110, 403421.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trope, Y., Liberman, N., & Wakslak, C. (2007). ‘Construal levels and psychological distance: Effects on representation, prediction, evaluation, and behavior’. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 17(2), 8395.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tyler, T., Degoey, P., & Smith, H. (1996). ‘Understanding why the justice of group procedures matters: A test of the psychological dynamics of the group-value model’. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70(5), 913930.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Uysal, A., Lin, H. L., & Knee, C. R. (2010). ‘The role of need satisfaction in self-concealment and well-being’. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 36(2), 187199.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van den Broeck, A., Vansteenkiste, M., De Witte, H., & Lens, W. (2008). ‘Explaining the relationships between job characteristics, burnout, and engagement: The role of basic psychological need satisfaction’. Work & Stress, 22(3), 277294.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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), 14861504.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wagner, D. T., & Ilies, R. (2008). ‘Affective influences on employee satisfaction and performance’. In AshkanasyN.M., & CooperC.L. (Eds.), Research companion to emotion in organizations, 152169). Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar.Google Scholar
Walker, D. D., van Jaarsveld, D. D., & Skarlicki, D. P. (2014). ‘Exploring the effects of individual customer incivility encounters on employee incivility: The moderating roles of entity (in)civility and negative affectivity’. Journal of Applied Psychology, 99(1), 151161.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wang, M., Liao, H., Zhan, Y., & Shi, J. (2011). ‘Daily customer mistreatment and employee sabotage against customer: Examining emotion and resource perspectives’. Academy of Management Journal, 54(2), 312334.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weinstein, N., & Ryan, R. M (2010). ‘When helping helps: Autonomous motivation for prosocial behavior and its influence on well-being for the helper and recipient’. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 98, 222244.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
White, R. W. (1959). ‘Motivation reconsidered: the concept of competence’. Psychological Review, 66, 297333.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, G. C., Cox, E. M., Hedberg, V., & Deci, E. L. (2000). ‘Extrinsic life goals and health risk behaviors in adolescents’. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 30(8), 17561771.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Won-Moo, H., Tae Won, M., & Su-Jin, H. (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), 394413.Google Scholar
Zhan, Y., Wang, M., & Shi, J. (2016). ‘Interpersonal process of emotional labor: the role of negative and positive customer treatment’. Personnel Psychology, 69(3), 525557.CrossRefGoogle Scholar