Age as double‐edged sword among victims of customer mistreatment: A self‐esteem threat perspective

Abstract

Service workers are expected to maintain high‐quality service delivery despite customer mistreatment—the poor‐quality treatment of service workers by customers—which can be demeaning and threatening to self‐esteem. Although service work is increasingly delivered by middle‐aged and older workers, very little is known about how employees across the age range navigate abuse from customers on the job. Does advancing age help or hinder service performance in reaction to customer mistreatment? Drawing on strength and vulnerability integration theory, we proposed that age paradoxically both helps and hinders performance after customer mistreatment, albeit at different stages. We tested our proposed model in a two‐sample field investigation of service workers and their supervisors using a time‐lagged, dyadic design. Results showed that age heightens the experience of self‐esteem threat but, nevertheless, dampens reactions to self‐esteem threat, leading to divergent effects on performance at different stages. Implications for age and service work, as well as aging and the sense of self, are discussed.

Sixty years of discrimination and diversity research in human resource management: A review with suggestions for future research directions

“…Research published in Human Resource Management examines the discriminatory experiences of older workers based on a number of different characteristics. Within a customer service-based organization,Amarnani et al (2019) find that mistreatment by cus-Consistent with previous research (e.g.,Meulenaere, Boone, & Buyl, 2016;Park & Kim, 2015), Guillén and Kunze (2019) find that an aging workforce is not directly related to decreased innovation, but rather, its effect is more complex and often dependent on the diversity management strategies employed by the firm. Their results suggest that discrimination against older workers largely stems from low competence perceptions that can be mitigated when older workers collaborate with interdepartmental colleagues(Guillén & Kunze, 2019).…”

“…Lim et al 2018Investigate other minority groups to explore occupational segregation patterns; investigate types of interactions (i.e., social gatherings) with gay/lesbian coworkers during/after work hours; investigate the extent to which gay/lesbian employees may experience exclusion/socialization behaviors 58 Mölders et al (2018) Extend findings to examine perspectives of how males/females self-evaluate agency/community and influence relationships between gender stereotypes and quotas for females in leadership positions; consider using other gender scales (i.e., Bem, 1974) in future studies to measure gender stereotypes; focus on further differentiating dimensions of stereotypes and analyze relations of individual-level characteristics and quota support; include measures of social desirability; investigate experience with quotas and their relation to gender-stereotypic ascriptions 59 Shi et al (2018) Investigate chief diversity officers' (CDO) adoption consequences; use a matched sampling approach to compare organizations with/without CDOs; investigate how CDOs can balance/leverage their existence with diverse groups 60 Singh et al 2018Assess mediators (commitment) before turnover intention in time-lapse studies; parse out work-family interface, threat of stereotype and occupational change decisions/different organizational supportive practices/ programs; delve into organizational/occupational withdrawals; conduct more refined analysis of nonwork factors' role in occupational withdrawal decisions; focus on occupational mobility/attrition needs for female engineers and focus on drivers of criterion space decisions including males in the sample 61 van Esch et al (2018) More focused studies "unpacking" the perceived riskiness construct: Specific elements, antecedents, consequences, and outcomes; study antecedents such as experience and gender and what combination of these factors lead to risk perception; investigate perceived riskiness' role on other selection process stages; extend this study and focus on females seeking senior-level positions 62 Webster et al (2018) Establish the causality of formal policy adoptions for LGBT employees in longitudinal studies; capture a broader range of sampling for the LGBT population in future studies, especially females; investigate types of social support and differences in those networks by expanding to ally literature and how they help the LGBT employees; examine links between micro/ macro perspectives, individual/aggregated variables and firm/industry level; investigate mechanisms linking formal polices to firm performance and empirically test findings regarding LGBT supportive policies/practices 63 Amarnani et al (2019) Replicate study of age biases and supervisors' rating of innovative behavior in other industries, cultural contexts, and equal gender samples; investigate consequences of age at different stages of idea/creation; consider other strategies that may account for age effects on different stages; examine whether other moderators, not interdepartmental collaboration, in more comprehensive models account for age consequences; consider additional diversity-related personal/group characteristics (i.e., personality, goal orientation, teammates' age) as possible moderators; conduct longitudinal studies testing dynamic relationships among age, interdepartmental collaboration and innovation over time show there are a number of obstacles for women and racial minorities to obtain a high-profile board position, it seems that once they get there, they are a hot commodity. Their study is c...…”

Are employees' emotional labor strategies triggering or reducing customer incivility: a sociometer theory perspective

“…Customer Self-esteem Threat. Customer self-esteem threat was measured by the three-item scale developed by Amarnani et al (2019). A sample item is “I felt disrespected”.…”

“…Specifically, when customers perceive employees are using surface acting strategies, customers are likely to detect a discrepancy between employees' internal feelings and displayed emotions as required by the service context (Groth et al , 2009; Hur et al , 2015a, b). In this case, customers are prone to recognize their interactions with employees as less respected, less valued or even be despised (Amarnani et al , 2019). In other words, employees' surface acting strategies convey negative information about interpersonal relationships toward customers, which challenge customers' sense of value and result in potential threats to their self-esteem.…”

“…In a service relationship, service employees' emotional labor strategies might trigger changes to customers' perceptions of self-esteem. Deviant behavior such as incivility is likely to be activated as protective responses when customers perceive a threat to their self-esteem (Amarnani et al , 2019; Leary and Baumeister, 2000). Therefore, the present paper intends to explore the mediating role of customer self-esteem threat on the relationship between employees' emotional labor strategies and customer incivility.…”