Customer mistreatment and employee customer-focused voice: the bright and dark sides of felt trust

Abstract

Purpose This study aims to assess a moderated-mediation model to account for the relationship between customer mistreatment and frontline hotel employees’ customer-focused voice, where their organization-based self-esteem (OBSE) served as a mediator and their felt trust (reliance and disclosure) by supervisors served as a moderator. Design/methodology/approach The data were collected through paper-based questionnaires in a cross-sectional survey, consisting of 319 valid supervisor-employee-paired responses from 33 international tourist hotels in Taiwan. Regression analyses were used for hypothesis testing. Findings OBSE mediates the negative effect of customer mistreatment on customer-focused voice. Employee felt reliance intensifies the negative impact of customer mistreatment on OBSE, and this interaction effect, in turn, reduces customer-focused voice through OBSE. The employee felt disclosure marginally significantly buffers the effect of customer mistreatment on OBSE. Practical implications Given the adverse effect of customer mistreatment on customer-focused voice through OBSE, hotels should strengthen employees’ service mindset and value their suggestions. The double-edged effects of felt trust suggest that managers should form a trusting relationship with their subordinates and reassure them that isolated incidents of customer mistreatment will not jeopardize their reputation. Originality/value This study integrated sociometer and self-consistency theories to examine OBSE as a psychological mechanism to explain the mistreatment-voice process. Besides assessing felt trust’s two-dimensional effects, this research is possibly the first attempt to examine felt trust as an enabling force or a threat to OBSE in the context of customer mistreatment.

A self-regulatory perspective on the link between customer mistreatment and employees’ displaced workplace deviance: the buffering role of mindfulness

“…For example, research commonly associated customer mistreatment with negative health symptoms, such as escalated negative emotions (Chi et al , 2018; Li et al , 2021), increased cognitive rumination (Baranik et al , 2016; Wang et al , 2013) and high levels of emotional exhaustion (Cho et al , 2016; Yang et al , 2020). Evidence has also verified a positive relationship between such interpersonal mistreatment and customer-directed deviance (Baranik et al , 2016; Cheng et al , 2020; Ho and Gupta, 2014; Skarlicki et al , 2008; Wang et al , 2011), workplace deviance (Chi et al , 2018; Kim and Qu, 2018; Wang and Wang, 2017) and family undermining (Barber et al , 2017; Chi et al , 2018; Zhu et al , 2021), as well as a negative relationship with citizenship behavior toward customers (Shao and Skarlicki, 2014), service performance (Park and Kim, 2020) and customer-focused voice (Huang and Kwok, 2021). Notably, customer mistreatment can “spill over” across organizational boundaries, triggering employees’ deviant behavior displaced toward organizations and individuals.…”

“…It is worth noting that neither the organization nor coworkers are the source of provocation, but they are often more available than customers. Given that most hospitality IJCHM 34,7 organizations adhere to the business philosophy of customer firstas the popular motto goes, "the customers are always right"hotel employees are explicitly asked to refrain from retaliatory behaviors (Fong et al, 2017;Huang and Kwok, 2021). It is conceivable that these employees may subsequently redirect their harmful behaviors to their organizations and coworkers in the form of displaced aggression.…”

“…Buffering role of mindfulness Kim and Qu, 2018;Wang and Wang, 2017) and family undermining (Barber et al, 2017;Chi et al, 2018;Zhu et al, 2021), as well as a negative relationship with citizenship behavior toward customers (Shao and Skarlicki, 2014), service performance (Park and Kim, 2020) and customer-focused voice (Huang and Kwok, 2021). Notably, customer mistreatment can "spill over" across organizational boundaries, triggering employees' deviant behavior displaced toward organizations and individuals.…”

“…Service failures occur in interactions between employees and customers when either party fails to meet the expectations of the other (Min and Joireman, 2021). As a branch of service failure literature, customer mistreatment has received increasing attention due to its prevalence, especially in the hospitality industry (Cheng et al , 2020; Huang and Kwok, 2021; Li et al , 2021). Defined as “low-quality interpersonal treatment that employees obtain from customers during service interactions” (Wang et al , 2011), customer mistreatment may take the form of verbal aggression, inappropriate gestures/body language, unreasonable demands, questioning of service ability or other derogatory behaviors (Shao and Skarlicki, 2014; Wang et al , 2011; Zhou et al , 2022).…”

Will catering employees’ job dissatisfaction lead to brand sabotage behavior? A study based on conservation of resources and complexity theories

“…Customer evaluations of a hospitality industry service brand are contingent upon their interactions with employees, making frontline employees the “public image representative” of a brand (Huang and Kwok, 2021; Kim et al , 2020). The brand-building behaviors of frontliners who project a good brand image and successfully relate its concept can enhance brand value (Wallace and de Chernatony, 2009), strengthen the brand’s meaning (Sirianni et al , 2013), and improve customer trust in the brand (Morhart et al , 2009).…”