Exploring the effects of individual customer incivility encounters on employee incivility: The moderating roles of entity (in)civility and negative affectivity.

Abstract

Incivility between customers and employees is common in many service organizations. These encounters can have negative outcomes for employees, customers, and the organization. To date, researchers have tended to study incivility as an aggregated and accumulated phenomenon (entity perspective). In the present study, we examined incivility as it occurs during a specific service encounter (event perspective) alongside the entity perspective. Using a mixed-method multilevel field study of customer service interactions, we show that individual customer incivility encounters (i.e., events) trigger employee incivility as a function of the employee's overall accumulated impression of the (in)civility in his or her customer interactions, such that the effects are more pronounced among employees who generally perceive their customer interactions to be more versus less civil. We also find that these interactive effects occur only among employees who are lower (vs. higher) in negative affectivity. Our results show that, in order to expand the understanding of customer incivility, it is important to study the incivility encounter, the social context in which negative customer interactions occur, and individual differences.

Customer Mistreatment: A Review of Conceptualizations and a Multilevel Theoretical Model

“…Previous research has suggested that the customer mistreatment literature should move beyond cross-sectional research designs and incorporate longitudinal and multilevel data (e.g., Goldberg & Grandey, 2007;Walker et al, 2014;Zhan et al, 2013). We further contend that a longitudinal, multilevel research design is the only way to directly test the comprehensive theoretical model presented in this chapter because the cross-sectional design that has been typical practice in previous research on customer mistreatment does not match the research questions suggested by this model.…”

“…For example, both Harris and Ogbonna (2002) and Harris and Reynolds (2003) interviewed hotel, restaurant, and bar employees across multiple hierarchical levels and identified a link between exposure to rude customers and engagement in service sabotage. From an empirical perspective, Walker, van Jaarsveld, and Skarlicki (2014) reported a statistically nonsignificant correlation between entity civility and employee civility at the individual level, indicating that insurance call center employees who did and did not feel they were typically mistreated by customers were not rated differently by independent judges in regards to their customer-directed disrespectful behavior. Additionally, using a sample of Canadian call center employees providing service in several different areas (e.g., parcel delivery, credit cards) and controlling for internal sources (i.e., supervisors, coworkers) of interpersonal justice, Skarlicki et al (2008) found that employees who more commonly experienced customer interpersonal injustice were more likely to have sabotaged customer phone calls.…”

“…Previous research has suggested that emotion-based variables may influence the strength of service employees' reactions to customer mistreatment (e.g., Baranik et al, 2014;Ho & Gupta, 2012;Walker et al, 2014;Wang et al, 2011;Yang & Diefendorff, 2009;Zhan et al, 2013). In general, it has been suggested that whereas some emotion-based traits, such as emotional regulation self-efficacy and empathy, facilitate regulation of negative emotions, other emotion-based tendencies, such as negative affectivity and maladaptive emotion-based coping (e.g., rumination or social sharing), make employees more susceptible to or prolong negative emotions and contribute to stronger negative reactions.…”

“…That is, to accurately represent this model, data that captures multiple service encounters over time must be collected. In particular, only a multilevel, longitudinal approach can disentangle the unique antecedents, mechanisms, and consequences across the individual and service encounter levels; facilitate a comparison of the unique processes at the individual and service encounter levels; and allow for examination of higher-level boundary conditions that strengthen or weaken the effects of service encounter-level customer mistreatment (e.g., Walker et al, 2014;Wang et al, 2011;Wang et al, 2013). However, we recognize that while it would be a commendable research effort it may not be realistic or feasible for the entire multilevel model to be tested simultaneously.…”

The Role of Co-Workers’ Solidarity as an Antecedent of Incivility and Deviant Behavior in Organizations

“…Incivility is distinct from other interpersonal mistreatment by two main criteria: First, incivility is low-intensity deviant behavior (Andersson and Pearson 1999;Pearson and Porath 2005;Walker, van Jaarsveld, and Skarlicki 2014). Thus compared to high-intensity behaviors such as bullying or aggression, incivility represents a milder form of interpersonal mistreatment (Cortina et al 2001;Pearson, Andersson, and Porath 2000;Pearson, Andersson, and Wegner 2001).…”