Mistreatment from Multiple Sources: Interaction Effects of Abusive Supervision, Coworker Incivility, and Customer Incivility on Work Outcomes

Abstract

Despite the large body of research on workplace mistreatment, surprisingly few studies have examined the interaction effect of multiple interpersonal stressors on employee outcomes. To fill this gap, our research aimed to test the moderating effects of coworker incivility and customer incivility on the relationship between abusive supervision, emotional exhaustion, and job performance. Analyses conducted on 651 South Korean frontline service employees revealed that abusive supervision exerted a significant indirect effect on job performance through emotional exhaustion. Customer incivility strengthened the positive relationship between abusive supervision and emotional exhaustion, as well as the indirect effect of abusive supervision on job performance through emotional exhaustion. Our post hoc analysis demonstrated a three-way interaction between abusive supervision, coworker incivility, and customer incivility; the relationship between abusive supervision and emotional exhaustion was significantly positive only when coworker incivility was high and customer incivility was low. We discuss the implications of our findings for theory and practice.

Understanding the role of customer incivility and supervisor monitoring in the relationship between customer orientation and frontline employees' emotional exhaustion

“…Second, in addition to the pressures from customers and supervisors, colleagues are one of the sources of stress for frontline workers. The interplay between colleagues, customer discourteousness and supervisory abuses exacerbates employees' emotional exhaustion (Shin et al ., 2021). Thus, future research could incorporate the effects of colleagues' incivility.…”

How do workplace stressors during COVID-19 affect health frontline employees in Iran: Investigating the role of employee resilience and constituent attachment

“…, 2019), thereby impinging on the quality of health services and resulting in emotional exhaustion and turnover intention. To address these issues, this study employed job demands−resources (JD−R) theory (Bakker and Demerouti, 2017) and conservation of resources (COR) theory (Hobfoll, 1989) to provide an accurate understanding of the concurrent effects of multiple stressors as a novel contribution on performance (Shin et al. , 2021).…”

“…According to previous research (Alola et al, 2019;Labrague and de Los Santos, 2021;Shin et al, 2021), emotional exhaustion is one of the most critical consequences of experiencing mentioned stressors which also affect turnover intention. Emotional exhaustion in turn can mediate the relationship between independent variables such as the perceived threat of COVID-19 (PTC) (Labrague and de Los Santos, 2021), abusive supervision (Ahmad and Begum, 2023), customer incivility (Alola et al, 2019) and turnover intention as the dependent variable.…”

“…Los Santos, 2021). Furthermore, these employees play vital roles in providing organizational services because they contact customers directly, resulting in multiple stressors (Shin et al, 2021). Researchers have investigated how these different stressors lead to emotional exhaustion and turnover intention (Gan et al, 2020;Hwang and Chang, 2008), especially during the pandemic, when the pressure on health employees has been high.…”

“…Regrettably, paying insufficient attention to frontline employees during the crisis has exacerbated their problems and has increased the remaining employees' workload (Alola et al, 2019), thereby impinging on the quality of health services and resulting in emotional exhaustion and turnover intention. To address these issues, this study employed job demandsÀresources (JDÀR) theory (Bakker and Demerouti, 2017) and conservation of resources (COR) theory (Hobfoll, 1989) to provide an accurate understanding of the concurrent effects of multiple stressors as a novel contribution on performance (Shin et al, 2021). Some research has investigated abusive supervision and customer incivility as daily interpersonal stressors facing frontline employees.…”