Outcomes of customer verbal aggression among hotel employees

Abstract

If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -The central purpose of this study is to develop and test a model which examines the effects of customer verbal aggression on emotional dissonance, emotional exhaustion, and job outcomes such as service recovery performance, job satisfaction, and turnover intentions. The model also investigates the impact of emotional dissonance on emotional exhaustion and the effects of emotional dissonance and exhaustion on the above-mentioned job outcomes. Design/methodology/approach -Data were gathered from a sample of frontline hotel employees in Northern Cyprus via self-administered questionnaires. A total number of 204 questionnaires were obtained. Findings -As hypothesized, emotional dissonance and emotional exhaustion were found to be significant outcomes of customer verbal aggression. The results demonstrated that emotional dissonance amplified exhaustion. The results further revealed that customer verbal aggression and emotional dissonance intensified turnover intentions. As expected, emotional exhaustion reduced service recovery performance and job satisfaction and aggravated turnover intentions.Research limitations/implications -The cross-sectional design of the study constrains the ability to make causal inferences. Therefore, future studies using longitudinal designs would be beneficial in establishing causal relationships. Although the paper controlled for common method bias via Harman's single-factor test, future studies using multiple sources for data collection would minimize such a problem. Practical implications -Hotel managers need to arrange training programmes to enable their employees to cope with the actions of boisterous and boorish customers. Having empowerment in the workplace seems to be an important weapon in managing such customers. In addition, managers should recruit and select the most suitable individuals for frontline service positions so that such employees can cope with difficulties associated with customer verbal aggression, emotional dissonance, and emotional exhaustion. Originality/value -Empirical evidence pertaining to the consequences of customer verbal aggression in the hospitality management and marketing literatures is meagre. Thus the stu...

Sexualisation and harassment in hospitality workplaces: who is responsible?

“…In a study of students on supervised work experience in the United Kingdom (UK), Worsfold and McCann (2000) also observed that employees may think they need to flirt or behave sexually at work, which may be reciprocated by customers. Management's high expectations of customer satisfaction can explicitly condone difficult customer behaviours, particularly in settings that offer both alcohol and anonymity (Worsfold and McCann, 2000, Pritchard and Morgan, 2006, Poulston, 2008a, Karatepe et al, 2009) such as many bars and nightclubs. Sadaraka et al's (2015) study extended Folgerø and Fjeldstad's (1995) work by showing that female dancers in the Cook Islands gradually changed their attire to become more sexually provocative, to fit in with the norms of the dancing group.…”

A case study on service recovery: Frontline employees’ perspectives and the role of empowerment

“…Their findings suggest that regarding service recovery performance organisational support is more efficient when one differentiates between high-and low-performing frontline employees. Karatepe et al (2009) found the emotional dissonance and emotional exhaustion among hotel employees to be significant outcomes of customer verbal aggression. Recent studies have also found that emotional exhaustion (Karatepe et al, 2009) and surface acting (Kim et al, 2012), referring to faking the expected emotions, decreased service recovery performance.…”

“…Karatepe et al (2009) found the emotional dissonance and emotional exhaustion among hotel employees to be significant outcomes of customer verbal aggression. Recent studies have also found that emotional exhaustion (Karatepe et al, 2009) and surface acting (Kim et al, 2012), referring to faking the expected emotions, decreased service recovery performance. To the contrary, frontline hotel employee emotional intelligence and genuine attempts to experience positive emotions (Kim et al 2012), as well as perceived organisational support (Karatepe, 2012), have been found to relate positively and increase the service recovery performance.…”

“…discounts or room upgrades), prompt explanations of the situation to the customers and apologizing. The very few studies from the perspective of employee recovery in the hotel field have paid attention to how customer aggression affects the employees (Karatepe, Yorganci & Haktanir, 2009) (Karatepe, 2012;Kim et al, 2012) service recovery performance. Johnston and Michel (2008) recognise the key role of frontline employees in the service recovery process, as they are usually the targets of customer complaints, but sometimes the employee may not even be authorised to solve the failure (Bowen and Johnston, 1999).…”

“…Additionally, to the best of our knowledge, except for the study of Bowen and Johnston (1999), all the other studies on employee recovery represent a quantitative research approach, lacking the voice of the employees. In earlier studies, the data are collected from employees of four and/or five star hotels (Karatepe et al 2009;Kim et al 2012), which are often large in size. Hence, in this study, a qualitative approach is applied, aiming to achieve further insights into the personnel's perceptions and feelings on service recovery.…”