The development and validation of the Incivility from Customers Scale.

Abstract

Scant research has examined customers as sources of workplace incivility, despite evidence suggesting that mistreatment is more common from organizational outsiders, including customers, than from organizational members (Grandey, Kern, & Frone, 2007; Schat & Kelloway, 2005). As an important step in extending the literature on customer incivility, we conducted two studies to develop and validate a measure of this construct. Study 1 used focus groups of retail and restaurant employees (n = 30) to elicit a list of uncivil customer behaviors, based on which we wrote initial scale items. Study 2 used a correlational survey design (n = 439) to pare down the number of scale items to 10 and to garner reliability and validity evidence for the scale. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses show that the scale is unidimensional and distinguishable from measures of the related, but distinct, constructs of interpersonal justice and psychological aggression from customers. Reliability analyses show that the scale is internally consistent. Significant correlations between the scale and individuals' job satisfaction, turnover intentions, and general and job-specific psychological strain provide evidence of criterion-related validity. Hierarchical regression analyses show that the scale significantly predicts three of four organizational and personal strain outcomes over and above a workplace incivility measure adapted for customer incivility, providing some evidence of incremental validity. Limitations and future research directions are discussed.

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

“…For example, both Holmvall and Sidhu (2007) and Walsh (2011) demonstrated that customer mistreatment was negatively related to job satisfaction. Similarly, in a sample of employed Canadian university students working in retail services or restaurants, Wilson and Holmvall (2013) also found a negative association between customer mistreatment and job satisfaction. Moreover, Harris (2013) found that customer mistreatment was negatively associated with affective commitment.…”

“…Using a sample of nurses and a sample of public service workers, Merecz, Drabek, and Mo´scicka (2009) reported positive relationships between customer mistreatment and mental health problems, psychosomatic health complaints, and anxiety and insomnia. As another example, Wilson and Holmvall (2013) found that customer mistreatment was positively associated with jobrelated psychological strain. Yet, Sliter et al (2011) did not find a significant relationship between customer mistreatment and physical health complaints reported three months later.…”

“…Based on a sample of over 2,000 nurses in England, Deery, Walsh, and Guest (2011) demonstrated that nurses mistreated by clients or their families were almost twice as likely to intend to leave their jobs within the next year or sooner. Finally, Wilson and Holmvall (2013) reported that working university students who were mistreated more often expressed stronger intentions to leave their jobs. Corroborating these findings, Hershcovis and Barling (2010) reported a positive association between outsider aggression and turnover intentions in their meta-analysis.…”

“…Likewise, there have not been many studies providing comparative criterion-related validity evidence. One study of note is Wilson and Holmvall (2013), which provided discriminant validity evidence of a developed customer incivility scale, customer psychological aggression, and customer interpersonal injustice. Moreover, Wilson and Holmvall demonstrated that their developed customer incivility scale predicted employee outcomes above and beyond a workplace incivility scale adapted to the customer context.…”

The influence of workload and civility of treatment on the perpetration of email incivility

“…There are several scales to assess various aspects of incivility such as incivility from supervisors and coworkers (Cortina et al, 2001;Martin & Hine, 2005), incivility from customers (Wilson & Holmvall, 2013), and enacted incivility (Blau & Andersson, 2005). There are also studies that illustrate the incidence and nature of workplace incivility (e.g., Cortina et al, 2001;Lim & Cortina, 2005;MinerRubino & Cortina, 2004) and the outcomes of experienced incivility (e.g., Caza & Cortina, 2007;Giumetti et al, 2013;Lim & Teo, 2009;Lim et al, 2008).…”