Workplace incivility and its effect upon restaurant frontline service employee emotions and service performance

Abstract

Purpose This study aims to acquire a better understanding about consequences of workplace incivility upon restaurant frontline service employees caused by customers, supervisors and coworkers. The moderating roles of perceived organizational support (POS) and emotion regulation ability (ERA) were also tested to determine the possibility for reducing the negative effect of workplace incivility upon the emotional exhaustion of restaurant frontline service employees. Design/methodology/approach Using data obtained from 239 restaurant frontline service employees, a 35-item instrument was used to assess workplace incivility and its effects upon emotional exhaustion, perceived service performance, POS and ERA. A structural equation model was used to test hypotheses. The multi-group approach was used to investigate the moderating effects POS and ERA have upon the relationships between workplace incivility, emotional exhaustion and perceived service performance. Findings Results documented that workplace incivility significantly increases emotional exhaustion and further leads to low levels of job service performance. Customer incivility was especially found to have the strongest power for increasing emotional exhaustion, followed by supervisor incivility. Also, results confirmed that POS and ERA play significant roles in moderating the relationships between workplace incivility, emotional exhaustion and perceived service performance. Based upon this study’s findings, theoretical and practical implications are offered for developing successful employee management strategies. Practical implications Results suggest specific practical management implications pertaining to restaurant frontline service employees. This study’s research findings recommend the development of more efficient support programs designed to diffuse potential situations involving workplace incivility. Findings further highlight the important role employee ERA has upon the effects of incivility and frontline service performance. Implications are provided with respect to specific strategic direction management should consider to recruit and select the most appropriate employees for restaurant frontline service positions. Originality/value The current study’s conceptual research was developed in an attempt to simultaneously address all three dimensions of workplace incivility to examine how they affect employee emotions and their job performance.

Linking Tolerance to Workplace Incivility, Service Innovative, Knowledge Hiding, and Job Search Behavior: The Mediating Role of Employee Cynicism

“…Scholars (e.g., Hur et al, 2016) revealed a negative relationship between incivility and service employees' creativity, and this link was mediated by emotional exhaustion in South Korean hotels. Cho, Bonn, Han, and Lee (2016) also documented that incivility increases emotional exhaustion, which lowers job service performance of restaurants employees in the United States. Tolerance to incivility was linked with increased workplace withdrawal (Loi et al, 2015), and organizational support has been associated with increased innovation (Ma Prieto & Pilar Perez-Santana, 2014).…”

Customer incivility and service sabotage in the hotel industry

“…First, we advance current knowledge on customer incivility by examining its consequences (i.e., service sabotage). Some scholars have explored the adverse effects of customer incivility on employees in various service industries, such as retail (Kern and Grandey, 2009;Wilson and Holmvall, 2013), department stores (Hur et al, 2015), call centers (van Jaarsveld et al, 2010), banks (Sliter et al, 2010;Sliter et al, 2012), insurance companies (Walker et al, 2014), and restaurants (Cho et al, 2016;Han et al, 2016;Kim and Qu, 2019;Wilson and Holmvall, 2013). However, only a few of them focused on hotel service employees (Hur et al, 2016;Torres et al, 2017).…”

The Relationship between Workplace Incivility and Helping Behavior: Roles of Job Dissatisfaction and Political Skill

“…First, we apply COR theory to demonstrate that workplace incivility hampers people's propensity to assist coworkers voluntarily, through the influence of reduced positive energy toward and enthusiasm about their job (Penney & Spector, 2005;Welbourne, Gangadharan, & Esparza, 2016). When employees feel frustrated about how they are treated by other organizational members, they may doubt their long-term career prospects with the organization, experience emotional resource drainage, and feel unhappy about their work (Cho, Bonn, Han, & Lee, 2016;Sliter et al, 2012). Such negative feelings in turn may provide employees with an excuse for not undertaking helping activities that could contribute to the success of others but that are not formally required (Foote & Tang, 2008;Lu et al, 2013).…”