Customer aggression and organizational turnover among service employees. The moderating role of distributive justice and organizational pride
| Date | 06 November 2017 |
| Published date | 06 November 2017 |
| Pages | 1672-1688 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/PR-06-2016-0145 |
| Author | Muhammad Kashif,Anna Zarkada,Ramayah Thurasamy |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour,Global HRM |
Customer aggression and
organizational turnover among
service employees
The moderating role of distributive justice and
organizational pride
Muhammad Kashif
GIFT University, Gujranwala, Pakistan
Anna Zarkada
Department of Business Administration,
Athens University of Economics and Business, Athens, Greece, and
Ramayah Thurasamy
School of Management, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Minden, Malaysia
Abstract
Purpose –The episodes of customer rage with employees during service encounters are common and
adversely affect the long-term commitment of employees with an organization. The service organizations,
in an effort to control employee turnover, are striving hard but have failed. There are a wide variety of studies
that address employee turnover but the research which encapsulates a combined effect of perceived justice
and organizational pride to study exhaustion-turnover path are almost scant. The purpose of this paper is to
explore the effects of customer aggression on the frontline food service managers’emotional exhaustion and
turnover intentions. The mitigating effects of perceived distributive justice and emotional organizational
pride are also investigated.
Design/methodology/approach –Survey data were collected from 250 frontline employees of global fast
food chain outlets located in the city of Lahore, Pakistan. The data were analyzed using structural equation
modeling by AMOS.
Findings –The customer aggression is found to influence emotional exhaustion which in turn reduces job
satisfaction and increases turnover intentions among frontline food service managers. The mitigating effects
of distributive justice on the customer aggression to emotional exhaustion path and of emotional
organizational pride on the job satisfaction to turnover intentions path are confirmed.
Practical implications –The results reveal importance of maintaining a supportive and justice-oriented
organizational culture. Rewarding frontliners, celebrating the organizational successes that build pride, and
acknowledging the emotional burden misbehaving customers place on employees are identified as shields to
guard against employee dissatisfaction and turnover.
Originality/value –The turnover intentions resulting from the emotional exhaustion caused by customer
aggression in the global fast food industry is studied for the first time. Furthermore, the inclusion of
distributive justice and emotional organizational pride as cognitive and affective factors that reduce the
effects of customer aggression on frontliners is unique to this study.
Keywords Pakistan, Distributive justice, Emotional exhaustion, Fast food, Food service managers,
Customer aggression, Emotional pride
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
In a world with highly competitive services sectors where customers have choices
to select or reject service brands, the incidents of customer abuse with frontline service
staff are common –a situation commonly referred as customer misbehavior (Kashif and
Zarkada, 2015). The customer aggression can take several forms; however, verbal
aggression is most common in people-intensive service settings causing discomfort
among customer service employees (Li and Zhou, 2013). This is also true for the
Personnel Review
Vol. 46 No. 8, 2017
pp. 1672-1688
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0048-3486
DOI 10.1108/PR-06-2016-0145
Received 27 June 2016
Revised 14 November 2016
Accepted 6 March 2017
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0048-3486.htm
1672
PR
46,8
hospitality industry (Karatepe et al., 2009). The customer misbehavior/aggression is not
limited to a single context (industry or country) instead, it is prevalent i n almost all type of
service jobs –all across the globe and has been given a priority to investigate its
determinants to counter the negative consequences at work (Kraimer et al., 2014).
The customer aggression can be studied through a handful of theories however we
base the construct of customer aggression on the conservation of resources (COR) theory
(Hobfoll, 1989). The choice of theory is based on several logical reasons. First, the employees
are considered brands for their respective service organizations and their retention helps
companies to really differentiate from other competing brands (King and Grace, 2010).
In accordance with the COR theory, employees are resources –their motivation, skills,
knowledge, pride in work, and attitude. These resources can easily be wasted once there
are frequent episodes of customer aggression or misbehavior during service encounters
(Echeverri et al., 2012). However, based on the episode of customer aggression, employees
lessen their energies and limit it with the passageof time to avoid uncomfortable situations at
work (König et al., 2010). In this regard, employeesreact in several ways to counter customer
aggression which includes avoiding misbehaving customers in future while on the other
side, withholding voluntary work behaviors (such as organizational citizenship behavior).
These circumstances can have worst consequences for service organizations such as
organizationalturnover that can kill the corporatebrand equity (Wheeler et al., 2006).It is also
important to studycustomer aggression and its darkeffects on employee turnover intentions
in people-intensive service jobs as frontliners are required to demonstrate socially desirable
behaviors (Hochschild, 2012) –difficult to demonstrate in cases where employees are
emotionally exhausted.
The global fast food industry, a rapidly growing and fiercely competitive one, faces an
increase in customer aggression with frontline service employees as do other sectors of the wider
hospitality sector (Karatepe et al., 2009). Thus, investigating the consequences of customer
misbehavior in order to find ways to reduce its negative impact on the workforce and the
businesses has been noted as a research priority (Kraimer et al., 2014). The hospitality brands, in
an effort to establish their foothold in the face of strong competition, are striving hard to ensure
service quality (Kashif et al., 2015) which can be easily damaged by a demoralized workforce.
The employee turnover is a burning issue in the services sector and is attributed to
several individual as well as organizational factors (Flint et al., 2013). From an internal
organizational perspective, the employee motivation is dependent upon their perceptions of
fairness –the extent to which employees perceive they are fairly treated (Folger and
Cropanzano, 2001). The fairness theory advocates the need to treat employees fairly.
For instance, motivation to perform the job and an exhibition of a positive attitude among
frontline employees working in hotels helps them to minimize work-related depression
(Karatepe and Zargar Tizabi, 2011) and is a product of their treatment withinorganizations.
This is also advocated under the service profit chain model where a positive work culture
promotes service-oriented behaviors by frontliners –ultimately leading to customer
satisfaction and profitability (Heskett and Schlesinger, 1994). The positive perception of
fairness and justice among employees has the potential to reduce the negative effects of
customer aggression which may otherwise cause emotional exhaustion among employees
working in food and beverage organizations (Zopiatis and Orphanides, 2009). This can
otherwise lead to turnover intent among employees (Hur et al., 2014). The positive justice
perceptions among employees reduce the effects of unjust behavior at the workplace while
negative justice perceptions lead to employee turnover intentions (Flint et al., 2013).
However, does perception of justice reduce the emotional exhaustion caused by customer
aggression? –A gap in literature we aspire to fill in by the conduct of this study. There are
limited numbers of studies published where organizational pride has also been linked to
reduce the emotional exhaustion among service workers (Kraemer and HJ Gouthier, 2014).
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aggression and
organizational
turnover
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