How Gig Worker Responds to Negative Customer Treatment: The Effects of Work Meaningfulness and Traits of Psychological Resilience

The negative interpersonal interaction between customers and platform gig workers has become a problem for platform owners and government. This study investigates the role of negative customer treatment in the context of gig work and its impact on gig workers’ sabotage behavior. A questionnaire survey approach was used in the study, collected three-wave survey data from 258 Chinese gig workers including food-deliver platform workers and app-based ride-hailing drivers. Both effects of the mediation and moderation were tested, all of which find support, using hierarchical multiple regression by SPSS22.0. Results indicate that negative customer treatment can also predict gig workers’ service sabotage through work meaningfulness. Furthermore, positive customer treatment acted as an effective safeguard against the effects of negative customer treatment on employee service sabotage. Trait psychological resilience can also mitigate the effects of a low level of work meaningfulness. The manuscript’s focus provides an interesting angle to the previous research, especially the inclusion of work meaningfulness and trait resilience, on negative customer treatment in the context of gig work. This study contributes to further broaden the perspective of conservation of resource (COR) theory for individual intrinsic motivation analysis. Practical implications for platform management and government governance have also been discussed in this manuscript.

Work stressors and job outcomes: an empirical investigation of frontline service employees in the Indian hospitality industry

PurposeThe study aims to investigate the relationship between work stressors (abusive supervision and dysfunctional customer behaviour) and several job outcomes such as service sabotage, job satisfaction and intention to quit among frontline employees in the Indian hospitality industry. It also explores the mediating role of emotional exhaustion explaining the indirect effect between the work stressors and the job outcomes.Design/methodology/approachThis is a multi-wave (data collected at two time points) cross-sectional survey study. In order to test the study hypotheses, the study draws responses from frontline employees working in several hotels and restaurants in India. The final sample of 274 was analysed using SmartPLS and Statistical Product and Service Solutions (SPSS).FindingsResults report that both the work stressors were significantly related to the job outcomes in the direction suggested in the literature. Also, the indirect effect between the work stressors and the job outcomes via emotional exhaustion were found to be significant.Originality/valueThe present study makes two unique contributions to the extant literature; first, it conceptualizes and empirically tests the pernicious impact of multiple work stressors like abusive supervisor and dysfunctional customer behaviour on the job outcomes of frontline hospitality industry employees. Second, it is the only study to investigate the relationship between the two work stressors and service sabotage in the Indian hospitality industry.

Dysfunctional Customer Behavior, Employee Service Sabotage, and Sustainability: Can Social Support Make a Difference?

In a restaurant industry, dysfunctional customer behavior damages customer-contact service employees’ mental health which may lead to employee defection. This study examined the effects of dysfunctional customer behavior on service employees’ service sabotage which is a mechanisms for protecting themselves from outside pressures. Additionally, it determined if emotional exhaustion plays a mediating role in the relationship between dysfunctional customer behavior and employees’ service sabotage and verified the moderating role of social support. The proposed model was tested empirically using the data from 329 restaurant customer-contact service employees in South Korea. The results indicated that dysfunctional customer behavior increased the incidence of employees’ service sabotage. Moreover, emotional exhaustion was a significant mediator in the link from dysfunctional customer behavior to employees’ service sabotage. In addition, social support moderated the effects of dysfunctional customer behavior on service sabotage. This study provides insights into the effects of dysfunctional customer behavior and methods of supporting employees socially.

Individual-level absorptive capacity and multidimensional work behavior in tourism

PurposeThis study aimed to advance the understanding of employees' individual-level absorptive capacity by examining the mechanisms of three dimensions of their work outcomes: contextual performance, citizenship behaviors toward customers and service sabotage. Drawing on the theory of psychological ownership, the author theorized and assessed how employees' individual-level absorptive capacity predicts different facets of employees' work outcomes through psychological ownership.Design/methodology/approachMultisource data were collected from 334 subordinates from the hospitality industry in Taiwan over two time periods. The hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling, the results of which indicated that employees' individual-level absorptive capacity was positively related to psychological ownership.FindingsPsychological ownership positively predicted contextual performance and citizenship behaviors toward customers; however, it was negatively associated with service sabotage. Finally, it was found to mediate the effects of employees' individual-level absorptive capacity on contextual performance, citizenship behaviors toward customers and service sabotage.Originality/valueThis study contributed to understanding the relationship between individual-level absorptive capacity and shaping perceptions of service workers and provided several theoretical implications for absorptive capacity and tourism literature.

Cost of Serving Others: A Moderated Mediation Model of OCB, Ego Depletion, and Service Sabotage

Taking support from ego-depletion theory, this study examines ego depletion as a mechanism that explains how employees’ organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) leads to antagonistic consequences, i.e., service sabotage. Employees’ positive psychological capital (PsyCap) is considered a moderator. PROCESS macro was used to test all the hypotheses using time-lagged, dyadic data collected from 420 employees and their 112 their supervisors associated with the service industry in China. This study finds that employees’ exhibition of OCB is positively linked to ego depletion, which in turn drives service sabotage behavior. Furthermore, employees’ PsyCap weakens the effect of OCB on employees’ ego depletion. This study highlights the dark side of OCB, the mechanism through which it causes adverse effects, and the moderating effect of PsyCap. It also provides insights to the organizations for managing service sector employees to effectively interact with customers.

Employees’ sabotage formation in upscale hotels based on conservation of resources theory (COR): antecedents and strategies of attachment intervention

Purpose Rooted in conservation of resources (COR) theory (frequently applied to conflict and stress). The purpose of this study is to classify customer stressors into dysfunctional attitude and behavior and proposes strategies, such as parent and colleague attachment, as a resource pool to prevent employees’ sabotage behavior. Design/methodology/approach A two-step method was adopted by the suggestion from Anderson and Gerbing (1998) with an on-site survey carried out within ten upscale hotels. Findings Study results indicated that dysfunctional customers significantly influence service sabotage through job burnout and depression. In addition, attachment was demonstrated as an effective strategy by examining its moderating effects. Research limitations/implications Theoretically, the mechanism of sabotage formation was clarified as external customers’ factors (i.e. dysfunctional attitude and behavior) as well as internal psychological factors (i.e. negative states such as burnout and depression). Practically, the attachment (i.e. colleagues and parents) was identified as an effective moderator for preventing sabotage, although only in the early stage (i.e. depression stage). Originality/value For the first time, the current study attempts to explain the sabotage formation process by using COR with the integration of intervention.

The Impact of Environmental Stimuli on Hotel Service Employees’ Service Sabotage—Mediation Role of Emotional Intelligence and Emotional Dissonance

While scholarly inquiries into Service Sabotage (SS) have received ample attention in the literature of various industries, the role of Emotional Intelligence (EI) and Emotional Dissonance (ED) in employee-customer relations in the context of Environmental Stimuli (ES) in the tourism accommodation sector has remained unexplored. The role of employee–customer interaction in tourism is paramount for a hospitality organization’s growth, sustainability, and profitability. We hypothesized hotel service employees’ EI and ED can be influential factors to SS. Adopting the Mehrabian–Russell model (M–R) and Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) framework as conceptual paradigms, we tested the effect of hotel ambiance on employees’ emotions, which can have significant effects on SS. The study revealed that ES links to behaviors and elicits EI and ED as human emotional responses to environments that have a parallel mediating effect on mitigating or neutralizing the negative effect of SS in an organization. The findings provide important insights into an organization’s awareness of the provision of ES as a positive factor for employees, subsequently forming their behavioral consequences of EI and ED which can mitigate the negative impacts of SS. The study yields important implications on how hospitality organizations should pay attention to the impact of rule-breaking behaviors. Theoretical and practical implications are also discussed.