Tags

Type your tag names separated by a space and hit enter

Service staff encounters with dysfunctional customer behavior: Does supervisor support mitigate negative emotions?
Front Psychol. 2022; 13:987428.FP

Abstract

Dysfunctional customer behavior is common in service settings. For frontline employees, negative encounters can cause short-term despondency or have profound, long-term psychological effects that often result in both direct and indirect costs to service firms. Existing research has explored the influence of dysfunctional customer behavior on employee emotions, but it has not fully investigated the psychological mechanism through which customer misbehavior transforms into employee responses. To maintain service quality and employee well-being, it is important to understand the impact of customer misconduct on employee emotions and its effect on subsequent service behavior. To assess the process through which dysfunctional customer behavior manifests as negative emotions in frontline service employees, and the influence of negative employee emotions on their prosocial service behavior, we surveyed 185 frontline banking service employees. We sought information on service employee experiences, attitudes, and feelings regarding dysfunctional customer behaviors, the perceived level of supervisor support, and employee prosocial service behavior intentions. Structural equation modeling and hierarchical linear modeling were used for statistical analysis and hypothesis verification. Results indicate that dysfunctional customer behavior has a positive relationship with bank service employee negative emotions and a negative influence on employee prosocial service behavior. The study found that negative emotions fully mediated the relationship between dysfunctional customer behavior and prosocial service behavior. The moderating role that perceived supervisor support plays on the relationships between dysfunctional customer behavior and negative emotion was also investigated. The results show that perceived supervisor support moderates the relationship between dysfunctional customer behavior and negative employee emotions. Finally, the study provides bank managers with effective strategies to assist frontline employees to manage and deter dysfunctional customer behavior, and presents employees with internal recovery strategies when encountering dysfunctional customer behavior.

Authors+Show Affiliations

School of Economics and Management, Weifang University of Science and Technology, Weifang, China.School of Economics and Management, Weifang University of Science and Technology, Weifang, China.School of Economics and Management, Weifang University of Science and Technology, Weifang, China.School of Economics and Management, Weifang University of Science and Technology, Weifang, China.

Pub Type(s)

Journal Article

Language

eng

PubMed ID

36106032

Citation

Xiao, Biyan, et al. "Service Staff Encounters With Dysfunctional Customer Behavior: Does Supervisor Support Mitigate Negative Emotions?" Frontiers in Psychology, vol. 13, 2022, p. 987428.
Xiao B, Liang C, Liu Y, et al. Service staff encounters with dysfunctional customer behavior: Does supervisor support mitigate negative emotions? Front Psychol. 2022;13:987428.
Xiao, B., Liang, C., Liu, Y., & Zheng, X. (2022). Service staff encounters with dysfunctional customer behavior: Does supervisor support mitigate negative emotions? Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 987428. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.987428
Xiao B, et al. Service Staff Encounters With Dysfunctional Customer Behavior: Does Supervisor Support Mitigate Negative Emotions. Front Psychol. 2022;13:987428. PubMed PMID: 36106032.
* Article titles in AMA citation format should be in sentence-case
TY - JOUR T1 - Service staff encounters with dysfunctional customer behavior: Does supervisor support mitigate negative emotions? AU - Xiao,Biyan, AU - Liang,Cuijing, AU - Liu,Yitong, AU - Zheng,Xiaojing, Y1 - 2022/08/29/ PY - 2022/07/06/received PY - 2022/08/08/accepted PY - 2022/9/15/entrez PY - 2022/9/16/pubmed PY - 2022/9/16/medline KW - customer misbehavior KW - dysfunctional customer behavior KW - negative emotion KW - perceived supervisor support KW - prosocial service behavior SP - 987428 EP - 987428 JF - Frontiers in psychology JO - Front Psychol VL - 13 N2 - Dysfunctional customer behavior is common in service settings. For frontline employees, negative encounters can cause short-term despondency or have profound, long-term psychological effects that often result in both direct and indirect costs to service firms. Existing research has explored the influence of dysfunctional customer behavior on employee emotions, but it has not fully investigated the psychological mechanism through which customer misbehavior transforms into employee responses. To maintain service quality and employee well-being, it is important to understand the impact of customer misconduct on employee emotions and its effect on subsequent service behavior. To assess the process through which dysfunctional customer behavior manifests as negative emotions in frontline service employees, and the influence of negative employee emotions on their prosocial service behavior, we surveyed 185 frontline banking service employees. We sought information on service employee experiences, attitudes, and feelings regarding dysfunctional customer behaviors, the perceived level of supervisor support, and employee prosocial service behavior intentions. Structural equation modeling and hierarchical linear modeling were used for statistical analysis and hypothesis verification. Results indicate that dysfunctional customer behavior has a positive relationship with bank service employee negative emotions and a negative influence on employee prosocial service behavior. The study found that negative emotions fully mediated the relationship between dysfunctional customer behavior and prosocial service behavior. The moderating role that perceived supervisor support plays on the relationships between dysfunctional customer behavior and negative emotion was also investigated. The results show that perceived supervisor support moderates the relationship between dysfunctional customer behavior and negative employee emotions. Finally, the study provides bank managers with effective strategies to assist frontline employees to manage and deter dysfunctional customer behavior, and presents employees with internal recovery strategies when encountering dysfunctional customer behavior. SN - 1664-1078 UR - https://www.unboundmedicine.com/medline/citation/36106032/Service_staff_encounters_with_dysfunctional_customer_behavior:_Does_supervisor_support_mitigate_negative_emotions DB - PRIME DP - Unbound Medicine ER -
Try the Free App:
Prime PubMed app for iOS iPhone iPad
Prime PubMed app for Android
Prime PubMed is provided
free to individuals by:
Unbound Medicine.