Bad Hair Day? The Role of Self-consciousness on Coping with Embarrassing Service Encounters

Abstract

The paper studies the importance of self-consciousness (public and private) on the types of coping strategy deployed in the face of an embarrassing service encounter. Using a quasi-experimental design, results indicate that in individuals high on public self-consciousness are more likely to engage in active coping in comparison to their low public self-consciousness counterparts. Findings also show that avoidance coping strategy impinges on the service encounter and represent an important opportunity for firms to offer more ways to encourage customers to voice out their dissatisfaction with service failure. The work described in this conference paper was fully funded by a grant from the College of Professional and Continuing Education, an affiliate of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University.