Co-worker and customer incivility on employee well-being: Roles of helplessness, social support at work and psychological detachment- a study among frontline hotel employees

Abstract

The current study based on the Affective Events Theory attempted to empirically examine how different types of workplace incivility affect employees' well-being and whether helplessness functions as a mediator. The study also analyses the conditional role of workplace social support and psychological detachment in the relationship between two types of incivility and feeling of helplessness. The two types of workplace incivility that this study looked at were co-worker and customer incivility. To test the hypotheses, the study collected data through a structured questionnaire, and responses were collected randomly from three hundred and fifty frontline hotel employees. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to evaluate the scale's psychometric properties, and structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to test the proposed study hypotheses. The findings showed that employee well-being is negatively impacted by both types of incivility, with helplessness serving as an important mediator in this association. Moderating effect of social support at work in the relationship between two types of workplace incivility and helplessness were found. However, the study found support for the moderating role of psychological detachment in the relationship between customer incivility and helplessness only. The study has vital theoretical implications and provides valuable guidelines for hotel managers to reduce the adverse effects of incivility at work on employees.