Does customer aggression more strongly affect happy employees? The moderating role of positive affectivity and extraversion

Abstract

Customer abusive behavior has been found to be a major source of stress for service workers. The main purpose of the present research was to investigate the moderating role of positive affectivity (PA) on the relationship between customer verbal aggression and organizational outcomes. Three studies, based on three separate samples of service employees (Study 1: N = 187; Study 2: N = 422, Study 3: N = 156) demonstrated that frequency of customer aggression was a strong predictor of job-induced tension, job-related attitudes and emotional dissonance even after controlling for negative affectivity. A primary finding of this research was that positive disposition of employees did not reduce the negative consequences of interactions with aggressive customers, but rather increased them. The research provides additional support for the notion that positive disposition can be associated with unfavorable organizational outcomes in certain situation. The results also point out that those who are more likely to be negatively affected by frequent interactions with aggressive customers, are the very service workers that organizations tend to value most. Implications for management and future research are discussed.