Evil customers, an angel boss and coopetitive coworkers: Burnout of frontline employees

Abstract

The customer is not always right, but he or she is always the customer. Building on the cognitive appraisal theory, a multilevel design was adopted to examine how customer incivility arouses burnout of frontline employees in resort retail stores and in turn jeopardizes their brand commitment. The moderating effects of workplace dynamics, including managers’ emotional intelligence and customer orientation as well as coopetitive coworker climates, are also examined. A mixed result implies that an angel manager to employees will alleviate the stress induced by uncivil customers, while an angel manager to customers could unexpectedly add to the pressure on the sales force. In addition, customer-induced burnout is reduced by cooperative coworkers but not exacerbated by intra-team competition. This study advances the research on hospitality frontline employees’ workplace distress by investigating a tripartite customer–manager–coworker dynamic and provides managerial insights for service industries to improve employees’ psychological well-being.