How can Supervisors Help Frontline Employees Deal with Customer Mistreatment? An Abstract

Abstract

Customer mistreatment of frontline employees (FLEs) is a widespread phenomenon and is detrimental to employee well-being driving increased job stress, work withdrawal, and employee incivility (Wang et al. 2011). To date, research in this field has focused on exploring the antecedents and conditions that trigger customer mistreatment of FLEs, mapping the reactions and consequences of customer mistreatment of FLEs. The role of supervisory interventions in managing the immediate impact on FLEs from such disruptive experiences has yet to be addressed, despite constituting the only proximal resource that can be enacted to help FLEs cope with in-progress episodes of customer mistreatment (Zhan et al. 2014). Drawing on the premises of the job demands–resources (JD-R) and conservation of resources (COR) frameworks, the current research employs an experimental methodology and explores how two of the most common forms of customer mistreatment toward FLEs (verbal aggression and demand for untenable service levels) affect FLEs’ psychological and behavioral reactions. In addition, the buffering effect of three supervisor leadership styles on FLEs’ psychological reactions and behavioral intentions following customer mistreatment is investigated.