Influence of Customer Verbal Aggression on Turnover Intentions: the Moderating Effect of PsyCap

Abstract

Customer misbehaviors directed against service providers, resulting in the bad emotional responses and work withdrawal behavior of the service workers. This study examined within-individual relationships among customer verbal aggression, employee emotional labor strategies and turnover intention, as well as the moderating role of Psychological Capital(PsyCap). Two hundred front-line workers of call centers completed two phases surveys during a week period. Results of hierarchical linear models revealed that employees’ turnover intention worsened when employees encountered customer verbal aggression but both surface acting and deep acting mediated this relationship. Results also revealed that employees engaged in more deep acting and less surface acting when they have high level PsyCap. Further, turnover intention also reduced when employees have high level PsyCap. These results suggest that service oriented enterprises(such as call center) should attach great importance to employees’ turnover intention from the perspective of customer behavior, and improve the level of employees’ PsyCap in order to reduce employees’ turnover intention efficiently.