Render good for evil? The relationship between customer mistreatment and customer-oriented citizenship behavior

Abstract

This research examines when and how employees might (or might not) engage in customer-oriented citizenship behavior after experiencing customer mistreatment. Drawing upon attribution theory and social exchange theory, we propose that customer mistreatment is more positively related to employee guilt when employees have a higher (rather than a lower) level of self-attribution, and is less negatively related to employee forgiveness toward customers when employees have a lower (rather than a higher) level of self-attribution. In turn, increased employee guilt is associated with more customer-oriented citizenship behavior, whereas decreased employee forgiveness toward customers is associated with less customer-oriented citizenship behavior. Empirical data collected from 151 service employees in China, using a survey design (Study 1), and from 393 Western workers, using an experimental design (Study 2), support our hypotheses. Our work contributes to the customer mistreatment literature and has implications for service practice.