The effect of customer incivility on employees' turnover intention in hospitality industry: A chain mediating effect of emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction

Abstract

This study explores a chain mediating model examining how employees' emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction mediate the relationship between customer incivility and employees' turnover intention. Analyzing data from 452 employees using hierarchical regression method and PROCESS Macro, it finds that customer incivility had a significant negative effect on employees' job satisfaction, and had a significant positive effect on emotional exhaustion and turnover intention. Emotional exhaustion had a negative impact on job satisfaction and a positive impact on turnover intention. And job satisfaction had a negative effect on turnover intention. Additionally, employees' emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction had a significant chain mediating effect on the impact of customer incivility on employees' turnover intention. This study evaluated the chain effect of customer incivility in the Chinese hospitality industry, which further affected employee turnover intention. These findings provided theoretical and practical implications for hospitality researchers and practitioners.