Abstract
In the past, the research on complaints mainly focused on employee-employer dichotomy, focusing on the impact of employee complaints on employee performance. But in the actual work, front-line service workers and consumers have a lot of service contacts. If consumers witness complaints from front-line service workers, what impact will it have on corporate brand attitude? Based on the third-party perception perspective and the theory of moral justice, with perception of corporate morality as the mediating variable, this paper verifies that perceived corporate controllability by first-line service employees’ complaints can significantly affect consumer brand attitude, and introduces the boundary condition of perceived employee complaints. When perceived employee complaints are health factors, the more controllable the first-line service employees’ complaints are perceived. The higher the perceived corporate ethics, the lower the consumer brand attitude. When perceived employee complaints are motivating factors, there is no difference in the impact of perceived corporate controllability and low perceived employee complaints on consumer brand attitude. The paper examines the impact of corporate controllability on consumers perceived by the complaints of front-line service employees witnessed by consumers. It also studies the spillover effect of employee complaints from the perspective of third-party perception, which has important guiding value for guiding the management of front-line service employees and sustainable development.
Highlights
Complaints are common in social life, for example, people often express their dissatisfaction with others
When perceived employee complaints are motivating factors, there is no difference in the impact of perceived corporate controllability and low perceived employee complaints on consumer brand attitude
When perceived employee complaints are health factors, witnessing front-line service employees complain that perceived corporate controllability has a significant impact on consumer brand attitude; when perceived employee complaints are incentive factors, witnessing front-line service employees complain that perceived corporate controllability has no significant impact on consumer brand attitude
Summary
Complaints are common in social life, for example, people often express their dissatisfaction with others. Employees often have a lot of grievances and dissatisfaction because of work or interpersonal problems, and complain about this dissatisfaction to the people around them in the workplace or in private. Among employees 1) complain about low salary, unfair distribution, bad working environment, unreasonable enterprise rules and regulations; 2) complain about the intensity of work, lack of dignity, lack of security and so on; 3) complain about tensions between superiors and subordinates or colleagues, or contradictions with other departments, which lead to many problems. If front-line service employees complain about each other in the workplace, consumers may see and hear such complaints. Especially the behavior of front-line service personnel, plays an important role in brand building [2]. Allowing consumers to witness complaints among front-line service employees may run counter to efforts to create brands through employees [3]
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