The relationship between customer mistreatment and workplace deviance: mediating and moderating effects

Abstract

ABSTRACT Customer mistreatment is common in service interactions. Past research has demonstrated its detrimental effects on employee well-being and work outcomes. Using cognitive-motivational-relational theory as our theoretical lens, we proposed a dual moderated mediation model that examines employee deviant behaviours towards both the customer (service sabotage) and the organization (organizational deviance) in reaction to customer mistreatment through employee anger. We further examined the cognitive (self-accountability attribution) and affective (socio-affective sharing) moderators in this mediation process. Data were collected from 292 front-line service employee-co-worker dyads from Taiwan and analysed using structural equation modelling. Bootstrapping procedures were used in estimating the bias-corrected confidence intervals for the hypothesized moderated mediation. The results indicated that employee anger mediated the relationship between customer mistreatment and employee organizational deviant behaviour. Also, self-accountability attribution interacted with customer mistreatment in influencing employee anger. Additionally, socio-affective sharing interacted with employee anger in influencing service sabotage. The mediating effect of customer mistreatment on service sabotage via employee anger was only significant when socio-affective sharing was low. In contrast, the mediating effect on organizational deviance was nonsignificant when socio-affective sharing was low or when employee self-attribution of accountability was very high. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.