Customer-related Social Stressors Research Articles

Job demands-resources on digital gig platforms and counterproductive work behavior

IntroductionWith the rapid expansion of digital gig platforms, counterproductive work behavior among gig workers has become increasingly prominent, adversely impacting the platform’s reputation, operational efficiency, and user experience. This study aims to explore how job demands and job resources influence counterproductive work behavior among gig workers.MethodsGrounded in the Job Demands-Resources model and Job Engagement Theory, this study develops a second-order chain mediation structural model to analyze the effects of job demands (Work pace/workload, physical demands, psychological demands, and customer-related social stressors) and job resources (Compensation, job security, learning opportunities, and opportunities for professional development) on counterproductive work behavior. Cognitive, emotional, and behavioral engagement are also examined as mediators.ResultsJob demands positively influence counterproductive work behavior, while job resources have a negative impact. Cognitive, emotional, and behavioral engagement each negatively affect counterproductive work behavior. Additionally, platform formalization moderates the negative influence of gig workers’ engagement on counterproductive work behavior.DiscussionThis research provides a comprehensive theoretical framework for digital gig platform managers to understand and predict gig workers’ counterproductive work behavior. It also offers practical implications for optimizing the work environment, enhancing job engagement, and mitigating counterproductive work behavior, thus fostering mutual development between gig workers and the platform.

Stressor, Abusive Supervision dan Tipe Kepribadian Terhadap Kelelahan Emosional

AbstractThe purpose of this study was to see how the influence of stressors from customers, abusive supervision and personality types on emotional fatigue experienced by frontliner employees at the hotel (N = 150). Current study used quatitative method. The scale used in this study is Customer-related Social Stressors, Abusive Supervision, Big Five Inventory (BFI). The results of this study indicate that only three independent variables were stated to significantly affect employee emotional exhaustion. Where the three variables are customer expectations that are not appropriate, verbal aggression from customers and abusive supervision.AbstractThe purpose of this study was to see how the influence of stressors from customers, abusive supervision and personality types on emotional fatigue experienced by frontliner employees at the hotel (N = 150). Current study used quatitative method. The scale used in this study is Customer-related Social Stressors, Abusive Supervision, Big Five Inventory (BFI). The results of this study indicate that only three independent variables were stated to significantly affect employee emotional exhaustion. Where the three variables are customer expectations that are not appropriate, verbal aggression from customers and abusive supervision.

고객 관련 사회적 스트레스 요인들은 호텔의 모든 고객접점직원들에게 동일한 영향을 미치는가? 정치기술의 주영향 및 완충영향 규명

고객 관련 사회적 스트레스 요인들은 호텔의 모든 고객접점직원들에게 동일한 영향을 미치는가? 정치기술의 주영향 및 완충영향 규명

From Customer-Related Social Stressors to Emotional Exhaustion: An Application of the Demands–Control Model

This study examines emotional intelligence (EI) as an additional moderator in the interactive effect of customer-related social stressors (CSS) (demands) and job autonomy (control) on emotional exhaustion by constructing a three-way interaction (EI × CSS × Autonomy) for the regression model of emotional exhaustion. Employees from hotels and restaurants in one metropolitan city in the United States participated in this study. The interactive effect of CSS and autonomy on exhaustion is shown among employees low in EI rather than high. Low EI employees experience greater exhaustion when they perceive low autonomy (stress exacerbating effect). When CSS is high, job autonomy is low, and EI is low, employees experience the highest level of emotional exhaustion. The findings support the proposition that individual characteristics, such as EI, add significant explanatory power to the job demands–control model (JDC) to understand occupational stress. Managerial and theoretical implications are provided based on the results.

The Role of Service Providers’ Resilience in Buffering the Negative Impact of Customer Incivility on Service Recovery Performance

In the service sector, customer-related social stressors may weaken employees’ well-being, impairing job-related outcomes. Drawing on the Conservation of Resources theory and on the psychology of sustainability, fostering personal resources become critical to encourage service providers who can effectively manage such job demands. This study investigated how customer-related social stressors and customer orientation influence service recovery performance and whether resilience buffers the negative effects of customer incivility on service recovery performance. One hundred and fifty-seven Italian customer-contact employees completed a questionnaire analyzing customer incivility, customer-related social stressors, resilience, customer orientation, and service recovery performance. Regression analyses and SEMs were conducted. Although all customer-related social stressors indirectly and negatively influenced service recovery performance by increasing burnout symptoms, customer incivility only exerted a direct and detrimental impact on service recovery performance. Customer orientation was directly and positively associated with service recovery performance. Highly resilient employees were less affected by variations in service recovery performance across customer incivility levels. Within the psychology of sustainability framework, promoting resilient workplaces is crucial to foster healthy and sustainable work settings. Service organizations can greatly benefit from providing their employees with psychological resilience training programs, cultivating high customer-oriented attitudes through mentoring sessions, and hiring highly customer-oriented and resilient employees for customer-contact occupations.

Customer Related Social Stressors and Mental Health of Sales Girls: Moderating role of Sexual Harassment

The current study explored the relationship between customer related social stressors and mental health among sales girls by analyzing the dynamics of functioning of sales girls at the job with thecustomer. The study was conducted using non-probability convenient sample consist of 200 sales girls including evening and morning shift, with the age range of 20 to 35 years (M= 24.86, SD= 3.59) with at least 6 monthssales job experience. The data collected from various Malls and shopping centers of Lahore. Customer Related Social Stressors (CSS) and Mental Health Continuum-Short Form (MHC-SF) were used as the data collection instruments. Pearson correlation and regression analysis was employed and the results showed that costumer related social stressors was found to be significantly negatively association with emotional wellbeing and social wellbeing whereas sexual harassment was found to be significantly negativelycorrelated with Social Wellbeing and Psychological Wellbeing. Sexual Harassment, Customer Related Social stressors and Interaction term of both were found to be negative and significant predictors of psychological wellbeing.

Does psychological capital make employees more fit to smile? The moderating role of customer-caused stressors in view of JD-R theory

This study draws on job demand-resource theory to examine the indirect effect of psychological capital (PsyCap) on emotional displays (i.e., positive affective delivery and breaking character) via emotional demands–abilities (ED–A) fit. The moderating effect of customer-related social stressors (CSS) was further assessed. 209 matched responses from airline frontline ground staff and their supervisors indicated that ED–A fit mediated the relationship between PsyCap and positive affective delivery. CSS amplified the relationship between ED–A fit and positive affective delivery. An analysis of moderated mediating effect indicated that the indirect effect of PsyCap on positive affective delivery via ED–A fit was stronger when CSS was high rather than when it was low. Finally, we discuss the implications of these findings, as well as limitations and avenues for future research.

Stressor effects of negative online reviews on anger and burnout in the restaurant industry

PurposeOwners, managers and employees may be criticized personally and professionally by consumers in online reviews, and may suffer emotional and burnout consequences. The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of customer-generated negative online reviews on hospitality employees.Design/methodology/approachThis research analyzed the effects of traditional face-to-face customer-related social stressors, as well as a newly added negative online review (NOR) stressor, on anger and burnout in a sample of 418 US hospitality workers.FindingsStructural equation modeling revealed that, after taking into account the contribution of customer-related social stressors, receipt of NORs predicts anger and anger mediates the relationships between NOR-receipt and two indices of burnout.Practical implicationsThis research extends our understanding of social stressors that apply to workers in the hospitality industry. It offers strategies for managing the threats and optimizing the opportunities, provided by negative online reviews.Originality/valueThis study is one of the first studies that provide evidence of the personal impact of NORs on hospitality industry employees, thereby extending our understanding of social stressors that apply to workers in this industry.

Explaining job satisfaction from the effects of customer-related social stressors and psychological capital perspectives

This study investigates the emotional labor of airline ground officers and their emotional work induced by customer-related social stressors. Further, the significance of psychological capital on job satisfaction is explored. A few studies have investigated emotional labor in the airline industry, but none of them have looked into the ground officers who often undertake even heavier emotional labor than any other employees in the industry. One hundred self-administered questionnaires were distributed to airline ground officers in South Korea, and a total of 87 samples were analyzed. The results suggest that customer-related social stressors had a positive relation to emotional dissonance. Emotional dissonance was found to be positively associated with the emotional exhaustion, and emotional exhaustion had a negative relation to job satisfaction. Psychological capital affected job satisfaction positively. This paper is expected to contribute to the existing literature in the tourism and hospitality industry in terms of emotional labor, and to help organizations to come up with policies to lessen job stressors among frontline service employees. In particular, measures to reduce or lessen customer-related social stressors, and to bolster or strengthen psychological capital at the organizational level may help both individuals and organizations to better manage dysfunctional customers, to secure loyal customers, and to enhance job satisfaction of ground officers.

Demographic Change and Job Satisfaction in Service Industries - The Role of Age and Gender on the Effects of Customer-Related Social Stressors on Affective Well-Being

Major changes in the working environment during the last decades have been the increased economic importance of the service sector, the aging workforce, and the growing proportion of women in the workforce. The aim of our study is to investigate how customer-related social stressors (CSS) interact with employees’ age and gender regarding employees’ affective stress reactions. We used a middle-term panel study across one week and a sample of police officers (N = 108) having everyday encounters with citizens. Results showed that CSS elicited changes in police officers’ negative affect, and this effect was moderated by gender and age. In particular, older police officers tend to react with weaker increases in negative affect than younger officers do. Similarly, female officers reacted less intensively to negative encounters with citizens than male officers. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for personnel selection and placement, for training, and for team composition.

학교급식 조리종사원의 고객지향성이 감정노동과 고객관련 스트레스에 미치는 영향 -대구·경북지역을 중심으로-

학교급식 조리종사원의 고객지향성이 감정노동과 고객관련 스트레스에 미치는 영향 -대구·경북지역을 중심으로-

If You Are Emotionally Intelligent: The effects of customer‐related social stressors on counterproductive work behavior for front‐line service employees

Recent literature in the area of employee–customer interactions suggests that stressful encounters contribute to negative outcomes for service employees. Few studies, however, have focused on the effects of customer‐related social stressors (CSS) on counterproductive work behavior (CWB) among front‐line service employees. The researchers tested a moderated mediation model of the effects of CSS on CWB with the key objective of exploring the mediation effects of emotional exhaustion and the moderating effects of emotional intelligence on this relationship. Based on a sample of 244 call center representatives in China, the research revealed that CSS led to emotional exhaustion, which, in turn, related to CWB for service employees. Furthermore, emotional intelligence acted as a buffer on the effects of CSS on CWB via emotional exhaustion.

Moderating Effects of Negative Emotion, Burnout and Customer Orientation of Service Staff due to CSS(customer-related social stressors)

Moderating Effects of Negative Emotion, Burnout and Customer Orientation of Service Staff due to CSS(customer-related social stressors)

Customer-Related Social Stressors

Abstract. The purpose of this study was to replicate the dimensions of the customer-related social stressors (CSS) concept across service jobs, to investigate their consequences for service providers’ well-being, and to examine emotional dissonance as mediator. Data of 20 studies comprising of different service jobs (N = 4,199) were integrated into a single data set and meta-analyzed. Confirmatory factor analyses and explorative principal component analysis confirmed four CSS scales: disproportionate expectations, verbal aggression, ambiguous expectations, disliked customers. These CSS scales were associated with burnout and job satisfaction. Most of the effects were partially mediated by emotional dissonance. Further analyses revealed that differences among jobs exist with regard to the factor solution. However, associations between CSS and outcomes are mainly invariant across service jobs.

The role of workaholism in the job demands-resources model

ABSTRACTBackground and Objectives: The present study tries to gain more insight in workaholism by investigating its antecedents and consequences using the job demands-resources model. Design: We hypothesized that job demands would be positively related to workaholism, particularly when job resources are low. In addition, we hypothesized that workaholism would be positively related to negative outcomes in three important life domains: health, family, and work. Methods: The research involved 617 Italian workers (employees and self-employed). To test the hypotheses we applied structural equation modeling (SEM) and moderated structural equation modeling (MSEM) using Mplus 6. Results: The results of SEM showed a good model where workload, cognitive demands, emotional demands, and customer-related social stressors were positively related to workaholism and work–family conflict (WFC) (partial mediation). Additionally, workaholism was indirectly related to exhaustion and intentions to change jobs through WFC. Moreover, MSEM analyses confirmed that job resources (job security and opportunities for development) buffered the relationship between job demands and workaholism. Particularly, the interaction effects were statistically significant in five out of eight combinations. Conclusions: These findings suggest that workaholism is a function of a suboptimal work environment and predicts unfavorable employee outcomes. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.

The relationship between customer-related social stressors and job outcomes: the mediating role of emotional exhaustion

Using the health impairment process of the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model as the theoretical framework, this study proposes and tests a research model that investigates the mediating role of emotional exhaustion in the relationship between customer-related social stressors and job outcomes. Job performance, extra-role customer service, and turnover intentions are three job outcomes used in the current study. Respondents were full-time frontline hotel employees in Cameroon. Data were obtained from these employees with a time lag of one month. The results of structural equation modelling (SEM) suggest that emotional exhaustion fully mediates the relationship between customer-related social stressors, as manifested by disproportionate customer expectations (DCE), customer verbal aggression (CVA), disliked customers (DC), and ambiguous customer expectations (ACE), and the aforementioned job outcomes. Specifically, the results suggest that the indicators of customer-related social stressors jointly affect emotional exhaustion that, in turn, leads to negative job outcomes such as poor job performance, reduced extra-role customer service, and increased turnover intentions.

Testing the stressor–strain–outcome model of customer-related social stressors in predicting emotional exhaustion, customer orientation and service recovery performance

The integrated perspective of human resource management (HRM) and service marketing (SM) on the emotional labor issue provides company managers with critical insight into how to create customer equity through effective management of their human capital. The objective of this study is to investigate the structural relationships among customer-related social stressors (CSSs) as job stressors, emotional exhaustion (EE) as a job strain, and both customer orientation (CO) and service recovery performance (SRP) as job outcomes using data from 1014 frontline service providers (tour guides, frontline tourist hotel employees and frontline tourist restaurant employees) employed in the three major sectors (travel agency, tourist hotel and tourist restaurant) of the Korean tourism industry. Specifically, this study incorporates HRM issues (CSSs and EE) and SM concerns (CO and SRP) into a single model using Koeske and Koeske's (1993) stressor–strain–outcome framework, which is useful for understanding the work-stress process. This study uses a structural equation modeling to investigate the research model and hypotheses. Results showed that CSSs (ambiguous customer expectations, disliked customers, and customer verbal aggression, with the exception of disproportionate customer expectations) significantly and positively influence EE. EE then significantly and negatively influences CO and SRP. In particular, the effect of customer verbal aggression on EE is stronger than the effects of ambiguous customer expectations and disliked customers. The results also showed that CO has a highly influential positive effect on SRP. The study concludes with a discussion of the empirical findings, theoretical contributions, managerial implications, and suggestions for future research.

Customer‐related social stressors and service providers' affective reactions

SummaryPrevious research has shown that customer‐related social stressors (CSS) have negative effects on service providers' long‐term well‐being. Little is known, however, about short‐term and mid‐term affective stress reactions and reciprocal effects between service providers' affect and CSS. The aim of this study was to expand extant research (i) by analyzing service providers' short‐term (across a day) and mid‐term (across 2 weeks) affective reactions to perceived CSS; (ii) by analyzing intraindividual as well as interindividual effects; and (iii) by investigating reciprocal effects of affective reactions and CSS that may eventually lead to psychosocial cycles. Our study employed a diary design with three measurement occasions per day over five consecutive days and a two‐week panel design using a sample of employees from public service organizations (N = 106). Results showed that CSS elicit changes in service providers' short‐term and mid‐term negative affects. We also found support for reversed effects of service providers' affective reactions on experienced CSS indicating psychosocial cycles between customers and service providers. To prevent escalation, we discuss potential resources. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Frontline service employees’ customer-related social stressors, emotional exhaustion, and service recovery performance: customer orientation as a moderator

This study investigates the structural relationships among customer-related social stressors (disproportionate customer expectation, ambiguous customer expectation, disliked customers, and customers’ verbal aggression), emotional exhaustion, and service recovery performance, with customer orientation (CO) serving as a moderator between customer-related social stressors and emotional exhaustion as well as emotional exhaustion and service recovery performance. The study uses data collected from a survey of 1,014 frontline service employees in Korea’s tourism service sectors. The results indicate that customer-related social stressors positively influence emotional exhaustion; emotional exhaustion negatively influences service recovery performance; and CO acts as a moderator. CO moderates both the effects of customer-related social stressors on emotional exhaustion and those of emotional exhaustion on service recovery performance, by weakening the effects for higher CO employees. This study contributes to both theory and practice by combining the four constructs of customer-related social stressors, emotional exhaustion, service recovery performance, and CO in addition to examining their relationships while focusing on customer-related factors.

Customer-Related Social Stressors and Emotional Exhaustion: The Mediating Role of Surface and Deep Acting

The role of surface acting and deep acting in mediating the relationship between customer-related social stressors (CSS) and emotional exhaustion were examined in this study. Employees (N = 310) working in the call-center industry were surveyed. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Results showed that two CSS components; disproportionate customer expectation and customer verbal aggression, were positively related to emotional exhaustion, and that surface acting fully mediated the relationship between disproportionate customer expectation and emotional exhaustion. Both theoretical and practical implications are discussed.