۱- Introduction

۲- Conceptual framework and hypotheses

۳- Methodology

۴- Summary of findings

۵- Discussion

۶- Research limitations and future research avenues

۷- Conclusions Declarations of interest

References

Abstract

This study investigates the effects of customers’ uncivil treatments on frontline retail employees’ emotions, deviant behaviors and relationship with the retail organization. Our theoretical model is based on both marketing and personnel management literatures. 415 frontline retailing American employees answered our questionnaire. Employees treated uncivilly by customers feel angry but have to hide their negative emotions, which leads them to emotional exhaustion and deviant behaviors. Paradoxically, employees’ strong commitment to their retailing organization brings about more deviant behaviors. We propose some managerial strategies to cope with uncivil customers, as well as future research on this important and under-researched topic.

Introduction

Shoppers’ incivility toward retailers’ employees: the elephant in the living room Failed service incidents involve tensions between customers and frontline employees. They may also involve customers’ incivility in the form of verbal aggression, that is, “verbal communications of anger that violate social norms” (Grandey et al., 2004, p. 398). Shoppers are increasingly violent on retail venues (e.g., Anonymous, 2001). Americans have drastically increased their yelling and cursing at customer service representatives between 2011 and 2013: “Yelling rose to 36% from 25% of the time, while cursing jumped to 13% from 7%.” (Weisbaum, 2013). 98% of workers experience incivility, with 50% experiencing such conduct at least weekly (Porath and Pearson, 2013). Employees exercise revengeful behavior on their organization, which represents a cost estimated at $14,000 per employee annually (Porath and Pearson, 2013). However, retail organizations request that their contact employees avoid showing their negative emotions and rather fake positive emotions during unpleasant interactions with customers (Goldberg and Grandey, 2007). Because of the intense competition between retailers, customers are granted power over the service organizations (Stern and Barton, 1997; Urban, 2004), which may lead shoppers to uncivil behavior toward employees. The purpose of this research is to assess the cascade impact of customers’ uncivil behavior on employees and on their link with their retailing organization. Though the literature regarding the impact of uncivil managers on employees is abundant (e.g., Choi, 2008; Stoverink et al., 2014; Tepper et al., 2008), the uncivil customers’ treatment of employees is almost ignored. Moreover, these studies focus primarily on employees’ ability to hide negative emotions (Medler-Liraz, 2016; Rupp et al., 2008; Yoo and Arnold, 2016) and not on sensitive issues, such as employees’ emotional exhaustion, burnout and deviant behaviors, which is the focus of the present study. We examine the process through which uncivil shoppers’ behavior toward frontline employees leads to employees’ deviant behavior through the mediation of both genuine emotions (i.e. anger and emotional exhaustion) and fake emotions required by retailing managers, which leads to organizational deviance. We also investigate a paradoxical and significant impact of employees’ commitment to their employers, which amplifies the effects of emotional exhaustion on deviant behavior.