Effects of customer incivility on frontline employees and the moderating role of supervisor leadership style

Achilleas Boukis, Christos Koritos*, Kate L. Daunt, Avraam Papastathopoulos

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

51 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Customer incivility toward frontline employees (FLEs) is a widespread phenomenon within tourism and hospitality industries, severely depleting the psychological resources of FLEs and delivered customer service. Drawing on the job demands-resources and conservation of resources frameworks, the current research compares the effects of the two most common forms of customer incivility on FLEs' psychological responses and behavioral intentions (study 1). Moreover, this work explores the degree to which supervisor leadership style can mitigate the depleting effects of these two forms of customer incivility on FLEs (study 2). Findings demonstrate that FLEs' responses to customer incivility episodes remain contingent upon supervisor's leadership style and acknowledge that an empowering (vs. laissez-faire) leadership style can better mitigate the depleting effects of both customer incivility forms on FLEs' role stress, rumination, retaliation and withdrawal intentions. The implications of these findings for tourism and hospitality theory and practicing managers are discussed.

Original languageEnglish
Article number103997
JournalTourism Management
Volume77
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Apr 2020

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 Elsevier Ltd

Keywords

  • Customer incivility
  • Frontline employees
  • Hospitality
  • Leadership style
  • Supervisor

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Development
  • Transportation
  • Tourism, Leisure and Hospitality Management
  • Strategy and Management

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