This study investigates the impact of customer interpersonal and informational injustice on service workers' emotional labor (surface acting). Results from a study conducted on 152 bank tellers in Germany showed that customers are evaluated by employees as a potential source of unfairness. Perceptions of customer justice were found to interact with individual differences in perspective taking in the prediction of surface acting such that the negative effect of customer injustice on surface acting was stronger for those low in perspective taking (compared to those high in perspective taking). Although anger was expected to mediate this moderated effect, this hypothesis was not confirmed. Considering the results post hoc, a revised theoretical model is proposed based on Cropanzano, Weiss, Suckow, and Grandey's model of justice and emotional regulation. Future research is needed to test this model and determine what leads employees to deploy emotional regulation strategies when faced with unfair customers.
Abraham, R.1998. Emotional dissonance in organizations: Antecedents, consequences, and moderators. Genetic, Social, and General Psychology Monographs , 124: 229-246.
2.
Ashforth, B.E., & Humphrey, R.H.1993. Emotional labor in service roles: The influence of identity. Academy of Management Review , 18: 88-115.
3.
Averill, J.R.1982. Anger and aggression: An essay on emotion. New York: Springer.
4.
Baron, R.M., & Kenny, D.A.1986. The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social-psychological research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51: 1173-1182.
5.
Batson, C.D.1991. The altruism question: Toward a social-psychological answer . Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum .
6.
Batson, C.D., Early, S., & Salvarani, G.1997. Perspective taking: Imagining how another feels versus imagining how you would feel. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 23: 751-758.
7.
Bies, R.J.2001. International (in)justice: The sacred and the profane . In J. Greenberg & R. Cropanzano (Eds.), Advances in organizational justice: 89-118. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press.
8.
Bies, R.J.2005. Are procedural justice and interactional justice conceptually distinct? In J. A. Colquitt & J. Greenberg (Eds.), Handbook of organizational justice: 85-112. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
9.
Bies, R.J., & Moag, J.S.1986. Interactional justice: Communication criteria of fairness . In R. J. Lewicki, B. H. Sheppard, & M. H. Bazerman (Eds.), Research in negotiation in organizations , vol. 1: 43-55. Greenwich, CT : JAI . Bitner, M.J., Booms, B.H., & Tetrault , M.S.1990. The service encounter: Diagnosing favorable and unfavorable incidents . Journal of Marketing, 54: 71-84.
10.
Brislin, R.W.1980. Translation and content analysis of oral and written materials . In H. C. Triandis & W. W. Lambert (Eds.), Handbook of cross-cultural psychology, vol. 2: 349-444. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon. Brotheridge , C.M., & Grandey, A.A.2002. Emotional labor and burnout: Comparing two perspectives of "people work."Journal of Vocational Behavior, 60: 17-39.
11.
Brotheridge, C.M., & Lee, R.T.1998, August. On the dimensionality of emotional labor: Development and validation of an emotional labor scale. Paper presented at the First Conference on Emotions in Organizational Life , San Diego, CA.
12.
Brotheridge, C.M., & Lee, R.T.2003. Development and validation of the Emotional Labour Scale . Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology , 76: 365-379.
13.
Clayton, S.D.1992. The experience of injustice: Some characteristics and correlates. Social Justice Research, 5: 71-91. Cohen-Charash, Y., & Spector, P.E.2001. The role of justice in organizations: A meta-analysis . Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 86: 278-321.
14.
Colquitt, J.A.2001. On the dimensionality of organizational justice: A construct validation of a measure. Journal of Applied Psychology , 86: 386-400.
15.
Colquitt, J.A., Conlon, D.E., Wesson, M.J., Porter, C.O.L.H., & Ng, K.Y.2001. Justice at the millennium: A meta-analytic review of 25 years of organizational justice research. Journal of Applied Psychology, 86: 425-445. Colquitt, J.A., Greenberg, J., & Scott, B.A.2005. Organizational justice: Where do we stand? In J. A. Colquitt & J. Greenberg (Eds.), Handbook of organizational justice : 589-620. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
16.
Conlon, D.E., & Murray, N.M.1996. Customer perceptions of corporate responses to product complaints: The role of explanations. Academy of Management Journal, 39: 1040-1056.
17.
Coyne, I.2000. International Test Commission Test Adaptation Guidelines. International Test Commission. Retrieved July 21, 2004, from http://www.intestcom.org/test_adaptation.htm
18.
Cropanzano, R., Byrne, Z.S., Bobocel, D.R., & Rupp, D.E.2001. Moral virtues, fairness heuristics, social entities, and other denizens of organizational justice. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 58: 164-209.
19.
Cropanzano, R., Goldman, B., & Folger, R.2003. Deontic justice: The role of moral principles in workplace fairness. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 24: 1019-1024.
20.
Cropanzano, R., Prehar, C.A., & Chen, P.Y.2002. Using social exchange theory to distinguish procedural from interactional justice. Group and Organizational Management , 27: 324-351.
21.
Cropanzano, R., Weiss, H.M., & Elias, S.M.2004. The impact of display rules and emotional labor on psychological well-being at work. In P. L. Perrewe & D. C. Ganster (Eds.), Research in occupational stress and well being: Emotional and physiological processes and positive intervention strategies, vol. 3: 45-89. San Francisco, CA: Elsevier. Cropanzano, R., Weiss, H.M., Suckow, K.J., & Grandey , A.A.2000. Doing justice to workplace emotion. In N. Ashkanasy, C. Härtel, & W. Zerbe (Eds.), Emotions in the workplace: Research, theory, and practice: 49-62. Westport, CT: Quorum.
22.
Davis, M.H.1980. A multidimensional approach to individual differences in empathy. Catalog of Selected Documents in Psychology, 10: MS, 2124, 85.
23.
Davis, M.H.1996. Empathy: A social-psychological approach. Boulder, CO: Westview.
24.
Eisenberg, N.1991. Meta-analytic contributions to the literature on prosocial behavior. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin , 17: 273-282.
25.
Ekman, P., Friesen, W.V., & O'Sullivan, M.1988. Smiles when lying. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54: 414-420.
26.
Erickson, R.J., & Wharton, A.S.1997. Inauthenticity and depression: Assessing the consequences of interactive service work. Work and Occupations, 24: 188-213.
27.
Fitness, J.2000. Anger in the workplace: An emotion script approach to anger episodes between workers and their superiors, co-workers and subordinates . Journal of Organizational Behavior, 21: 147-162.
28.
Folger, R., & Cropanzano, R.1998. Organizational justice and human resource management. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
29.
Folger, R., & Cropanzano, R.2001. Fairness theory: Justice as accountability. In J. Greenberg & R. Cropanzano (Eds.), Advances in organizational justice: 1-55. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press.
30.
Glomb, T.M.2002. Workplace anger and aggression: Informing conceptual models with data from specific encounters. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 7: 20-36.
31.
Goleman, D.1995. Emotional intelligence. New York: Bantam Books.
32.
Grandey, A.A.2000. Emotion regulation in the workplace: A new way to conceptualize emotional labor. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology , 5: 95-110.
33.
Grandey, A.A.2003. When the "show must go on": Surface acting and deep acting as determinants of emotional exhaustion and peer-rated service delivery. Academy of Management Journal, 46: 86-96.
34.
Grandey, A.A., & Brauburger, A.L.2003. The emotion regulation behind the customer service smile. In R. G. Lord , R. J. Klimoski, & R. Kanfer (Eds.), Emotions in the workplace: Understanding the structure and role of emotions in organizational behavior : 260-294. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
35.
Grandey, A.A., & Fisk, G.M.2005. Display rules and strain in service jobs: What's fairness got to do with it? In P. L. Perrewe , & D. C. Ganster (Eds.), Research in occupational stress and well-being, vol. 4: 265-293. San Diego, CA: Elsevier..
36.
Grandey, A.A., Fisk, G.M., Mattila, A.S., Jansen, K.J., & Sideman, L.A.2005. Is "service with a smile" enough? Authenticity of positive displays during service encounters. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 96: 38-55.
37.
Grandey, A.A., Tam, A.P., & Brauburger, A.L.2002. Affective states and traits in the workplace: Diary and survey data from young workers. Motivation and Emotion, 26: 31-55.
38.
Greenberg, J.1993. The social side of fairness: Interpersonal and informational classes of organizational justice. In R. Cropanzano (Ed.), Justice in the workplace: Approaching fairness in human resource management: 79-103. Hillsdale, NJ : Lawrence Erlbaum.
39.
Gronoos, C.1990. Service management and marketing. Lexington, MA: D. C. Heath.
40.
Gross, J.1998. The emerging field of emotion regulation: An integrative review. Review of General Psychology, 2: 271-299.
41.
Harrison, D.A., McLaughlin, M.E., & Coalter, T.M.1996. Context, cognition, and common method variance: Psychometric and verbal protocol evidence. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 68: 246-261.
42.
Hochschild, A.R.1983. The managed heart: Commercialization of human feeling . Berkeley: University of California Press.
43.
Hoffman, M.L.1982. Development of prosocial motivation: Empathy and guilt . In N. Eisenberg (Ed.), The development of prosocial behavior: 281-313. New York: Academic Press.
44.
Humphrey, S.E., Ellis, A.P.J., Conlon, D.E., & Tinsley, C.H.2003, April. Customer reactions to brokered ultimatums: Integrating negotiation and justice theory. Paper presented at the 18th annual conference for the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Orlando, FL.
45.
Kernan, M.C., & Hanges, P.J.2002. Survivor reactions to reorganization: Antecedents and consequences of procedural, interpersonal, and informational justice. Journal of Applied Psychology, 87: 916-928.
46.
Kray, L.J., & Lind, E.A.2002. The injustice of others: Social reports and the integration of others' experiences in organizational justice judgments. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 89: 906-924.
47.
Leidner, R.1999. Emotional labor in service work. Annals of the Academy of Political and Social Science, 561: 81-95.
48.
Liao, H., & Rupp, D.E.2005. The impact of justice climate and justice orientation on work outcomes: A cross-level multifoci framework. Journal of Applied Psychology, 90: 242-256.
49.
Malatesta, R.M., & Byrne, Z.S.1997, April. The impact of formal and interactional procedures on organizational outcomes. Paper presented at the 12th annual conference of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, St. Louis, MO.
50.
Masterson, S.S., Lewis, K., Goldman, B.M., & Taylor, M.S.2000. Integrating justice and social exchange: The differing effects of fair procedures and treatment on work relationships. Academy of Management Journal, 43: 738-748.
51.
Mattern, K., Rupp, D.E., & Burrus, J.2004. Organizational politics and job attitudes: The moderating role of individual difference in preference for politics. Unpublished manuscript.
52.
Mikula, G.1986. The experience of injustice: Toward a better understanding of its phenomenology. In H. W. Bierhoff, R. L. Cohen, & J. Greenberg (Eds.), Justice in social relations: 103-124. New York: Plenum.
53.
Miller, K., Birkholt, M., Scott, C., & Stage, C.1995. Empathy and burnout in human service work: An extension of a communication model. Communication Research, 22: 123-147.
54.
Morris, J.A., & Feldman, D.C.1996. The dimensions, antecedents and consequences of emotional labor. Academy of Management Review, 21: 986-1010.
55.
Morris, J.A., & Feldman, D.C.1997. Managing emotions in the workplace. Journal of Managerial Issues, 9: 257-274.
56.
Muller, D., Judd, C.M., & Yzerbyt, V.Y.2005. When moderation is mediated and mediation is moderated . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 89: 852-863.
57.
Parasuraman, A., Zeithaml, V.A., & Berry, L.L.1985. A conceptual model of service quality and its implications for future research. Journal of Marketing, 49: 41-50.
58.
Parker, S.K., & Axtell, C.M.2001. Seeking another viewpoint: Antecedents and outcomes of employee perspective taking. Academy of Management Journal , 44: 1085-1100.
59.
Podsakoff, P.M., MacKenzie, S.B., Lee, J.Y., & Podsakoff, N.P.2003. Common method biases in behavioral research: A critical review of the literature and recommended remedies . Journal of Applied Psychology, 88: 879-903.
60.
Pugh, S.D.2001. Service with a smile: Emotional contagion in the service encounter. Academy of Management Journal, 44: 1018-1027.
61.
Rupp, D.E., Bashshur, M.R., & Liao, H.2007. Justice climate past, present, and future: Models of structure and emergence. In F. Dansereau & F. J. Yammarino (Eds.), Research in multi-level issues, vol. 6: 357-396. Oxford, UK: Elsevier.
62.
Rupp, D.E., Bashshur, M., Smith, R.S., Mattern, K., Spencer, S., Holub, A.S., et al. 2004, April. Person and situational antecedents to social exchange-based justice effects: A consideration of multiple perpetrators . Paper presented at the 19th annual meeting of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Chicago, IL.
63.
Rupp, D.E., & Cropanzano, R.2002. The mediating effects of social exchange relationships in predicting workplace outcomes from multifoci organizational justice. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 89: 925-946.
64.
Rupp, D.E., McCance, A.S., & Grandey, A.A.2007. A cognitive-emotional theory of customer injustice and emotional labor: Implications for customer service, fairness theory, and the multifoci perspective. In D. De Cremer (Ed.), Advances in the psychology of justice and affect : 205-232. Charlotte, NC: Information Age.
65.
Rupp, D.E., & Spencer, S.2006. When customers lash out: The effects of perceived customer interactional injustice on emotional labor and the mediating role of discrete emotions. Journal of Applied Psychology, 91: 971-978.
66.
Schaubroeck, J., & Jones, J.R.2000. Antecedents of workplace emotional labor dimensions and moderators of their effects on physical symptoms. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 21: 163-183.
67.
Shapiro, D.L., Buttner, E.H., & Barry, B.1994. Explanations: What factors enhance their perceived adequacy ? Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes , 58: 346-368.
68.
Smith, C., & Ellsworth, P.1985. Patterns of cognitive appraisal in emotion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 48: 813-838.
69.
Sobel, M.E.1982. Asymptotic confidence intervals for indirect effects in structural equations models. In S. Leinhart (Ed.), Sociological methodology, vol. 13: 290-312. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
70.
Spencer, S., & Rupp, D.E.2006, May. The influence of social comparisons of interactional justice on emotional labor: An extension of fairness, affective events, and emotional regulation theories. Paper presented at the 21st annual conference of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Dallas, TX.
71.
Stanislavski, C.1965. An actor prepares. New York : Theatre Arts Books.
72.
Steinberg, R.J., & Figart, D.M.1999. Emotional labor since the managed heart. Annals of the Academy of Political and Social Science, 561: 8-26.
73.
Stotland, E.1969. Exploratory studies in empathy. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology , vol. 4: 271-314. San Diego, CA : Academic Press.
74.
Takaku, S.2001. The effects of apology and perspective taking on interpersonal forgiveness: Introducing a dissonance-attribution model of interpersonal forgiveness . Journal of Social Psychology, 141: 494-508.
75.
Turillo, C.J., Folger, R., Lavelle, J.J., Umphress, E.E., & Gee, J.O.2002. Is virtue its own reward? Self-sacrificial decisions for the sake of fairness. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 89: 839-865.
76.
Van Maanen, J., & Kunda, G.1989. Real feelings: Emotional expression and organizational culture. In B. M. Staw & L. L. Cummings (Eds.), Research in organizational behavior, vol. 11: 43-103. Greenwich, CT : JAI.
77.
Weiss, H.M., & Cropanzano, R.1996. Affective events theory: A theoretical discussion of affective experiences at work. In B. M. Staw & L. L. Cummings (Eds.), Research in organizational behavior, vol. 18: 1-74. Greenwich, CT: JAI.
78.
Weiss, H.M., Suckow, K., & Cropanzano, R.1999. Effects of justice conditions on discrete emotions. Journal of Applied Psychology, 84: 786-794.
