How Organizational Cynicism Can Promote Customer-Directed Deviance Via Employee Resource Depletion And How Experiencing Supervisory Support May Help Overcome This Effect

Abstract

While research suggests that organizational cynicism prompts employees to engage in organizationally directed deviant behaviors, questions remain regarding whether, how and when organizational cynicism can also prompt employees to engage in deviance toward customers, who are third parties outside the organization-employee exchange relationship. Drawing on conservation of resources theory, we develop and test a model that addresses these questions. We theorize that organizational cynicism is an adverse and stressful experience that drains employees’ psychological resources over time, which in turn leads to customer-directed deviance. We further propose that perceptions of supervisor support help employees cope functionally with their lack of resources and reduce customer-directed deviant behavior. We tested our predictions in a two-week daily experience sampling study of call-center representatives and found that organizational cynicism indirectly predicts customer-directed deviant behavior via resource depletion when PSS is lower than when it is higher. Two post hoc studies (including a three-wave panel survey conducted over 6 months and a three-wave, time-separated survey conducted over one month) addressed the methodological limitations of this investigation and ruled out alternative explanations for our results. Implications for organizational cynicism and customer service literature are discussed.