A Social Informational Processing Lens on Multi-Foci Mistreatment: Roles of Customer Orientation and Power Distance

Abstract

Drawing on social information processing theory, this set of studies aims to examine hospitality frontline employees’ sabotage toward customers following workplace mistreatment, namely customer incivility and abusive supervision. In addition, employees’ power distance belief and customer orientation are identified as individual contingency factors that alter employees’ sabotage behavior following mistreatment. A multi-method approach with cross-sectional and experimental designs was adopted. In Study 1, 347 Chinese hospitality frontline employees provided survey data in a cross-sectional design. In Study 2, 191 U.S. hospitality frontline employees were recruited for a between-subjects scenario-based experiment. The findings reveal the complementary roles of customers and supervisors as informational sources that jointly determine employees’ sabotage behaviors. In addition, in line with social information processing theory, employees’ personal characteristics regarding the perception of informational sources (power distance belief and customer orientation) were found to significantly alter employees’ sabotage behavior derived from multi-foci workplace mistreatment.

Keywords

social information processing sabotage toward customers power distance belief customer orientation

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Adamovic

. (2022). How does employee cultural background influence the effects of telework on job stress? The roles of power distance, individualism, and beliefs about telework. International Journal of Information Management, 62, Article 102437. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2021.102437

Al-Hawari

M. A.

Bani-Melhem

Quratulain

. (2020). Do frontline employees cope effectively with abusive supervision and customer incivility? Testing the effect of employee resilience. Journal of Business and Psychology, 35(2), 223–240. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-019-09621-2

Anderson

J. C.

Gerbing

D. W

. (1988). Structural equation modeling in practice: A review and recommended two-step approach. Psychological Bulletin, 103(3), 411–423. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.103.3.411

Andersson

L. M.

Pearson

C. M.

(1999). Tit for tat? The spiraling effect of incivility in the workplace. Academy of Management Review, 24(3), 452–471. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.1999.2202131

Arnold

K. A.

Walsh

M. M

. (2015). Customer incivility and employee well-being: Testing the moderating effects of meaning, perspective taking and transformational leadership. Work & Stress, 29(4), 362–378. https://doi.org/10.1080/02678373.2015.1075234

Baker

M. A.

Kim

. (2021). Becoming cynical and depersonalized: how incivility, co-worker support and service rules affect employee job performance. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 33(12), 4483–4504. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCHM-01-2021-0105

Bendersky

Brockner

. (2020). Mistreatment from peers can reduce the effects of respectful treatment from bosses, and respectful peers can offset mistreatment from bosses. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 41(8), 722–736. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.2441

Boukis

Koritos

Daunt

K. L.

Papastathopoulos

. (2020). Effects of customer incivility on frontline employees and the moderating role of supervisor leadership style. Tourism Management, 77, Article 103997. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2019.103997

Brady

M. K.

Cronin

J. J.

Jr . (2001). Customer orientation: Effects on customer service perceptions and outcome behaviors. Journal of Service Research, 3(3), 241–251. https://doi.org/10.1177/109467050133005

10.

Brees

Mackey

Martinko

Harvey

. (2014). The mediating role of perceptions of abusive supervision in the relationship between personality and aggression. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 21(4), 403–413. https://doi.org/10.1177/1548051813505859

11.

Brown

T. J.

Mowen

J. C.

Donavan

D. T.

Licata

J. W

. (2002). The customer orientation of service workers: Personality trait effects on self-and supervisor performance ratings. Journal of Marketing Research, 39(1), 110–119. https://doi.org/10.1509/jmkr.39.1.110.18928

12.

Chen

Qin

Johnson

R. E.

Huang

Yang

Liu

. (2021). Entering an upward spiral: Investigating how and when supervisors’ talking about abuse leads to subsequent abusive supervision. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 42(3), 407–428. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.2501

13.

Cheng

Dong

Zhou

Guo

Peng

. (2020). Does customer incivility undermine employees’ service performance? International Journal of Hospitality Management, 89, Article 102544. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2020.102544

14.

Chi

N. W.

Yang

Lin

C. Y

. (2018). Service workers’ chain reactions to daily customer mistreatment: Behavioral linkages, mechanisms, and boundary conditions. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 23(1), 58–70. https://doi.org/10.1037/ocp0000050

15.

Chu-Mei

Kuang-Jung

. (2006). Personality traits as antecedents of employee customer orientation: A case study in the hospitality industry. International Journal of Management, 23(3), 478–485. https://www.proquest.com/docview/233230318?pq-origsite=gscholar&fromopenview=true

16.

Coelho

F. J.

Augusto

M. G.

Coelho

A. F.

Sá

P. M

. (2010). Climate perceptions and the customer orientation of frontline service employees. The Service Industries Journal, 30(8), 1343–1357. https://doi.org/10.1080/02642060802613525

17.

De Cremer

Moore

. (2020). Toward a better understanding of behavioral ethics in the workplace. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 7(1), 369–393. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-012218-015151

18.

Earley

P. C.

Erez

. (1997). The transplanted executive: Why you need to understand how workers in other countries see the world differently. Oxford University Press. https://www.jstor.org/stable/25062404

19.

Eisenberger

Karagonlar

Stinglhamber

Neves

Becker

T. E.

Gonzalez-Morales

M. G.

Steiger-Mueller

. (2010). Leader–member exchange and affective organizational commitment: The contribution of supervisor’s organizational embodiment. Journal of Applied psychology, 95(6), 1085–1103. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0020858

20.

Farooq

Sultana

. (2021). Abusive supervision and its relationship with knowledge hiding: The mediating role of distrust. International Journal of Innovation Science, 13(5), 709–731. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJIS-08-2020-0121

21.

Fassina

N. E.

Jones

D. A.

Uggerslev

K. L

. (2008). Meta-analytic tests of relationships between organizational justice and citizenship behavior: Testing agent-system and shared variance models. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 29(6), 805–828. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.494

22.

Feng

Wang

Lawton

Luo

B. N

. (2019). Customer orientation and firm performance: The joint moderating effects of ethical leadership and competitive intensity. Journal of Business Research, 100(2019), 111–121. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2019.03.021

23.

Fischer

Tian

A. W.

Lee

Hughes

D. J

. (2021). Abusive supervision: A systematic review and fundamental rethink. The Leadership Quarterly, 32(6), Article 101540. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2021.101540

24.

Forgas

J. P.

George

J. M

. (2001). Affective influences on judgments and behavior in organizations: An information processing perspective. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 86(1), 3–34. https://doi.org/10.1006/obhd.2001.2971

25.

Frey-Cordes

Eilert

Büttgen

(2020). Eye for an eye? Frontline service employee reactions to customer incivility. Journal of Services Marketing, 34(7), 939–953. https://doi.org/10.1108/JSM-07-2019-0270

26.

Goldman

B. M

. (2001). Toward an understanding of employment discrimination claiming: An integration of organizational justice and social information processing theories. Personnel Psychology, 54(2), 361–386. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2001.tb00096.x

27.

Gonzalez-Morales

M. G.

Kernan

M. C.

Becker

T. E.

Eisenberger

. (2018). Defeating abusive supervision: Training supervisors to support subordinates. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 23(2), 151–162. https://doi.org/10.1037/ocp0000061

28.

Hair

Black

Babin

Anderson

. (2010). Multivariate data analysis (7th ed.). Prentice-Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/polyu-ebooks/detail.action?docID=6351360

29.

Han

S. J.

Bonn

M. A.

Cho

. (2016). The relationship between customer incivility, restaurant frontline service employee burnout and turnover intention. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 52(2016), 97–106. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2015.10.002

30.

Haunschild

P. R.

Beckman

C. M

. (1998). When do interlocks matter? Alternate sources of information and interlock influence. Administrative Science Quarterly, 43(4), 815–844. https://doi.org/10.2307/2393617

31.

Hayes

A. F

. (2017) Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: A regression-based approach. Guilford publications. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/polyu-ebooks/detail.action?docID=5109647

32.

Hennig-Thurau

. (2004). Customer orientation of service employees: Its impact on customer satisfaction, commitment, and retention. International Journal of Service Industry Management, 15(5), 460–478. https://doi.org/10.1108/09564230410564939

33.

Hershcovis

M. S.

Barling

. (2010). Towards a multi-foci approach to workplace aggression: A meta-analytic review of outcomes from different perpetrators. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 31(1), 24–44. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.621

34.

Hershcovis

M. S.

Cortina

L. M.

Robinson

S. L

. (2020). Social and situational dynamics surrounding workplace mistreatment: Context matters. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 41(8), 699–705. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.2479

35.

Hon

A. H.

. (2016). When will the trickle-down effect of abusive supervision be alleviated? The moderating roles of power distance and traditional cultures. Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, 57(4), 421–433. https://doi.org/10.1177/1938965515624013

36.

Holt

Hall

Gilley

(2018). Essential components of leadership development programs. Journal of Managerial Issues, 30(2), 214–229. https://www.jstor.org/stable/45176579

37.

Hsiung

H. H.

Tsai

W. C

. (2017). The joint moderating effects of activated negative moods and group voice climate on the relationship between power distance orientation and employee voice behavior. Applied Psychology, 66(3), 487–514. https://doi.org/10.1111/apps.12096

38.

H. H. H. S.

Lai

H. S. H.

King

. (2020). Restaurant employee service sabotage and customer deviant behaviors: The moderating role of corporate reputation. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research, 44(7), 1126–1152. https://doi.org/10.1177/1096348020936331

39.

Jang

Kim

J. S

. (2020). Can employee workplace mindfulness counteract the indirect effects of customer incivility on proactive service performance through work engagement? A moderated mediation model. Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management, 29(7), 812–829. https://doi.org/10.1080/19368623.2020.1725954

40.

Kim

. (2019). The effects of experienced customer incivility on employees’ behavior toward customers and coworkers. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research, 43(1), 58–77. https://doi.org/10.1177/1096348018764583

41.

Kirkman

B. L.

Chen

Farh

J. L.

Chen

Z. X.

Lowe

K. B

. (2009). Individual power distance orientation and follower reactions to transformational leaders: A cross-level, cross-cultural examination. Academy of Management Journal, 52(4), 744–764. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2009.43669971

42.

Koopmann

Wang

Liu

Song

. (2015). Customer mistreatment: A review of conceptualizations and a multilevel theoretical model. Mistreatment in Organizations, 13, 33–79. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1479-355520150000013002

43.

Lam

C. F.

Mayer

D. M

. (2014). When do employees speak up for their customers? A model of voice in a customer service context. Personnel Psychology, 67(3), 637–666. https://doi.org/10.1111/peps.12050

44.

Lam

L. W.

A. J

. (2019). Power imbalance and employee silence: The role of abusive leadership, power distance orientation, and perceived organisational politics. Applied Psychology, 68(3), 513–546. https://doi.org/10.1111/apps.12170

45.

Lee

Madera

J. M

. (2021). A within-level analysis of the effect of customer-focused perspective-taking on deep acting and customer helping behaviors: The mediating roles of negative affect and empathy. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 95, Article 102907. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2021.102907

46.

Lemerise

E. A.

Arsenio

W. F.

(2000). An integrated model of emotion processes and cognition in social information processing. Child Development, 71(1), 107–118. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8624.00124

47.

Zhan

Cheng

Scott

. (2021). Frontline employee anger in response to customer incivility: Antecedents and consequences. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 96, Article 102985. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2021.102985

48.

Lian

Ferris

D. L.

Brown

D. J

. (2012). Does power distance exacerbate or mitigate the effects of abusive supervision? It depends on the outcome. Journal of Applied Psychology, 97(1), 107–123. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0024610

49.

Liu

Zhang

Liao

Hao

Mao

. (2016). Abusive supervision and employee creativity: The mediating role of psychological safety and organizational identification. Management Decision, 54(1), 130–147. https://doi.org/10.1108/MD-09-2013-0443

50.

Liu

X. Y.

Kwan

H. K.

Chiu

R. K

. (2014). Customer sexual harassment and frontline employees’ service performance in China. Human Relations, 67(3), 333–356. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726713493028

51.

Long

E. C.

Christian

M. S

. (2015). Mindfulness buffers retaliatory responses to injustice: A regulatory approach. Journal of Applied Psychology, 100(5), 1409–1422. https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0000019

52.

Marcus

Taylor

O. A.

Hastings

S. E.

Sturm

Weigelt

. (2016). The structure of counterproductive work behavior: A review, a structural meta-analysis, and a primary study. Journal of Management, 42(1), 203–233. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206313503019

53.

Miller

K. I.

Monge

P. R

. (1985). Social information and employee anxiety about organizational change. Human Communication Research, 11(3), 365–386. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2958.1985.tb00052.x

54.

Mitchell

M. S.

Ambrose

M. L.

(2007). Abusive supervision and workplace deviance and the moderating effects of negative reciprocity beliefs. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92(4), 1159–1168. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.92.4.1159

55.

Park

Kim

H. J

. (2020). Customer mistreatment and service performance: A self-consistency perspective. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 86, Article 102367. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2019.102367

56.

Pearson

C. M.

Porath

C. L.

(2005). On the nature, consequences and remedies of workplace incivility: No time for “nice”? Think again. Academy of Management Perspectives, 19(1), 7–18. https://doi.org/10.5465/ame.2005.15841946

57.

Peltokorpi

. (2019). Abusive supervision and emotional exhaustion: The moderating role of power distance orientation and the mediating role of interaction avoidance. Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources, 57(3), 251–275. https://doi.org/10.1111/1744-7941.12188

58.

Ram

. (2018). Hostility or hospitality? A review on violence, bullying and sexual harassment in the tourism and hospitality industry. Current Issues in Tourism, 21(7), 760–774. https://doi.org/10.1080/13683500.2015.1064364

59.

Richard

O. C.

Boncoeur

O. D.

Chen

Ford

D. L

. (2020). Supervisor abuse effects on subordinate turnover intentions and subsequent interpersonal aggression: The role of power-distance orientation and perceived human resource support climate. Journal of Business Ethics, 164(3), 549–563. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-018-4019-7

60.

Chen

P. J

. (2011). Empowerment in hospitality organizations: Customer orientation and organizational support. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 30(2), 422–428. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2010.09.003

61.

Salancik

G. R.

Pfeffer

. (1978). A social information processing approach to job attitudes and task design. Administrative Science Quarterly, 23(2), 224–253. https://doi.org/10.2307/2392563

62.

SDA. (2017). Customer abuse & violence in retail & fast food. Retrieved April 21, 2023 from https://www.sda.org.au/resources/customer-abuse-violence-in-retail-fast-food/

63.

Shi

Wang

. (2022). Daily spillover from home to work: The role of workplace mindfulness and daily customer mistreatment. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 34(8), 3008–3028. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCHM-10-2021-1281

64.

Shoss

M. K.

Eisenberger

Restubog

S. L. D.

Zagenczyk

T. J

. (2013). Blaming the organization for abusive supervision: The roles of perceived organizational support and supervisor's organizational embodiment. Journal of Applied Psychology, 98(1), 158–168. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0030687

65.

Skarlicki

D. P.

van Jaarsveld

D. D.

Shao

Song

Y. H.

Wang

. (2016). Extending the multifoci perspective: The role of supervisor justice and moral identity in the relationship between customer justice and customer-directed sabotage. Journal of Applied Psychology, 101(1), 108–121. https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0000034

66.

Skarlicki

D. P.

Van Jaarsveld

D. D.

Walker

D. D

. (2008). Getting even for customer mistreatment: The role of moral identity in the relationship between customer interpersonal injustice and employee sabotage. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93(6), 1335–1347. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0012704

67.

Sliter

Jex

Wolford

McInnerney

. (2010). How rude! Emotional labor as a mediator between customer incivility and employee outcomes. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 15(4), 468–481. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0020723

68.

Sommovigo

Setti

Argentero

O’Shea

. (2019). The impact of customer incivility and verbal aggression on service providers: A systematic review. Work, 62(1), 59–86. https://doi.org/10.3233/WOR-182842

69.

Sommovigo

Setti

O’Shea

Argentero

(2020). Investigating employees’ emotional and cognitive reactions to customer mistreatment: An experimental study. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 29(5), 707–727. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359432X.2020.1745189

70.

Spiller

S. A.

Fitzsimons

G. J.

Lynch

J. G.

Jr McClelland

G. H

. (2013). Spotlights, floodlights, and the magic number zero: Simple effects tests in moderated regression. Journal of Marketing Research, 50(2), 277–288. https://doi.org/10.1509/jmr.12.0420

71.

Susskind

A. M.

Kacmar

K. M.

Borchgrevink

C. P

. (2003). Customer service providers’ attitudes relating to customer service and customer satisfaction in the customer-server exchange. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88(1), 179–187. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.88.1.179

72.

Tepper

B. J.

(2000). Consequences of abusive supervision. Academy of Management Journal, 43(2), 178–190. https://doi.org/10.5465/1556375

73.

Tepper

B. J

. (2007). Abusive supervision in work organizations: Review, synthesis, and research agenda. Journal of Management, 33(3), 261–289. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206307300812

74.

Tepper

B. J.

Moss

S. E.

Duffy

M. K

. (2011). Predictors of abusive supervision: Supervisor perceptions of deep-level dissimilarity, relationship conflict, and subordinate performance. Academy of Management Journal, 54(2), 279–294. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2011.60263085

75.

Van Jaarsveld

D. D.

Walker

D. D.

Restubog

S. L. D.

Skarlicki

Chen

Frické

P. H

. (2021). Unpacking the relationship between customer (in) justice and employee turnover outcomes: Can fair supervisor treatment reduce employees’ emotional turmoil? Journal of Service Research, 24(2), 301–319. https://doi.org/10.1177/1094670519883949

76.

Velez

M. J.

Neves

. (2017). The relationship between abusive supervision, distributive justice and job satisfaction: A substitutes for leadership approach. European Review of Applied Psychology, 67(4), 187–198. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erap.2017.05.005

77.

Walter

Lam

C. K.

Van Der Vegt

G. S.

Huang

Miao

. (2015). Abusive supervision and subordinate performance: Instrumentality considerations in the emergence and consequences of abusive supervision. Journal of Applied Psychology, 100(4), 1056–1072. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0038513

78.

Wang

Liao

Zhan

Shi

. (2011). Daily customer mistreatment and employee sabotage against customers: Examining emotion and resource perspectives. Academy of Management Journal, 54(2), 312–334. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2011.60263093

79.

Wang

Wen

Paşamehmetoğlu

Guchait

. (2021). Hospitality employee’s mindfulness and its impact on creativity and customer satisfaction: The moderating role of organizational error tolerance. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 94, Article 102846. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2020.102846

80.

Yang

Huang

. (2020). Customer mistreatment and employee well-being: A daily diary study of recovery mechanisms for frontline restaurant employees in a hotel. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 91, Article 102665. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2020.102665

81.

Kong

. (2020). A systematic review of research on abusive supervision in hospitality and tourism. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 32(7), 2473–2496. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCHM-12-2019-1004

82.

Zhou

Dong

. (2018). Empowering supervision and service sabotage: A moderated mediation model based on conservation of resources theory. Tourism Management, 64(2018), 170–187. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2017.06.016

83.

Zhou

Mistry

T. G.

Kim

W. G.

Cobanoglu

. (2021). Workplace mistreatment in the hospitality and tourism industry: A systematic literature review and future research suggestions. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management, 49(2021), 309–320. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhtm.2021.09.024

Supplementary Material

Please find the following supplemental material available below.

For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.

For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.

0.00 MB

0.02 MB