Coping with customer aggression

Abstract

If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -The purpose of this research is to investigate the direct and moderating effect of negative affectivity (NA) (Study 1) and self-efficacy (Study 2) on the relationship between customer verbal aggression and three forms of emotion-focused coping strategies: behavioral disengagement, seeking emotional support, and venting negative emotions. Design/methodology/approach -Two samples of service workers were recruited from northern Israel in 2007-2008 (n ¼ 178 and n ¼ 516), and data were collected using self-reported questionnaires. Research hypotheses were tested using hierarchical regression analyses. Findings -The results show that under high levels of exposure to customer aggression, employees with high NA were more likely to use behavioral disengagement than low-NA individuals, employees with low NA were less likely to vent negative emotions than high-NA individuals, and employees with high self-efficacy were less likely to use venting and emotional support than employees with low self-efficacy. In addition, self-efficacy was found to reduce the negative impact of customer aggression on emotional exhaustion. Practical implications -Through appropriate training programs, service organizations can foster their employees' sense of trust in their own ability to cope with customer misbehavior and consequently reduce reliance on dysfunctional coping strategies. Originality/value -While it has been established that verbal abuse from customers constitutes a common experience for many service workers, little is known about the manner in which workers cope with this particular job stressor and even less about the individual differences that may explain coping behaviors in this context. The present paper begins to bridge this gap and contributes to existing literature by showing that in addition to being predictors of dysfunctional coping strategies, both NA and self-efficacy may play a moderating role in the relationship between customer aggression and coping behaviors.

Illegitimate Customer Complaining Behavior in Hospitality Service Encounters

“…The tactics include ignoring difficult customers, bribing customers, using emotional labors, exploiting sexual attractiveness, eliciting support from patrons, altering personal speech patterns, and manipulating the servicescape (e.g., open the windows). Goussinsky (2012) suggested three coping strategies to deal with customer verbal aggression: behavioral disengagement, seeking emotional support, and venting negative emotions. It was also found that frontline employees are less motivated to solve the problems raised by dysfunctional customers due to the perceived injustice in the interpersonal interactions (L. C. Harris & Reynolds, 2003).…”

Under-over benefitting perceptions and evaluation of services

“…Boundary employees are usually subjected to high functional and emotional demands from interactions with customers, with implications in terms of burnout and health (e.g. Goussinsky, 2012;Salanova et al, 2005). In addition, when employees perceive unfairness from their customers, outcomes can be negative even for organizations, for example, by increasing sabotage (Skarlicki et al, 2008) or negative word of mouth by employees.…”

A contingency model of “Face” loss in service encounters: an Eastern cultural context

“…When customer mistreatment subjugates FLEs, it can lead to feelings of degradation, humiliation and loss of face with consequent negative impact on one’s psychological well-being (anxiety, emotional exhaustion), diminished job performance and heightened turnover intentions (Grandey et al , 2004; Harris and Reynolds, 2003; Karatepe et al , 2009; Akkawanitcha et al , 2015). The effects of customer aggression on FLEs’ face loss and consequent psychological well-being thus constitute a crucial point for consideration with Goussinsky (2012) calling it “the dark side” of customer service roles.…”