Unfriendly customer behaviors and employees’ psychological capital: the role of health symptoms and positive humor events

Abstract

This study examined mediators and moderators that may explain the link between unfriendly customer behaviors and workers' psychological capital with a sample of 380 employees. We hypothesized that perceived health symptoms would mediate the link between unfriendly customer behaviors and psychological capital. We also hypothesized a moderated mediation model, in which positive humor events would moderate the mediation model. Results show that the negative association between unfriendly customer behaviors with psychological capital was due to an increased level of perceived health symptoms. Moreover, positive humor events moderated the link between unfriendly customer behaviors and perceived health symptoms, such that the link was stronger when the frequency of positive humor events was low to moderate. This study addresses a major gap in the positive psychology literature by attempting to examine why unfriendly customer behaviors relate to decreased psychological capital and what factors influence in this relation. Practical implications are further discussed.

Humor Daily Events and Well-Being: The Role of Gelotophobia and Psychological Work Climate

“…This is consistent with the humor-health hypothesis, which states that humor has beneficial effects for individual's optimal functioning [6]. Humor is globally recognized to be an indicator of positive mental health [7] and has been found to be related to both physical and psychological well-being [3]. However, this study goes further and specifies some conditions that may affect that relation.…”

“…A potential reason for the full mediation found is that positive humor events facilitate the emergence of relaxation feelings, which contributes to increased levels of positive affect and, in turn, results in higher levels of well-being. Moreover, these results also emphasize the well-established concept that positive affect is a strong predictor of individual's well-being [7]. Thus, the more positive humor events, the higher the frequency of positive affect, which may be translated in higher levels of well-being.…”

“…The humor-health hypothesis states that humor enhances individuals' functioning [6]. Diverse studies have shown that humor is positively associated to individuals' physical, psychological, and social well-being [7].…”

Testing the affective events theory: The mediating role of affect and the moderating role of mindfulness

“…OECD (2019) has reported that workers appear to evidence lower levels of well‐being and satisfaction. These lower levels of well‐being affect the individual in many ways, for example, in the daily work‐related behavior and daily well‐being (Junça‐Silva & Lopes, 2020).…”

Humor in the sky: the use of affiliative and aggressive humor in cabin crews facing passenger misconduct

“…The use of humor is an effective coping strategy with social stressors (Junça-Silva and Lopes, 2020; Sliter et al. , 2014) and cabin crewmembers may engage in various forms of humor to tackle UPB.…”