New research just published
Boukis, A., Koritos, C., Papastathopoulos, A., Buhalis, D., 2023, Customer incivility for frontline employees, Annals of Tourism Research, Volume 100, May 2023, 103555 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2023.103555 OPEN ACCESS
Abstract
This work proposes identity theory as a novel theoretical lens for understanding frontline employees’ responses to customer incivility in tourism and hospitality. We advance pertinent research by demonstrating that customer incivility constitutes a dual identity threat (individual/collective threat) for frontline employees. Two experimental studies reveal that: customer incivility towards frontline employees’ individual identity affects their psychological responses more adversely than their citizenship behavior; non-monetary rewards are more effective at reducing the adverse effects of customer incivility on frontline employees’ psychological responses (than monetary rewards); finally, allowing frontline employees to choose the reward they deem most appropriate enhances both their psychological responses and citizenship behavior. Based on these results a four-step process is proposed to help managers dealing with customer incivility.
Highlights
- •Assess the impact of customer incivility on frontline employees’ identity
- •Customer threats to both individual and collective identities are explored.
- •Employees’ responses vary based on the identity level that is affected
- •Rewards mitigate the harmful effect of customer incivility on employees.
- •Reward choice reduces the adverse effect of customer incivility on employees.
![](https://microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk/tourism/files/2023/03/Customer-incivility-ABSTRACT-300x242.png)
Boukis, A., Koritos, C., Papastathopoulos, A., Buhalis, D., 2023, Customer incivility for frontline employees, Annals of Tourism Research, Volume 100, May 2023, 103555 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2023.103555