Go home and kick the dog: Spillover effects of experienced coworker incivility on customer-directed counterproductive work behavior
Journal of Service Theory and Practice
ISSN: 2055-6225
Article publication date: 8 August 2018
Issue publication date: 4 October 2018
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the spillover effects of coworker incivility on customer-directed counterproductive work behavior (CWB) and how emotional exhaustion mediates the relationship between them. The authors predicted that job calling and perceived organizational support (POS) would moderate the relationship between experienced coworker incivility and service employees’ emotional exhaustion, respectively.
Design/methodology/approach
Survey data from 252 frontline employees working at six full-service luxury hotels in South Korea were examined.
Findings
The results indicated that experienced coworker incivility was positively related to customer-directed CWB. In addition, the relationship between experienced coworker incivility and customer-directed CWB was mediated by emotional exhaustion. Finally, employees’ job calling attenuated the positive effects of experienced coworker incivility on customer-directed CWB. The theoretical and practical implications of this study are discussed, together with its limitations and future research directions.
Originality/value
The main contribution of the study is to provide an empirical framework for how instances of coworker incivility spillover, which lead to the target employee’s customer-directed CWB through emotional exhaustion, and how personal (e.g. job calling) may buffer against negative effects.
Keywords
Citation
Moon, T.W. and Hur, W.-M. (2018), "Go home and kick the dog: Spillover effects of experienced coworker incivility on customer-directed counterproductive work behavior", Journal of Service Theory and Practice, Vol. 28 No. 5, pp. 554-575. https://doi.org/10.1108/JSTP-03-2018-0052
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited