How does dysfunctional customer behavior affect employee turnover. Issue 3 (2nd October 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Gong, Taeshik; Wang, Chen-Ya
• Is Part Of: Journal of service theory and practice. Volume 29:Issue 3(2019)
• Page Start: 329
• Page End: 352
• Publication Date: 2019-10-02
• Subjects: Employee turnover -- Dysfunctional customer behaviour -- Employee embeddedness -- Employee stress -- Individualism–collectivism; Service industries -- Management -- Periodicals; Service industries -- Marketing -- Periodicals; Service industries -- Quality control -- Periodicals; 338.4700068
• DOI: 10.1108/JSTP-04-2018-0081
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2055-6225

Abstract

Abstract : Purpose: Dysfunctional customer behavior is believed to engender employee stress and, in turn, fuel employee turnover. However, little research has examined the moderating role of individual-level and contextual-level resource variables. The purpose of this paper is to fill these gaps by examining employee embeddedness and individualism–collectivism as putative moderators of the hypothesized mediation chain. Design/methodology/approach: The authors conducted a field study involving 264 service employees working in two hotels operated by the same international hotel chain, one in South Korea ( n =138) and the other in the UK ( n =126). Findings: Results show that employee embeddedness weakens the impact of dysfunctional customer behavior on employee turnover via employee stress. In addition, findings suggest that collectivists (individualists) are more (less) likely to be receptive to embeddedness cues. Originality/value: This is the first known study to show that employee embeddedness can mitigate the impact of dysfunctional customer behavior on turnover via employee stress. This moderated-mediation model is further moderated by employees' cultural value orientation (individualism–collectivism). Prior literature is not explicit on these complex models.