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Do Frontline Employees Cope Effectively with Abusive Supervision and Customer Incivility? Testing the Effect of Employee Resilience

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Abstract

This paper examines multiple workplace interpersonal stressors experienced by frontline employees. Drawing upon conservation of resources theory, we propose that abusive supervision and customer incivility positively relate to emotional exhaustion and indirectly affect service performance and the capacity to satisfy customers. The study posits that employee resilience is an individual difference variable that mitigates the impact of interpersonal stressors on emotional exhaustion and buffers the negative effect of emotional exhaustion on service performance and the capacity to satisfy customers. The model is tested on a sample of 192 frontline employees using structural equation modeling. Data were collected from frontline employees working in different service organizations using a time-lagged design, and supervisor-rated employee performance was also measured. The findings show that both abusive supervision and customer incivility are positively related to emotional exhaustion. The effect of customer incivility on emotional exhaustion is mitigated by employee resilience, and the indirect effect of customer incivility on the capacity to satisfy customers is stronger for low-resilience employees. For managers, our findings highlight the importance of controlling multiple interpersonal workplace stressors, and employee resilience represents an important resource that can be exhausted with continued exposure to stressors. Organizations should develop better job designs and improve leadership practices that can help minimize the impact of interpersonal stressors on frontline employees’ performance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Management, College of Business Administration, University of Sharjah, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates

    Mohd Ahmad Al-Hawari, Shaker Bani-Melhem & Samina Quratulain

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  1. Mohd Ahmad Al-Hawari
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  3. Samina Quratulain
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Correspondence to Mohd Ahmad Al-Hawari.

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Appendix A

Appendix A

 

Factor loadings

CR

AVE

Abusive supervision

 

.88

.62

 My supervisor ridicules me

.70

  

 My supervisor puts me down in front of others

.76

  

 My supervisor reminds me of my past mistakes and failures

.83

  

 My supervisor does not give me credit for jobs requiring a lot of effort

.82

  

 My supervisor blames me for his or her own mistakes

.79

  

Customer incivility

 

.95

.79

 Customers continued to complain despite your efforts to assist them

.89

  

 Customers blamed you for a problem you did not cause (things you cannot control)

.90

  

 Customers failed to acknowledge your efforts when you have gone out of your way to help them

.91

  

 Customers were arrogant to me

.89

  

 Customers made comments about my job performance

.86

  

 Customers made unreasonable demands

.90

  

Emotional exhaustion

 

.85

.59

 I feel emotionally drained from my work

.83

  

 I feel drained at the end of my working day

.67

  

 I feel exhausted when I get up in the morning and have to face another day at work

.83

  

 I feel worn out as a result of my job

.73

  

Resilience

 

.84

.53

 I usually manage difficulties one way or another at work

.72

  

 I can be “on my own,” so to speak, at work if I have to

.69

  

 I usually take stressful things at work in my stride

.70

  

 I can get through difficult times at work because I have experienced difficulties before

.81

  

 I feel I can handle many things at a time at my job

.71

  

Self-reported capacity to satisfy customers

 

.83

.63

 You are confident about your ability to satisfy customers

.78

  

 You are making customers happy

.87

  

 You can satisfy customer requirements

.73

  

Supervisor-reported service performance

 

.90

.60

 The employee follows up in a timely manner to customer requests and problems

.75

  

 Regardless of circumstances, the employee provides exceptionally courteous and respectful service

.78

  

 The employee follows through in a conscientious manner on promises to customers

.84

  

 The employee is friendly and helpful to customers

.76

  

 The employee is able to help customers when needed

.81

  

 The employee is able to ask good questions and listen to find out what a customer wants

.74

  

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Al-Hawari, M.A., Bani-Melhem, S. & Quratulain, S. Do Frontline Employees Cope Effectively with Abusive Supervision and Customer Incivility? Testing the Effect of Employee Resilience. J Bus Psychol 35, 223–240 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-019-09621-2

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