TY  - JOUR
AB  - Purpose Prior studies have mainly attributed customer incivility to dispositional characteristics, whereas little attention has been paid to exploring service employees' role in triggering or reducing customer incivility. The purpose of the present study is to propose and test a model in which service employees' emotional labor strategies affect customer incivility via influencing customers' self-esteem threat, as well as examine the moderating role of customer's perception of service climate.Design/methodology/approach Based on a matched sample consisting of 317 employee-customer dyads in China, multiple regression analysis and indirect effect tests were employed to test our model.Findings The study shows that employee surface acting is positively related to customer incivility, whereas deep acting is negatively associated with customer incivility. Moreover, customer self-esteem threat mediates the relationship between both types of emotional labor and customer incivility. Customer perception of service climate moderates the relationship between deep acting and customer self-esteem threat.Originality/value The current research broadens the antecedents of customer incivility from the employee perspective and sheds more light on the role of customer self-esteem in the interactions between employees and customers. It also demonstrates a complementary relationship between service climate and individual employees' emotional labor strategies, thereby expanding the existing understanding of the management of employees' emotional labor.
VL  - 31
IS  - 3
SN  - 2055-6225
DO  - 10.1108/JSTP-01-2020-0009
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1108/JSTP-01-2020-0009
AU  - Zhan Xiaojun
AU  - Luo Wenhao
AU  - Ding Hanyu
AU  - Zhu Yanghao
AU  - Guo Yirong
PY  - 2021
Y1  - 2021/01/01
TI  - Are employees' emotional labor strategies triggering or reducing customer incivility: a sociometer theory perspective
T2  - Journal of Service Theory and Practice
PB  - Emerald Publishing Limited
SP  - 296
EP  - 317
Y2  - 2024/04/26
ER  -