Behaviors also Trickle Back: An Assessment of Customer Dysfunctional Behavior on Employees and Customers

Asif Nawaz, Beenish Tariq, Sarfraz Ahmed Dakhan, Antonio Ariza-Montes, Niaz Ahmed Bhutto and Heesup Han
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Asif Nawaz: Department of Business Administration, Sukkur IBA University, Sukkur 65200, Pakistan
Beenish Tariq: NUST Business School, National University of Sciences and Technology, Islamabad 44000, Pakistan
Sarfraz Ahmed Dakhan: Department of Business Administration, Sukkur IBA University, Sukkur 65200, Pakistan
Antonio Ariza-Montes: Department of Management, Universidad Loyola Andalucía, C/Escritor Castilla Aguayo, 4, 14004 Córdoba, Spain
Niaz Ahmed Bhutto: Department of Business Administration, Sukkur IBA University, Sukkur 65200, Pakistan
Heesup Han: College of Hospitality and Tourism Management, Sejong University, Seoul 05006, Korea

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 20, 1-17

Abstract: This study examined the trickle in, out, around and trickle back effect of dysfunctional customer behavior on employees and consequently employees’ incivility and service recovery efforts toward customers. Furthermore, this study has specifically tested the mediating effect of employee burnout to examine the trickle around and trickle back effect. To explore the multi-level trickle effect, this study has collected data from two sources, i.e., customers and employees. The data was analyzed with the help of AMOS. The results revealed that customer’s verbal aggression escalates employee’s burnout, which in turn affects employee’s incivility towards customers. However, the indirect paths from disproportionate customer demand toward service recovery efforts and employee’s incivility towards customers were found to be insignificant. This study addressed the existing gap in the literature by examining the trickle effect within and outside the boundaries of an organization. The results of this study laid down some useful managerial and theoretical implications.

Keywords: customer verbal aggression; burnout; deviant work behavior; service recovery; trickle effect (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:20:p:8427-:d:427178

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