Customers’ coping with interpersonal conflicts in intra and inter-cultural service encounters

Haithem Zourrig (), Jean-Charles Chebat (), Roy Toffoli () and Alexandra Medina-Borja ()
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Haithem Zourrig: University of Regina
Jean-Charles Chebat: Holder of chair of commercial space and customer service management
Roy Toffoli: University of Quebec at Montreal (UQÀM)
Alexandra Medina-Borja: University of Puerto Rico

AMS Review, 2014, vol. 4, issue 1, No 3, 31 pages

Abstract: Abstract Customers may alter their conflict style depending on their cultural values’ orientations and whether the adversary belongs to their group or not. This paper provides cross-cultural insight into the psychological mechanisms that shape different styles of customer’s coping with interpersonal conflicts. Drawing on cognitive appraisal theory, the paper extends the framework of appraisal-emotions coping to different cultural–situational contexts and develops a set of theory-driven propositions. The insights from this conceptual paper suggest that within inter-cultural encounter contexts, an interpersonal conflict may lead to confrontative coping, for both allocentric and idiocentric customers. However, in the case of an intra-cultural encounter, the allocentrism trait may weigh against the pursuit of any conflict and therefore may increase the tendency of non-confrontational coping, while the idiocentrism trait is more likely to encourage adopting confrontative tactics regardless of the group belongingness of the frontline service employee.

Keywords: Service encounter; Conflict; Culture; Group membership; Coping strategies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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DOI: 10.1007/s13162-013-0056-7

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