What is it about?
This work proposes identity theory as a novel theoretical lens for understanding frontline em- ployees' responses to customer incivility in tourism and hospitality. We
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Why is it important?
Customer incivility towards frontline employees is becoming a frequent phenomenon with far-reaching ramifications for front-line employees and managers in the tourism and hospitality industries. As such, it has attracted the interest of a nascent research community in tourism and hospitality in particular (Balaji et al., 2020; Kim & Baker, 2020) and management more broadly (Yue et al., 2021). Despite the insights that these research streams offer in understanding the psychological processes that frontline em- ployees undergo when experiencing customer incivility, scarce, if any, work has attempted to shed light on identity threats as a theoretical mechanism through which customer incivility influences frontline employees' identity enactment and map the diverse ways frontline employees respond to such (external to the organization) threats (Baum, Kralj, Robinson, & Solnet, 2016). Addressing this void of knowledge will enable managers in tourism and hospitality understand how to best address the various demean- ing behaviors that frontline employees face.
Perspectives
This research therefore contributes to tourism and hospitality in several ways. First, it proposes a novel theoretical lens (i.e., identity threat) for interpreting employees varied behavioral responses to customer incivility. Second, findings expand prior work in tourism and hospitality by confirming customer incivility as an extra-organizational source of threat to (individual and collective) frontline employees' identity that generates differential psychological and behavioral responses (Lugosi, 2019). Third, it provides tactical directions regarding the effectiveness of different forms of organizational rewards (i.e., monetary vs non- monetary) during customer incivility incidents, expanding work on managerial interventions that support frontline employees in coping with uncivil customers (e.g., Balaji et al., 2020). Fourth, findings elaborate the benefits of offering (reward) choice in the management of customer incivility incidents (Bani-Melhem, Quratulain, & Al-Hawari, 2020). Finally, the research proposes a four- step appraisal process that can help managers alleviate the disruptive consequences of customer incivility incidents on employees.
Dr. Avraam Papastathopoulos
University of Dubai
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This page is a summary of: Customer incivility as an identity threat for frontline employees: The mitigating role of organizational rewards, Annals of Tourism Research, May 2023, Elsevier,
DOI: 10.1016/j.annals.2023.103555.
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