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If You Are Emotionally Intelligent: The effects of customer‐related social stressors on counterproductive work behavior for front‐line service employees
Author(s) -
Zhang Ran,
Redfern Kylie,
Newman Meredith A.,
FerreiraMeyers Karen
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
international journal of selection and assessment
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.812
H-Index - 61
eISSN - 1468-2389
pISSN - 0965-075X
DOI - 10.1111/ijsa.12145
Subject(s) - psychology , emotional exhaustion , front line , emotional intelligence , mediation , stressor , moderated mediation , social psychology , counterproductive work behavior , service (business) , customer service , applied psychology , sample (material) , perceived organizational support , organizational citizenship behavior , burnout , organizational commitment , marketing , clinical psychology , business , political science , law , chemistry , chromatography
Recent literature in the area of employee–customer interactions suggests that stressful encounters contribute to negative outcomes for service employees. Few studies, however, have focused on the effects of customer‐related social stressors (CSS) on counterproductive work behavior (CWB) among front‐line service employees. The researchers tested a moderated mediation model of the effects of CSS on CWB with the key objective of exploring the mediation effects of emotional exhaustion and the moderating effects of emotional intelligence on this relationship. Based on a sample of 244 call center representatives in China, the research revealed that CSS led to emotional exhaustion, which, in turn, related to CWB for service employees. Furthermore, emotional intelligence acted as a buffer on the effects of CSS on CWB via emotional exhaustion.