Managers of upscale hospitality firms should invest in tackling any impoliteness by employees, as such behaviour can damage customer relationships and result in loss to the business of its good reputation, says a study involving a scholar from the Institute for Tourism Studies.
The research was conducted by IFT scholar Dr. Ali Bavik, in collaboration with Ms. Yuen Lam Bavik, a doctoral student in the Department of Management and Marketing of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. The results were featured in their academic paper “Effect of employee incivility on customer retaliation through psychological contract breach: The moderating role of moral identity”, published in the International Journal of Hospitality Management.
The researchers found that “employee incivility” could lead to actual retaliatory behaviour by customers – toward employees of the service provider and against the organisation itself. Customer retaliation as mentioned in the study referred to actions taken by them “to restore equity and perceived injustice as a result of violated norms and unfulfilled promises”, the authors explained.
Employee incivility was defined as the mistreatment – by employees – of their employers’ customers. Such behaviour in “mild form” was “often associated with detrimental effects that may directly and/or indirectly harm an organisation,” the researchers noted. “Indeed, employee incivility has been found to not only provoke negative emotion such as anger among customers, but may also lead to customer turnover and trigger a spiral effect that results in customer incivility toward employees.”
The researchers advised managers of upscale hospitality businesses to ensure that “all levels of service employees are well informed about the importance of their professionalism and the maintenance of high quality of service.” They suggested that one strategy for firms to tackle employee incivility was regularly to provide training to inform staff about examples of such behaviours that they might unintentionally display.
“Related training interventions can include demonstrating scenarios of employee incivility with role-play,” and may help reduce the frequency or likelihood of uncivil behaviour, the researchers noted.
Benefits of direct complaint
The study findings showed that customers whose sense of moral identity was labelled by researchers as “strong”, tended to choose “vindictive complaining” rather than other indirect retaliatory means to express their discontent with staff behaviour.
“Customers high in moral identity may perceive [vindictive complaining] as a legitimate way for serving 2 moral-oriented objectives,” the researchers suggested. “First, such direct confrontation punishes the wrongdoer who violated the principle of ‘fairness’ that is essential to customers’ moral self-concept. Second, it instantly prompts the organisation to address its service failure to prevent other customers from being victims in the future.”
The study noted that managers should be aware that instant feedback and complaints from customers need not be a negative phenomenon. Compared to other retaliatory actions – such as third-party complaining and negative word of mouth – “vindictive complaining provides both the service employees and the organisations an opportunity to instantly learn from their service failure and to make improvements,” the researchers wrote.
The study results were based on questionnaires answered by more than 2,000 respondents. The sample comprised people that reported visiting at least 1 upscale restaurant in Macao in the 3 months prior to the data being gathered. Approximately 43 percent of the respondents were from Mainland China, with a similar proportion coming from the Macao SAR. Around 9 percent were from the Hong Kong SAR.
The survey findings indicated that “when customers experience rude behaviours in upscale restaurants, they feel compelled to take actions to retaliate because they perceive a violation of their psychological contract,” the authors stated.
The paper explained that the concept of a breach of psychological contract is an essential factor in shaping employees’ attitudes and behaviours. In the context of an employee-customer relationship, customers possess certain expectations regarding service delivery from service employees.
“For example, when a customer dines at a restaurant in a 5-star hotel, they will expect excellent service and a considerate attitude from its staff,” the researchers wrote. “Therefore, even uncivil behaviours without a clear intention to cause harm… may betray customers’ expectations and confidence in the professionalism and obligations of service employees,” they wrote.
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Ms. Yuen Lam Bavik is a doctoral student in the Department of Management and Marketing of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Her research interests include workplace emotions, social support, ethics and leadership. She has engaged in research projects in the Macao SAR and the Hong Kong SAR.
