Outcomes of customer verbal aggression among hotel employees

Purpose - The central purpose of this study is to develop and test a model which examines the effects of customer verbal aggression on emotional dissonance, emotional exhaustion, and job outcomes such as service recovery performance, job satisfaction, and turnover intentions. The model also investigates the impact of emotional dissonance on emotional exhaustion and the effects of emotional dissonance and exhaustion on the above-mentioned job outcomes. Design/methodology/approach - Data were gathered from a sample of frontline hotel employees in Northern Cyprus via self-administered questionnaires. A total number of 204 questionnaires were obtained. Findings - As hypothesized, emotional dissonance and emotional exhaustion were found to be significant outcomes of customer verbal aggression. The results demonstrated that emotional dissonance amplified exhaustion. The results further revealed that customer verbal aggression and emotional dissonance intensified turnover intentions. As expected, emotional exhaustion reduced service recovery performance and job satisfaction and aggravated turnover intentions. Research limitations/implications - The cross-sectional design of the study constrains the ability to make causal inferences. Therefore, future studies using longitudinal designs would be beneficial in establishing causal relationships. Although the paper controlled for common method bias via Harman's single-factor test, future studies using multiple sources for data collection would minimize such a problem. Practical implications - Hotel managers need to arrange training programmes to enable their employees to cope with the actions of boisterous and boorish customers. Having empowerment in the workplace seems to be an important weapon in managing such customers. In addition, managers should recruit and select the most suitable individuals for frontline service positions so that such employees can cope with difficulties associated with customer verbal aggression, emotional dissonance, and emotional exhaustion. Originality/value - Empirical evidence pertaining to the consequences of customer verbal aggression in the hospitality management and marketing literatures is meagre. Thus the study partially fills this gap in the research stream of customer verbal aggression.