When the Customer Is Unethical: The Explanatory Role of Employee Emotional Exhaustion Onto Work-Family Conflict, Relationship Conflict With Coworkers, and Job Neglect

We integrate deontological ethics (Folger, 1998, 2001; Kant, 1785/1948, 1797/1991) with conservation of resources theory (Hobfoll, 1989) to propose that an employee's repeated exposure to violations of moral principle can diminish the availability of resources to appropriately attend to other p...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of applied psychology 2014-11, Vol.99 (6), p.1188-1203
Main Authors: Greenbaum, Rebecca L., Quade, Matthew J., Mawritz, Mary B., Kim, Joongseo, Crosby, Durand
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Commerce
Conflict
Conflict (Psychology)
Consumer Behavior
Consumer behaviour
Emotional Exhaustion
Emotions
Employee Interaction
Employees
Ethical Theory
Ethics
Family Conflict - psychology
Family Work Relationship
Fatigue
Fatigue - psychology
Female
Human
Humans
Interpersonal Relations
Job Performance
Job Satisfaction
Longitudinal Studies
Male
Management theory
Middle Aged
Morals
Occupational Stress
Organization
Organizational behavior
Studies
Work - psychology
Work life balance
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Summary:We integrate deontological ethics (Folger, 1998, 2001; Kant, 1785/1948, 1797/1991) with conservation of resources theory (Hobfoll, 1989) to propose that an employee's repeated exposure to violations of moral principle can diminish the availability of resources to appropriately attend to other personal and work domains. In particular, we identify customer unethical behavior as a morally charged work demand that leads to a depletion of resources as captured by employee emotional exhaustion. In turn, emotionally exhausted employees experience higher levels of work-family conflict, relationship conflict with coworkers, and job neglect. Employee emotional exhaustion serves as the mediator between customer unethical behavior and such outcomes. To provide further evidence of a deontological effect, we demonstrate the unique effect of customer unethical behavior onto emotional exhaustion beyond perceptions of personal mistreatment and trait negative affectivity. In Study 1, we found support for our theoretical model using multisource field data from customer-service professionals across a variety of industries. In Study 2, we also found support for our theoretical model using multisource, longitudinal field data from service employees in a large government organization. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
ISSN:0021-9010
1939-1854
DOI:10.1037/a0037221