An Integrated Model of Workplace Ostracism, Positive Resources and Customer Service Sabotage: A Conservation of Resources Perspective

Abstract

With theoretical underpinnings in the Conservation of resources theory, the aim of this thesis was to shed light on the mechanism through which workplace ostracism results in service sabotage behavior in frontline employees working in the service sector of Pakistan, and the boundary conditions that might play a vital role in reducing the harmful effects of such behavior. Though it is a widely accepted truth that “Customer is the king” and must be given due importance by the service providers and be treated in a pleasantly congenial way. However, regrettably, customers are not provided with the warm, compassionate dealing that is widely accepted as the service rule. Customers are frequently ridiculed and shown rude and indecorous conduct from service providers which results in a negative service encounter. Such behaviors have the capacity to harmfully influence organizational outcomes and therefore needs to be studied and comprehended comprehensively for their effective control and management. This study proposed that such a behavior has its roots in the mistreatment that frontline employees come across in their day-to-day activities, by their peers at workplace. One kind of mistreatment i.e., workplace ostracism which though, is covert in nature, has the potential to inflict more harm on employees than by overt forms of mistreatment. In accordance with the tenets of conservation of resources theory, it was hypothesized that ostracism threatens important resources and induces stress in service personnel. In order to protect themselves from further resource loss and mitigate the harmful effects of stress, employees engage in deviant behaviors towards their customers during service interactions resulting in service sabotage. In such a case, the personal and job resources (i.e., self-efficacy and perceived organizational support) that an employee possess, serves as mitigating agents and reduces the negative effect of mistreatment. To test the hypotheses, quantitative survey approach was adopted under the positivistic paradigm, and data was collected from 743 frontline employees working x in the service sector of Pakistan. Time-lagged data was collected to reduce common method bias. Convenience sampling method was utilized since population size was not known. The respondents belonged to banking, academic, health, hospitality and telecom industries.These industries were principally selected due to their contextual relevance with the study aims and the prevailing stress, mistreatment and sabotage behavior. SPSS was used to analyze the data. Hierarchal Regression and Process Macro techniques were utilized for hypotheses testing. All the relations including mediation of stress and the first, second and dual stage moderation of self-efficacy and perceived organizational support were found to be significant. However, the moderating effect of perceived organizational support at direct stage emerged to be non-significant. The findings conclusively supported the claims of mediation and moderation in the service sabotage engagement by an ostracized employee. Organizations must take account of the stress-mitigating impact of self efficacy and perceived organizational support which is principally strong for producing acceptable service encounters. Managers might not be able to prevent all exclusionary or hostile actions, but this study proposes that proactively producing the values that nurtures care, respect, self-belief and support can assist the personnel in handling stress. Because mistreatment and impolite behaviors cannot be evaded and prevented entirely in the social context of the contemporary workplace, therefore personal and job resources should be utilized by management to lessen the negative effect of mistreatment. Future research might take directions from the limitations of the study and grab the opportunity to extend the research by studying and comparing similar theoretical models in different contexts.