The Emotional Process Linking Customer Mistreatment and Employees’ Physical and Psychological Symptoms: The Moderating Roles of Daily Stressor Appraisals and Trait Empathy
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Abstract
Drawing on the stressor-emotion model, the present study examined whether daily customer mistreatment triggers off-job physical/psychological symptoms via negative emotions. Furthermore, the present study also explored the buffering roles of daily hindrance/challenging stressor appraisals and trait empathy. Using the experience sampling method, the present study collected data from 149 front-line service employees twice a day, across 10 working days, resulting in 1267 daily responses. The results of multilevel path analyses indicated that daily customer mistreatment has positive indirect effects on off-job physical/psychological symptoms via negative emotions. Furthermore, challenging stressor appraisal and trait empathy mitigate the aforementioned emotional process of daily customer mistreatment. Theoretical and practical implications were further discussed.
