Thinking back to bitterness or recalling sweetness? The effects of customer related social stressors on customer-oriented behavior for service employees
Start Date
21-2-2025 4:00 PM
End Date
21-2-2025 4:20 PM
Description
Past literature in the area of employee-customer interactions suggest that directly serving customers is deemed one of the most important sources of work-related stress for service worker, and customer-related social stressors (CSSs) lead to many negative outcomes. However, little is known about the effects of CSSs on customer- oriented behavior (COB) among service employees in the extant research. By employing an analytic framework based on stressor - strain - outcome (S-S-O) and the conservation of resources (COR) theory, and collecting data from the matched subordinate- supervior dyads in the surveys administered at different time respectively in the hairdressing industry, the study empirically investigated the effects of CSSs on COB from the point view of psychological strain. The research revealed that: the employees confronted with CSSs tended to experience high level of psychological distress, and then decreased the performance of COB; there existed a moderating role for positive and negative ruminations on the effects of CSSs on psychological distress directly and COB indirectly (via psychological distress). Overall, this study has deepened the understanding of the CSSs' effects on service workers, and offered practical implications for improving the psychological health and job performance for service workers.
Speaker
Prof ZHANG Ran
Professor & Head, School of Public Administration, East China Normal University, China
Zhang Ran, Ph D. in Management Science, is the leading professor in human resource management discipline at the School of Public Administration, East China Normal University (ECNU). He serves as the Chair of the Department of Public Management and directs the Nonprofits and Social Governance Innovation Research Center at ECNU. Professor Zhang's primary research interests encompass human resource management, employee psychology within the public sector, and nonprofit management. Over the past decade, he has authored nearly 40 scholarly articles in esteemed SSCI and CSSCI journals.
Co-author(s)
SIU Oi ling; YE Chao
Document Type
Presentation
Recommended Citation
Zhang, R. (2025, February 21). Thinking back to bitterness or recalling sweetness? The effects of customer related social stressors on customer-oriented behavior for service employees. Presentation presented at the International Conference and Workshop on Health and Well-being in the Digital Era. Lingnan University, Hong Kong.
Thinking back to bitterness or recalling sweetness? The effects of customer related social stressors on customer-oriented behavior for service employees
Past literature in the area of employee-customer interactions suggest that directly serving customers is deemed one of the most important sources of work-related stress for service worker, and customer-related social stressors (CSSs) lead to many negative outcomes. However, little is known about the effects of CSSs on customer- oriented behavior (COB) among service employees in the extant research. By employing an analytic framework based on stressor - strain - outcome (S-S-O) and the conservation of resources (COR) theory, and collecting data from the matched subordinate- supervior dyads in the surveys administered at different time respectively in the hairdressing industry, the study empirically investigated the effects of CSSs on COB from the point view of psychological strain. The research revealed that: the employees confronted with CSSs tended to experience high level of psychological distress, and then decreased the performance of COB; there existed a moderating role for positive and negative ruminations on the effects of CSSs on psychological distress directly and COB indirectly (via psychological distress). Overall, this study has deepened the understanding of the CSSs' effects on service workers, and offered practical implications for improving the psychological health and job performance for service workers.