Abstract
Despite researchers' increasing attention on customer sexual harassment, few studies have investigated its effects on the service performance of frontline employees. This study examined the link between customer sexual harassment, as perceived by frontline employees, and their service performance by focusing on the mediating role of difficulty in maintaining display rules and the moderating role of traditionality. The results from a field survey of 359 supervisor-subordinate dyads in a chain of restaurants in China provided evidence that difficulty in maintaining display rules mediates the negative relationship between customer sexual harassment and service performance. In addition, Chinese traditional values attenuate the relationship between customer sexual harassment and difficulty in maintaining display rules and the mediating effect of difficulty in maintaining display rules. Implications for theory, research and management practice are discussed.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 333-356 |
| Number of pages | 24 |
| Journal | Human Relations |
| Volume | 67 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Mar 2014 |
Scopus Subject Areas
- Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)
- Social Sciences(all)
- Strategy and Management
- Management of Technology and Innovation
User-Defined Keywords
- affective delivery
- China
- customer sexual harassment
- display rules
- service performance
- traditionality
