Navigating Unpleasant Interactions: The Influence of Customer Mistreatment on Hospitality Employee Responses Employing Mindfulness as a Moderator
Jie Yin, Yensen Ni, Yangchu Fan, Yu‐Hsin Chen
Sustainability September 27, 2023 DOI: 10.3390/su151914288 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Observational survey study using structural equation modeling Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Hospitality industry employees |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Citations | 7 |
| Key findings | Mindfulness weakened the association between customer mistreatment and emotional exhaustion, but, unexpectedly, strengthened the association between emotional exhaustion and turnover intention. The authors suggest mindful employees may handle customer emotions and avoid immediate conflict, yet may also recognize their situation clearly and choose to leave for a new job. |
Abstract
Customer mistreatment may be an unavoidable issue for the hospitality industry. Based on the Pressure–State–Response (PSR) framework, this study investigates the process of employees’ pressure, state, and responses to customer mistreatment with the moderation of mindfulness. By using structure modeling equation techniques, we find that employees with high levels of mindfulness can mitigate the impact of customer mistreatment on emotional exhaustion; however, this study unexpectedly found that mindfulness can enhance the impact of emotional exhaustion on turnover intention. This study concludes that instead of conflicting with customers, resulting in their emotional exhaustion, these employees with mindfulness may deal with customer emotions, avoiding the immediate negative impact of customer mistreatment, which is beneficial for hospitality enterprises, particularly given the present state of competition in the industry. Even so, we find that these employees with high-level mindfulness may recognize reality rather than become confused in such circumstances and may choose to leave to find a new job. As such, there is still room for future research into ways to cope with customer mistreatment without increasing the turnover intention of such employees.
Comparable studies
Other cross-sectional and survey studies on meditation, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Construct Validity of the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire in Meditating and Nonmeditating Samples Experienced meditators and nonmeditating comparison groups | 2008 | Cross-sectional study | |
| Neural Correlates of Dispositional Mindfulness During Affect Labeling Adult participants | 2007 | Observational cross-sectional | n = 27 |
| Assessing mindfulness in children and adolescents: Development and validation of the Child and Adolescent Mindfulness Measure (CAMM). School-aged children and adolescents | 2011 | Cross-sectional validation study | n = 1,413 |
| Mindfulness and self-compassion as predictors of psychological wellbeing in long-term meditators and matched nonmeditators Experienced meditators and demographically matched nonmeditators | 2012 | Cross-sectional study | n = 152 |
| Mechanisms of Action in the Inverse Relationship Between Mindfulness and Psychological Distress Undergraduates | 2008 | Cross-sectional, correlational |
Citations in the library
Cites 2
- Effects of mindfulness-based stress reduction course on stress, mindfulness, job self-efficacy and motivation among unemployed people Australian Journal of Career Development July 1, 2013
- Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for generalized anxiety disorder. Journal of Anxiety Disorders July 22, 2007