THE INFLUENCE OF CUSTOMER INCIVILITY ON HOTEL FRONTLINE EMPLOYEES' RESPONSES AND SERVICE SABOTAGE: DOES CO-WORKER SUPPORT MATTER?

Customer incivility poses a difficulty for service industries since employees' negative responses to such customers may threaten the organization's success. Service industries implement stringent display guidelines and keep an eye on how Frontline Employees' Responses (FLEs) engage...

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Main Authors: Mohamed Fathy AGINA, Dalia Abdelrahman FARRAG, Humoud Mohamed JABER, Sameh FAYYAD, Tamer M. ABBAS, Anas A. SALAMEH, Mohammed N. ELZINY
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Editura Universităţii din Oradea 2025-01-01
Series:Geo Journal of Tourism and Geosites
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Online Access:https://gtg.webhost.uoradea.ro/PDF/GTG-1-2025/gtg.58108-1393.pdf
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author Mohamed Fathy AGINA
Dalia Abdelrahman FARRAG
Humoud Mohamed JABER
Sameh FAYYAD
Tamer M. ABBAS
Anas A. SALAMEH
Mohammed N. ELZINY
author_facet Mohamed Fathy AGINA
Dalia Abdelrahman FARRAG
Humoud Mohamed JABER
Sameh FAYYAD
Tamer M. ABBAS
Anas A. SALAMEH
Mohammed N. ELZINY
author_sort Mohamed Fathy AGINA
collection DOAJ
description Customer incivility poses a difficulty for service industries since employees' negative responses to such customers may threaten the organization's success. Service industries implement stringent display guidelines and keep an eye on how Frontline Employees' Responses (FLEs) engage with customers. This study aims to investigate the impact of customer incivility on FLEs' negative responses and service sabotage, and to evaluate the moderating effect of co-worker support. The data is collected from 386 Sharm El-Sheikh hotel employees. The PLS-SEM results revealed that customer incivility positively affects service sabotage, FLEs rumination, and retaliation intention. Similarly, the study findings proved that FLEs' rumination and retaliation intention positively affect service sabotage behavior. Accordingly, both FLEs' rumination and retaliation intention, based on the results, succeeded in mediating the linkage between customer incivility and service sabotage behavior. In addition, the current study strived to use co-worker support as a strategy to mitigate customer incivility consequences by investigating its influence as a moderator on the relationships of customer incivility towards both FLEs' rumination and retaliation intention, and the result demonstrated that co-worker support succeeded in mitigating the customer incivility negative impacts. The study's results broaden our understanding of the effect of customer incivility on two different types of employee responses (psychological and behavioral). The practical contributions recommend the need to train FLEs to give them sufficient experience and skills to deal with customer incivility behaviors, and mutual support behaviors must be developed among workers.
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spelling doaj-art-7caa1c1d5687473897d120de8888bc652025-08-20T02:40:33ZengEditura Universităţii din OradeaGeo Journal of Tourism and Geosites2065-08172065-11982025-01-015818910410.30892/gtg.58108-1393THE INFLUENCE OF CUSTOMER INCIVILITY ON HOTEL FRONTLINE EMPLOYEES' RESPONSES AND SERVICE SABOTAGE: DOES CO-WORKER SUPPORT MATTER?Mohamed Fathy AGINA0Dalia Abdelrahman FARRAG1Humoud Mohamed JABER2Sameh FAYYAD3Tamer M. ABBAS4Anas A. SALAMEH5Mohammed N. ELZINY6Higher Institute for Specific Studies, Hotel Management Department, Heliopolis, Cairo, Egypt, e-mail: mohamadfathy.eg@gmail.comQatar University, Management and Marketing Department, College of Business & Economics, Doha, Qatar, e-mail: dfarrag@qu.edu.qaKing Khalid University, Tourism Department, College of Tourism and Hospitality, Abha, Saudi Arabia, e-mail: hjaber@kku.edu.saSuez Canal University, Hotel Studies Department, Faculty of Tourism and Hotels, Ismailia, Egypt, e-mail: sameh.fayyad@tourism.suez.edu.egKing Salman International University, Faculty of Tourism and Hospitality, Cairo, Egypt, e-mail: Tamer.abbas@ksiu.edu.egPrince Sattam bin Abdulaziz University, Department of Management Information Systems, College of Business Administration, Al-Kharj, Saudi Arabia, e-mail: a.salameh@psau.edu.saKing Salman International University, Faculty of Tourism and Hospitality, Cairo, Egypt; Helwan University, Hotel Management Department, Faculty of Tourism and Hotel Management, Cairo, Egypt, e-mail: mohammed.nagi@ksiu.edu.egCustomer incivility poses a difficulty for service industries since employees' negative responses to such customers may threaten the organization's success. Service industries implement stringent display guidelines and keep an eye on how Frontline Employees' Responses (FLEs) engage with customers. This study aims to investigate the impact of customer incivility on FLEs' negative responses and service sabotage, and to evaluate the moderating effect of co-worker support. The data is collected from 386 Sharm El-Sheikh hotel employees. The PLS-SEM results revealed that customer incivility positively affects service sabotage, FLEs rumination, and retaliation intention. Similarly, the study findings proved that FLEs' rumination and retaliation intention positively affect service sabotage behavior. Accordingly, both FLEs' rumination and retaliation intention, based on the results, succeeded in mediating the linkage between customer incivility and service sabotage behavior. In addition, the current study strived to use co-worker support as a strategy to mitigate customer incivility consequences by investigating its influence as a moderator on the relationships of customer incivility towards both FLEs' rumination and retaliation intention, and the result demonstrated that co-worker support succeeded in mitigating the customer incivility negative impacts. The study's results broaden our understanding of the effect of customer incivility on two different types of employee responses (psychological and behavioral). The practical contributions recommend the need to train FLEs to give them sufficient experience and skills to deal with customer incivility behaviors, and mutual support behaviors must be developed among workers.https://gtg.webhost.uoradea.ro/PDF/GTG-1-2025/gtg.58108-1393.pdfcustomer incivilityemployees' responsesco-worker supportservice sabotagehotel frontline employees
spellingShingle Mohamed Fathy AGINA
Dalia Abdelrahman FARRAG
Humoud Mohamed JABER
Sameh FAYYAD
Tamer M. ABBAS
Anas A. SALAMEH
Mohammed N. ELZINY
THE INFLUENCE OF CUSTOMER INCIVILITY ON HOTEL FRONTLINE EMPLOYEES' RESPONSES AND SERVICE SABOTAGE: DOES CO-WORKER SUPPORT MATTER?
Geo Journal of Tourism and Geosites
customer incivility
employees' responses
co-worker support
service sabotage
hotel frontline employees
title THE INFLUENCE OF CUSTOMER INCIVILITY ON HOTEL FRONTLINE EMPLOYEES' RESPONSES AND SERVICE SABOTAGE: DOES CO-WORKER SUPPORT MATTER?
title_full THE INFLUENCE OF CUSTOMER INCIVILITY ON HOTEL FRONTLINE EMPLOYEES' RESPONSES AND SERVICE SABOTAGE: DOES CO-WORKER SUPPORT MATTER?
title_fullStr THE INFLUENCE OF CUSTOMER INCIVILITY ON HOTEL FRONTLINE EMPLOYEES' RESPONSES AND SERVICE SABOTAGE: DOES CO-WORKER SUPPORT MATTER?
title_full_unstemmed THE INFLUENCE OF CUSTOMER INCIVILITY ON HOTEL FRONTLINE EMPLOYEES' RESPONSES AND SERVICE SABOTAGE: DOES CO-WORKER SUPPORT MATTER?
title_short THE INFLUENCE OF CUSTOMER INCIVILITY ON HOTEL FRONTLINE EMPLOYEES' RESPONSES AND SERVICE SABOTAGE: DOES CO-WORKER SUPPORT MATTER?
title_sort influence of customer incivility on hotel frontline employees responses and service sabotage does co worker support matter
topic customer incivility
employees' responses
co-worker support
service sabotage
hotel frontline employees
url https://gtg.webhost.uoradea.ro/PDF/GTG-1-2025/gtg.58108-1393.pdf
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