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Misleading by Example: The Effects of a Manager’s Unfair Customer Treatment on Service Employee Performance and Perceived Managerial Trustworthiness

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Abstract

We explore service worker reactions to a supervisor’s fair treatment of customers (i.e., customer-directed fairness), utilizing the group-value model of fairness to formulate two distinct predictions: (1) a status cuing effect, in which employees internalize social cues from the supervisor’s behavior to determine the social value of customers, and adapting their own customer-oriented behaviors to reflect the supervisor’s cue, and (2) a character indictment effect, in which employees use customer-directed fairness to assess the trustworthiness of the supervisor’s character. Results from experimental and field data provide evidence for these dual effects and show how each ultimately affects the employee’s in-role and extra-role customer service behavior. Implications are discussed with regard to the group-value model of fairness, alternative theories of fairness, and practical applications.

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This study was funded with internal funds made available by one or more of the authors’ institutions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Prince Mohammed Bin Salman College of Business and Entrepreneurship, 7082 Bay La Sun – Juman Street, Unit No. 1, King Abdullah Economic City, 23964-2522, Saudi Arabia

    Joel M. Evans

  2. Goddard School of Business and Economics, Weber State University, Ogden, UT, 84408, USA

    Jennifer Anderson

  3. Eller College of Management, 1130 E. Helen St., P.O. Box 210108, Tucson, AZ, 85721-0108, USA

    Stephen Gilliland

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  1. Joel M. Evans
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Correspondence to Joel M. Evans.

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Evans, J.M., Anderson, J. & Gilliland, S. Misleading by Example: The Effects of a Manager’s Unfair Customer Treatment on Service Employee Performance and Perceived Managerial Trustworthiness. Soc Just Res 31, 260–289 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11211-018-0310-0

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