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When service providers become service recipients: negative spillover effects of burnout among luxury service providers

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Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of frontline luxury service providers’ emotional labor induced burnout on their retaliatory behaviors in two contexts: within the organizational context (frontline luxury service providers’ work domain) and outside of the organizational context (frontline luxury service providers’ personal domain: when they become luxury service recipients). The moderating effects of extrinsic motivations (organizational rewards and social rewards) on the relationship between emotional labor and burnout is also explored. A total of 283 frontline luxury service providers participated in the survey. Structural equation modeling was employed to test the theoretical model. The results show that frontline luxury service providers’ burnout is positively related to retaliatory behaviors, both as providers and recipients of luxury services. Moreover, this study finds that only surface acting, not deep acting, is positively related to burnout in the context of luxury services. When it comes to moderation effect, only extrinsic motivation for organizational rewards is found to have a moderating effect on the relationship between deep acting and burnout. This study contributes to the literature by extending the scope of the domain of workplace burnout, from within organizational context to outside of the organizational context, based on the horizontal negative spillover effects. In this study, the authors make the first attempt to explore a new context of the luxury providers’ personal domain (when frontline luxury service providers become service recipients) in response to their workplace burnout.

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Declarations

This paper received IRB approval. All procedures were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institution or practice at which the studies were conducted. Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Business, Yonsei University, 50 Yonsei-ro Seodaemun-gu, Seoul, 03722, Republic of Korea

    Hyowon Hyun

  2. College of Business, University of Michigan-Dearborn, 137B FCS (Fairlane Center South), 19000 Hubbard Drive, Dearborn, MI, 48126, USA

    Kyungwon Kyung Lee

  3. Rutgers-The State University of New Jersey, 1 Washington Park, Newark, NJ, 07102, USA

    June-Ho Chung

  4. School of Business, Hanyang University, 222 Wangsimni-ro, Seongdong-gu, Seoul, 04763, Republic of Korea

    Jungkun Park

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  1. Hyowon Hyun
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Data collection and analysis were performed by Hyowon Hyun. The first draft of the manuscript was written by all authors. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Jungkun Park.

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Appendix

Appendix

Construct

Measurement item with indicator

Surface acting Brotheridge and Lee (2003), Grandey (2003)

SA1. I put on an act in order to deal with customers in an appropriate way

SA2. I resist expressing my true feelings

SA3. I pretend to have emotions that I do not really have

Deep acting Brotheridge and Lee (2003), Grandey (2003)

DA1. I do work hard to feel the emotions that I need to show to others.

DA2. I make an effort to actually feel the emotions that I need to display to others

DA3. I really try to feel the emotions I have to show as part of my job

Burnout Rutherford et al. (2011)

BO1. I feel used up at the end of the workday

BO2. I feel burned out from my work

Organizational deviance Jelinek and Ahearne (2010)

OD1. I put off work-related duties to attend to personal

OD2. I used company resources (paper, suppliers, fax, copier) for personal purposes

Interpersonal deviance Jelinek and Ahearne (2010)

ID1. I accepted credit for the work of other people

ID2. I criticized coworkers and colleagues

ID3. I blamed coworkers and colleagues when things went wrong at work

Customer retaliatory behavior Grégoire and Fisher (2008)

CRB1. When I receive a service in the situation above, I would complain to the store to make someone from the service pay for its poor service

CRB2. When I receive a service in the situation above,a I would complain to the consumer agency so that it could spread the word about my misadventure

Extrinsic motivation for organizational rewards Verleye (2015)

EMOR1. When I suffer from emotional labor from my job, an appropriate financial incentive can make me feel better

EMOR2. When I suffer from emotional labor from my job, direct monetary compensation (e.g., one-time bonus, pay raise) can make me feel better

EMOR3. When I suffer from emotional labor from my job, indirect monetary rewards (e.g., promotional opportunities, benefits package) can make me feel better

Extrinsic motivation for social rewards House and Dessler (1974)

EMSR1. When I suffer from emotional labor from my job, I can approach my supervisor

EMSR2. When I suffer from emotional labor from my job, I seek help from my supervisor to make the job more pleasant

EMSR3. In a job involving high emotional labor, my supervisor supports all workers by treating them as his/her equal

  1. a“When I receive a service in the situation above” refers to the scenario provided to measure customer retaliatory behavior during data collection

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Hyun, H., Lee, K.K., Chung, JH. et al. When service providers become service recipients: negative spillover effects of burnout among luxury service providers. Curr Psychol 42, 1270–1283 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-021-01502-3

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