Hostname: page-component-68c7f8b79f-lqrcg Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-12-29T07:02:50.709Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Things We Do, Costs We Yet Don’t Know: Social Sharing as a Catalyst of Service Sabotage

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 September 2025

Erica Xu ,
Kan Ouyang Open the ORCID record for Kan Ouyang [Opens in a new window] ,
Xu Huang ,
Jason D. Shaw  and
Long W. Lam
Erica Xu
Affiliation:
Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong
Kan Ouyang*
Affiliation:
Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, China
Xu Huang
Affiliation:
Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong
Jason D. Shaw
Affiliation:
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Long W. Lam
Affiliation:
University of Macau, Macao
*
Corresponding author: Kan Ouyang; Email: ouyangkan@mail.shufe.edu.cn
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Building on recent advancements in moral disengagement theory and shared reality theory, we propose that employees do not need to directly experience frequent customer mistreatment to trigger their moral disengagement. Specifically, when employees frequently share their mistreatment experiences with coworkers, even infrequent instances of customer mistreatment can evoke heightened levels of moral disengagement. Conversely, when social sharing occurs less frequently, infrequent instances of customer mistreatment are associated with lower levels of moral disengagement, while more frequent customer mistreatment is linked to higher levels of moral disengagement, which then positively relates to service sabotage, indicating a positive indirect effect of the frequency of customer mistreatment on service sabotage through moral disengagement. Results from two independent time-lagged studies involving samples of call center employees (Sample 1 of Study 1), casino cage cashiers (Sample 2 of Study 1), and service representatives (Study 2) recruited from an online research platform, lend support to our propositions.

摘要

摘要

本文基于道德推脱理论和共同现实理论的最新进展, 提出员工不需要频繁经历顾客欺凌行为来触发其道德推脱。具体而言, 当员工频繁与同事分享其遭受的顾客欺凌经历时, 即使这些欺凌事件只是偶然发生, 也会让员工产生高水平的道德推脱。相反, 如果员工之间不太分享这些经历,那么只有在顾客欺凌行为频率较高时, 员工才会发生道德推脱, 并增加其不好好服务客户的行为。我们做了两项独立的时间滞后研究, 研究样本包括客服中心员工(研究1 的样本1), 赌场收银员(研究1 的样本2) ,以及通过在线研究平台招募的服务代表(研究2)。两项 研究的结果都支持了我们的假设。

Keywords

customer mistreatmentmoral disengagementservice sabotageshared reality theorysocial sharing顾客欺凌行为道德推脱服务破坏行为社会分享分享现实理论

Information

Type
Article
Information
Management and Organization Review , First View , pp. 1 - 26
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of International Association for Chinese Management Research.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

Footnotes

‡

The article has been updated since original publication. A notice detailing the change has also been published.

References

Afifi, T., Afifi, W., Merrill, A. F., Denes, A., & Davis, S. 2013. “You need to stop talking about this?”: Verbal rumination and the costs of social support. Human Communication Research, 39(4): 395–421.10.1111/hcre.12012CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ambrose, M. L., & Schminke, M. 1999. Sex differences in business ethics: The importance of perceptions. Journal of Managerial Issues, 11(4): 454–474.Google Scholar
Aquino, K., Lewis, M. U., & Bradfield, M. 1999. Justice constructs, negative affectivity, and employee deviance: A proposed model and empirical test. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 20(7): 1073–1091.10.1002/(SICI)1099-1379(199912)20:7<1073::AID-JOB943>3.0.CO;2-73.0.CO;2-7>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Asparouhov, T., & Muthén, B. 2023. Bootstrap p-value computation. [Cited 10 February 2025]. Available from URL: https://www.statmodel.com/download/FAQ-Bootstrap%20-%20Pvalue.pdfGoogle Scholar
Baer, M. D., Rodell, J. B., Dhensa-Kahlon, R. K., Colquitt, J. A., Zipay, K. P., Burgess, R., & Outlaw, R. 2018. Pacification or aggravation? The effects of talking about supervisor unfairness. Academy of Management Journal, 61(5): 1764–1788.10.5465/amj.2016.0630CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bandura, A. 1986. Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.Google Scholar
Bandura, A. 1990. Mechanisms of moral disengagement. In Reich, W. (Ed.), Origins of terrorism: Psychologies, ideologies, theologies, and states of mind: 161–191. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bandura, A. 1991. Social cognitive theory of moral thought and action. In Kurtines, W. M. & Gewirtz, J. L. (Eds.), Handbook of moral behavior and development: Theory, research and applications, vol 1: 71–129. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Bandura, A. 1999. Moral disengagement in the perpetration of inhumanities. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 3(3): 193–209.10.1207/s15327957pspr0303_3CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bandura, A., Barbaranelli, C., Caprara, G., & Pastorelli, C. 1996. Mechanisms of moral disengagement in the exercise of moral agency. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71(2): 364–374.10.1037/0022-3514.71.2.364CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baranik, L. E., Wang, M., Gong, Y., & Shi, J. 2017. Customer mistreatment, employee health, and job performance cognitive rumination and social sharing as mediating mechanisms. Journal of Management, 43(4): 1261–1282.10.1177/0149206314550995CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bauer, D. J., & Curran, P. J. 2005. Probing interactions in fixed and multilevel regression: Inferential and graphical techniques. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 40(3): 373–400.10.1207/s15327906mbr4003_5CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Beehr, T. A. 1995. Psychological stress in the workplace. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Berger, P. L., & Luckmann, T. 1966. The social construction of reality: A treatise in the sociology of knowledge. Garden City, NY: Doubleday.Google Scholar
Bies, R. J. 2001. Interactional (in)justice: The sacred and the profane. In Greenberg, J. & Cropanzano, R. (Eds.), Advances in organizational behavior: 89–118. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Brady, D. L., Brown, D. J., & Liang, L. H. 2017. Moving beyond assumptions of deviance: The reconceptualization and measurement of workplace gossip. Journal of Applied Psychology, 102(1): 1–25.10.1037/apl0000164CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brislin, R., Lonner, W. J., & Thorndike, R. 1973. Cross-cultural research methods. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Brown, S. P., Westbrook, R., & Challagalla, G. 2005. Good cope, bad cope: Adaptive and maladaptive coping strategies following a critical negative work event. Journal of Applied Psychology, 90(4): 792–798.10.1037/0021-9010.90.4.792CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Burleson, B. R. 1994. Comforting messages: Features, functions, and outcomes. In Daly, J. A. & Wiemann, J. M. (Eds.), Strategic interpersonal communication: 135–161. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Burleson, B. R., & Goldsmith, D. J. 1998. How the comforting process works: Alleviating emotional distress through conversationally induced reappraisals. In Anderson, P. A. & Guerrero, L. K. (Eds.), Handbook of communication and emotion: Research, theory, applications, and contexts: 245–280. San Diego, CA: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Chiu, C. Y., Krauss, R. M., & Lau, I. Y.-M. 1998. Some cognitive consequences of communications. In Fussell, S. R. & Kreuz, R. (Eds.), Social and cognitive approaches to interpersonal communication: 259–278. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Conley, T. D., Rabinowitz, J. L., & Hardin, C. D. 2010. O. J. Simpson as shared (and unshared) reality: The impact of consensually shared beliefs on interpersonal perceptions and task performance in different- and same-ethnicity dyads. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 99(3): 452–466.10.1037/a0019274CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Costanza, R. S., Derlega, V. J., & Winstead, B. A. 1988. Positive and negative forms of social support: Effects of conversational topics on coping with stress among same-sex friends. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 24(2): 182–193.10.1016/0022-1031(88)90020-0CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crowne, D. P., & Marlowe, D. 1960. A new scale of social desirability independent of psychopathology. Journal of Consulting Psychology, 24(4): 349–354.10.1037/h0047358CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Detert, J. R., Treviño, L. K., & Sweitzer, V. L. 2008. Moral disengagement in ethical decision making: A study of antecedents and outcomes. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93(2): 374–391.10.1037/0021-9010.93.2.374CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Detert, J. R., Burris, E. R., Harrison, D. A., & Martin, S. R. 2013. Voice flows to and around leaders: Understanding when units are helped or hurt by employee voice. Administrative Science Quarterly, 58(4): 624–668.10.1177/0001839213510151CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duffy, M. K., Ganster, D. C., & Pagon, M. 2002. Social undermining at work. Academy of Management Journal, 45(2): 331–351.10.2307/3069350CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duffy, M. K., Ganster, D. C., Shaw, J. D., Johnson, J. L., & Pagon, M. 2006. The social context of undermining behavior at work. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 101(1): 105–121.10.1016/j.obhdp.2006.04.005CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duffy, M. K., Scott, K. L., Shaw, J. D., Tepper, B. J., & Aquino, K. 2012. A social context model of envy and social undermining. Academy of Management Journal, 55(3): 643–666.10.5465/amj.2009.0804CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Echterhoff, G., Higgins, E. T., & Levine, J. M. 2009. Shared reality: Experiencing commonality with others’ inner states about the world. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 4(5): 496–521.10.1111/j.1745-6924.2009.01161.xCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Festinger, L. 1950. Informal social communication. Psychological Review, 57(5): 271–282.10.1037/h0056932CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Goff, P. A., Eberhardt, J. L., Williams, M. J., & Jackson, M. C. 2008. Not yet human: Implicit knowledge, historical dehumanization, and contemporary consequences. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 94(2): 292–306.10.1037/0022-3514.94.2.292CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Grandey, A. A., Dickter, D. N., & Sin, H. P. 2004. The customer is not always right: Customer aggression and emotion regulation of service employees. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 25(3): 397–418.10.1002/job.252CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haggard, D. L., Robert, A. J., & Rose, A. J. 2011. Co-rumination in the workplace: Adjustment trade-offs for men and women who engage in excessive discussions of workplace problems. Journal of Business and Psychology, 26(1): 27–40.10.1007/s10869-010-9169-2CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hardin, C. D., & Conley, T. D. 2001. A relational approach to cognition: Shared experience and relationship affirmation in social cognition. In Moskowitz, G. B. (Ed.), Cognitive social psychology: The Princeton symposium on the legacy and future of social cognition: 3–17. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Hardin, C. D., & Higgins, E. T. 1996. Shared reality: How social verification makes the subjective objective. In Sorrentino, R. M. & Higgins, E. T. (Eds.), Handbook of motivation and cognition: The interpersonal context, vol 3: 28–84. New York: Guilford.Google Scholar
Harris, L. C., & Reynolds, K. L. 2003. The consequences of dysfunctional customer behavior. Journal of Service Research, 6(2): 144–161.10.1177/1094670503257044CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harris, L. T., & Fiske, S. T. 2006. Dehumanizing the lowest of the low neuroimaging responses to extreme out-groups. Psychological Science, 17(10): 847–853.10.1111/j.1467-9280.2006.01793.xCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Higgins, E. T., & Rholes, W. S. 1978. “Saying is believing”: Effects of message modification on memory and liking for the person described. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 14(4): 363–378.10.1016/0022-1031(78)90032-XCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hobfoll, S. E., & Stokes, J. P. 1988. The process and mechanics of social support. In Duck, S., Hay, D. F., S., E. H., Ickes, W. & Montgomery, B. M. (Eds.), Handbook of personal relationships: Theory, research and interventions: 497–517. Oxford, UK: John Wiley & Sons.Google Scholar
Huang, G. H., Wellman, N., Ashford, S., Lee, C., & Wang, L. 2017. Deviance and exit: The organizational costs of job insecurity and moral disengagement. Journal of Applied Psychology, 102(1): 26–42.10.1037/apl0000158CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huang, Y. S. S., Greenbaum, R. L., Bonner, J. M., & Wang, C. S. 2019. Why sabotage customers who mistreat you? Activated hostility and subsequent devaluation of targets as a moral disengagement mechanism. Journal of Applied Psychology, 104(4): 495–510.10.1037/apl0000359CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jonason, P. K., & Webster, G. D. 2010. The dirty dozen: A concise measure of the dark triad. Psychological Assessment, 22(2): 420–432.10.1037/a0019265CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kahn, R. L., & Byosiere, P. 1992. Stress in organizations. In Dunnette, M. D., and Hough, L. M. (Eds.), Handbook of industrial and organizational psychology, Vol 3: 571–650. Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press.Google Scholar
Kowalski, R. M. 1996. Complaints and complaining: Functions, antecedents, and consequences. Psychological Bulletin, 119(2): 179–196.10.1037/0033-2909.119.2.179CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kteily, N., Hodson, G., & Bruneau, E. 2016. They see us as less than human: Metadehumanization predicts intergroup conflict via reciprocal dehumanization. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 110(3): 343–370.10.1037/pspa0000044CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lee, K., Kim, E., Bhave, D. P., & Duffy, M. K. 2016. Why victims of undermining at work become perpetrators of undermining: An integrative model. Journal of Applied Psychology, 101(6): 915–924.10.1037/apl0000092CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McCance, A. S., Nye, C. D., Wang, L., Jones, K. S., & Chiu, C. 2013. Alleviating the burden of emotional labor: The role of social sharing. Journal of Management, 39(2): 392–415.10.1177/0149206310383909CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McFerran, B., Aquino, K., & Duffy, M. K. 2010. How personality and moral identity relate to individuals’ ethical ideology. Business Ethics Quarterly, 20(1): 35–56.10.5840/beq20102014CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mendolia, M., & Kleck, R. E. 1993. Effects of talking about a stressful event on arousal: Does what we talk about make a difference? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73: 321–336.Google Scholar
Moore, C., Detert, J. R., Treviño, L. K., Baker, V. L., & Mayer, D. M. 2012. Why employees do bad things: Moral disengagement and unethical organizational behavior. Personnel Psychology, 65(1): 1–48.10.1111/j.1744-6570.2011.01237.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
O’Boyle, E. H. Jr, Forsyth, D. R., Banks, G. C., & McDaniel, M. A. 2012. A meta-analysis of the Dark Triad and work behavior: A social exchange perspective. Journal of Applied Psychology, 97(3): 557–579.10.1037/a0025679CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Opotow, S. 1990. Moral exclusion and injustice: An introduction. Journal of Social Issues, 46(1): 1–20.10.1111/j.1540-4560.1990.tb00268.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rose, A. J. 2002. Co-rumination in the friendships of girls and boys. Child Development, 73(6): 1830–1843.10.1111/1467-8624.00509CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rosen, C. C., Gabriel, A. S., Lee, H. W., Koopman, J., & Johnson, R. E. 2021. When lending an ear turns into mistreatment: An episodic examination of leader mistreatment in response to venting at work. Personnel Psychology, 74(1): 175–195.10.1111/peps.12418CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rupp, D. E., & Spencer, S. 2006. When customers lash out: The effects of customer interactional injustice on emotional labor and the mediating role of discrete emotions. Journal of Applied Psychology, 91(4): 971–978.10.1037/0021-9010.91.4.971CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schneider, B. 1990. The climate for service. In Schneider, B. (Ed.), Organizational climate and culture: 383–412. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.Google Scholar
Shao, R., & Skarlicki, D. P. 2014. Service employees’ reactions to mistreatment by customers: A comparison between North America and East Asia. Personnel Psychology, 67(1): 23–59.10.1111/peps.12021CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shu, L. L., Gino, F., & Bazerman, M. H. 2011. Dishonest deed, clear conscience: When cheating leads to moral disengagement and motivated forgetting. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 37(3): 330–349.10.1177/0146167211398138CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sias, P. M., & Jablin, F. M. 1995. Differential superior-subordinate relations, perceptions of fairness, and coworker communication. Human Communication Research, 22(1): 5–38.10.1111/j.1468-2958.1995.tb00360.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Skarlicki, D. P., van Jaarsveld, D. D., & Walker, D. D. 2008. Getting even for customer mistreatment: The role of moral identity in the relationship between customer interpersonal injustice and employee sabotage. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93(6): 1335–1347.10.1037/a0012704CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stride, C. B., Gardner, S., Catley, N., & Thomas, F. 2015. Mplus code for mediation, moderation, and moderated mediation models. [Cited 25 May 2017]. Available from URL: http://www.offbeat.group.shef.ac.uk/FIO/mplusmedmod.htmGoogle Scholar
Van Dyne, L., & Lepine, J. A. 1998. Helping and voice extra-role behaviors: Evidence of construct and predictive validity. Academy of Management Journal, 41(1): 108–119.10.2307/256902CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van Jaarsveld, D. D., Walker, D. D., & Skarlicki, D. P. 2010. The role of job demands and emotional exhaustion in the relationship between customer and employee incivility. Journal of Management, 36(6): 1486–1504.10.1177/0149206310368998CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wang, M., Liao, H., Zhan, Y., & Shi, J. 2011. Daily customer mistreatment and employee sabotage against customers: Examining emotion and resource perspectives. Academy of Management Journal, 54(2): 312–334.10.5465/amj.2011.60263093CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Watson, D., & Clark, L. A. 1984. Negative affectivity: The disposition to experience aversive emotional states. Psychological Bulletin, 96(3): 465–490.10.1037/0033-2909.96.3.465CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Watson, D., & Pennebaker, J. W. 1989. Health complaints, stress, and distress: Exploring the central role of negative affectivity. Psychological Review, 96(2): 234–254.10.1037/0033-295X.96.2.234CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Watson, D., Clark, L. A., & Tellegan, A. 1988. Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: The PANAS scales. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54(6): 1063–1070.10.1037/0022-3514.54.6.1063CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wu, J., & Lebreton, J. M. 2011. Reconsidering the dispositional basis of counterproductive work behavior: The role of aberrant personality. Personnel Psychology, 64(3): 593–626.10.1111/j.1744-6570.2011.01220.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zech, E. 1999. Is it really helpful to verbalize one’s emotions? Gedrag En Gezondheid, 27: 23–47.Google Scholar
Zech, E. 2000. The effects of the communication of emotional experiences. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium.Google Scholar