The article below may contain offensive and/or incorrect content.
We utilize the social intuitionist approach to moral judgment and moral disengagement theory to understand why and when employees sabotage customers. We contend that when customers mistreat employees (i.e., customer mistreatment), employees experience intuitive emotional reactions in the form of hostility, which automatically activates devaluation of targets, a specific facet of moral disengagement. In turn, employees become unencumbered by moral self-regulation and sabotage customers who mistreat them (i.e., customer-directed sabotage). We further argue that our serially mediated model is moderated by employees' perceptions of the organization's ethical climate. When ethical climates are perceived as being low, employees' hostile reactions toward misbehaving customers produce a positive relationship with devaluation of targets, and devaluation of targets results in a positive relationship with customer-directed sabotage. These positive relationships do not hold when ethical climate is perceived as being high. We test our theoretical model using a field sample of customer service employees and an experimental study to establish causality. Our results provide general support for our hypotheses. We discuss theoretical and practical implications and opportunities for future research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved)





Departments
Authors
Libraries
Current Articles
- Article Correctness Is Author's Responsibility: Science News » NIMH Director’s Statement: Our Commitment to Ending Structural Racism in Biomedical Research
- Article Correctness Is Author's Responsibility: Video » Let’s Talk About Eating Disorders with NIMH Grantee Dr. Cynthia Bulik
- Article Correctness Is Author's Responsibility: Scientific Meeting » NIMH Livestream Event: Let’s Talk About Eating Disorders with NIMH Grantee Dr. Cynthia Bulik
- Article Correctness Is Author's Responsibility: Science News » New Experiences Enhance Learning by Resetting Key Brain Circuit
- Article Correctness Is Author's Responsibility: Blog Post » From Brain Mechanisms to Novel Therapies: Understanding and Treating Eating Disorders
- Article Correctness Is Author's Responsibility: Video » GREAT: Helpful Practices to Manage Stress and Anxiety
- Article Correctness Is Author's Responsibility: Video » What are the different types of clinical research?
- Article Correctness Is Author's Responsibility: Blog Post » Enhancing and maintaining a culture of inclusive excellence: The NIH Faculty Institutional Recruitment for Sustainable Transformation (FIRST) Program
- Article Correctness Is Author's Responsibility: The snowy countries losing their identity
- Article Correctness Is Author's Responsibility: Science News » Study Identifies Risk Factors for Elevated Anxiety in Young Adults During COVID-19 Pandemic
- Article Correctness Is Author's Responsibility: Keep paying attention to your kids' mental health in this pandemic
- Article Correctness Is Author's Responsibility: Video » What is an MRI?
- Article Correctness Is Author's Responsibility: Video » What is a blood draw?
- Article Correctness Is Author's Responsibility: Video » What is Clinical Research?
- Article Correctness Is Author's Responsibility: Science News » Gene Readouts Contribute To Distinctness of Mental Disorders
- Article Correctness Is Author's Responsibility: Science News » Adaptive screener may help identify youth at risk of suicide
- Article Correctness Is Author's Responsibility: How conspiracy theories undermine people’s trust in COVID-19 vaccines
- Article Correctness Is Author's Responsibility: Curing PTSD with a shot: The new treatments that are changing lives
- Article Correctness Is Author's Responsibility: Feeling disconnected from your partner?
- Article Correctness Is Author's Responsibility: Concept Clearance » Deciphering Neuroimmune Dysfunction in HIV Utilizing Human Cell Derived in vitro and in vivo Systems