Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

• Vahid Mirzaei ¹
• Hamed Erfaniyan ²

¹ Assistant Professor, Department of Management, Islamic Azad University, Bojnourd, Iran

² Ph.D. Student of Public Administration, Bojnourd Branch, Islamic Azad University, Bojnourd, Iran.

Abstract

Introduction
The highly competitive service industry often experiences customer aggression towards frontline employees, causing stress and discomfort for service workers, and leading to decreased motivation and job satisfaction. The theory of conservation of resources suggests that retaining valuable employees is crucial for service organizations to differentiate themselves from competitors, especially as employee turnover can lead to the loss of brand equity (Wheeler et al., 2006). Ensuring employee satisfaction and mitigating the impact of customer aggression are essential to maintaining service quality in the hospitality industry, where customers have become increasingly discerning and can easily switch between service providers. Active managers in service organizations attempt to reduce emotional exhaustion among employees through effective counseling and coaching. Despite these efforts, customer aggression and negative behavior towards hotel employees continue to persist, leading to job dissatisfaction and high turnover rates. In service organizations like hotels, intense competition and customer aggression have led to a submissive organizational culture that causes stress and anxiety among employees, ultimately resulting in high turnover rates (Abbas et al., 2014). Mashhad, as a tourist-friendly city, has experienced a recent surge in hotel development, increasing the competition among service organizations. While paying attention to the role of frontline employees in providing tourism services and hospitality to customers can effectively attract and retain customers, observations indicate that frontline employees in the hotel industry face aggressiveness and inappropriate behavior from customers. The present study investigates the mediating role of emotional exhaustion, as well as the moderating roles of distributive justice and organizational pride in the context of five-star hotels in Mashhad.
Materials and Methods
The present research employed a field data collection method and the method of descriptive correlation. The statistical population of the research consisted of the staff of five-star hotels in Mashhad in 2021. Cochran’s formula and simple random sampling method were used to select a sample of 110 participants. Six standard questionnaires were used to collect the data. The validity of the questionnaires were approved by the experts, and the reliability was measured and confirmed by Cronbach’s alpha coefficient. To analyze the data, the study employed both descriptive statistics (frequency and percentage) and inferential statistics (skewness-elongation and structural equation method with a partial least squares approach) through Amos software.
Results and Discussion
The results showed a significant relationship between customer aggression and turnover intention. Moreover, the study found that emotional fatigue mediates the relationship between customer aggression and job satisfaction and job satisfaction and turnover intention. The first research hypothesis was confirmed as customer aggression has a positive and significant relationship with emotional fatigue. The findings also supported the second hypothesis by showing the mediating role of emotional fatigue in the relationship between customer aggression and job satisfaction. Concerning the third hypothesis, the results showed that there is a significant inverse relationship between job satisfaction and turnover intention. Testing the fourth hypothesis, the study found that distributive justice moderates the relationship between customer aggression and emotional fatigue. Finally, concerning the fifth hypothesis, the results showed that organizational pride moderates the relationship between job satisfaction and turnover intention.
Conclusion
The present study aimed to investigate the mediating role of emotional fatigue and the moderating role of distributive justice and organizational pride in the relationship between customer aggression and turnover intention. The first hypothesis was supported as the findings showed that customer aggression has a positive and significant relationship with emotional fatigue, which is consistent with prior research conducted by Katb et al. (2009), Behzor and Yagil (2005), and Grandey et al. (2007). Hotel employees are exposed to high levels of stress in the workplace. Due to the lack of organizational support and insufficient training, they are unable to deal with the stressful situations related to customer aggression and anger management. Consequently, their emotional fatigue increases, their satisfaction decreases, and their desire to leave the job increases. The second hypothesis showed that emotional fatigue mediates the relationship between customer aggression and job satisfaction, which is consistent with the findings of Han et al. (2016) and Karatepe et al. (2009). According to this hypothesis, customer aggression reduces employee job satisfaction by increasing emotional fatigue. Low job satisfaction due to emotional fatigue caused by customer aggression leads to employee turnover intention. Employees who lack the ability to control themselves and are faced with potentially verbally aggressive customers in the workplace may experience job dissatisfaction. Emotional fatigue can have a destructive effect on job satisfaction of service employees. Concerning the third hypothesis, the findings indicated a significant inverse relationship between job satisfaction and turnover intention. In this case, the results are consistent with the findings of Mortazavi and Rajabipour Meibodi (2011), Samad (2006), Rahim Nia and Hoshiar (2010), Islam et al. (2014), Saleh et al. (2012) and Shahbazi et al. (2008). This finding highlights the problem of turnover of specialized forces and managers, which is a significant issue in today’s organizations and can be the bane of the organizational movement and of the managers who seek to preserve, maintain, and improve the productivity of human resources. If employees are not satisfied with their job, the probability of leaving the organization increases. The types of employee turnover available to them are related to their job and organizational satisfaction. Thus, hotel managers can decrease turnover intention by satisfying their employees.
Regarding the fourth hypothesis, the findings showed that distributive justice moderates the relationship between customer aggression and emotional fatigue. The finding suggests that employees’ emotional fatigue increases when they face customer aggression and perceive a lack of organizational justice in terms of fair allocation of rights, rewards, facilities, and work schedules. Moreover, when employees feel that decision-making procedures and methods concerning their conditions are fair and just, their understanding of distributive justice increases, and they will likely behave better towards clients. The results are also supported by Jafari (2015) and Golparvar and Nadi (2008). The results of the fifth hypothesis showed that organizational pride moderates the relationship between job satisfaction and turnover intention. This finding suggests that employees with high job satisfaction and organizational pride are less likely to leave their jobs. Therefore, if employees are proud of their organization, they become more emotionally and psychologically attached to their work environment. More attached to their work, such employees show increased commitment to providing services to customers and decreased desire to leave their work environment.

Keywords

• Customer Aggression
• Organizational Pride
• Emotional Fatigue
• Distributive Justice
• tendency to leave the job

Main Subjects

• tourism management