The role of religious faith and gratitude in customer incivility context: A case study in Vietnamese retail establishments

Customer incivility is a critical concern in the retail industry. This study explored the factors contributing to customer incivility and examined their effects on frontline employees in Vietnam. Additionally, it investigated the potential moderating roles of employees' religious faith and gratitude in mitigating the impact of uncivil workplace environments. A quantitative research approach was adopted, utilizing surveys administered to 958 frontline employees in Ho Chi Minh City who regularly experienced customer incivility within retail organizations. The collected data were rigorously analyzed using structural equation modeling. The analysis indicates that customer incivility negatively affects employee forgiveness and job performance, but exhibits no significant impact on perseverance. Furthermore, both employee forgiveness and perseverance contribute positively to job performance. Notably, the relationship between customer incivility and employee forgiveness was moderated by employees' religious faith and gratitude. This study highlights the significant role of religious and spiritual values in alleviating negative intentions and mitigating deviant behavior stemming from customer incivility in the retail sector. Through in-depth interviews, managers and supervisors can help improve job performance by promoting gratitude among frontline employees and identifying and recruiting candidates with strong religious faith. This study underscores the importance of addressing customer incivility and examines the effects thereof. It also emphasizes the unique role of frontline employees' religious faith and gratitude in the Vietnamese retail industry.