How does service sabotage stimulate customer-oriented organizational citizenship behavior? The roles of guilt and locus of control

Purpose The purpose of this study is to explain how and why employees’ involvement in service sabotage stimulates customer-oriented organizational citizenship behavior, and to explore the mediating role of guilt and the moderating role of locus of control. Design/methodology/approach Three studies were conducted, including two experimental studies and a questionnaire study. This study used Process and partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to analyze the data. Findings Service sabotage can trigger employees’ customer-oriented OCB, and guilt mediates this direct relationship. Moreover, the internal locus of control intensifies the direct effect between service sabotage and guilt, and the indirect relationship between service sabotage and customer-oriented OCB through guilt. Practical implications This study provides suggestions for how organizations can effectively prevent and respond to employee service sabotage and for managers to provide targeted measures for different types of service sabotage. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to verify the consequences of service sabotage from a perpetrator-centered perspective, revealing the internal mechanism and boundary conditions of service sabotage stimulating customer-oriented OCB, and expanding the application scenarios of moral compensation theory.