Thinking back to bitterness or recalling sweetness? The effects of customer related social stressors on customer-oriented behavior for service employees

Past literature in the area of employee-customer interactions suggest that directly serving customers is deemed one of the most important sources of work-related stress for service worker, and customer-related social stressors (CSSs) lead to many negative outcomes. However, little is known about the effects of CSSs on customer- oriented behavior (COB) among service employees in the extant research. By employing an analytic framework based on stressor - strain - outcome (S-S-O) and the conservation of resources (COR) theory, and collecting data from the matched subordinate- supervior dyads in the surveys administered at different time respectively in the hairdressing industry, the study empirically investigated the effects of CSSs on COB from the point view of psychological strain. The research revealed that: the employees confronted with CSSs tended to experience high level of psychological distress, and then decreased the performance of COB; there existed a moderating role for positive and negative ruminations on the effects of CSSs on psychological distress directly and COB indirectly (via psychological distress). Overall, this study has deepened the understanding of the CSSs' effects on service workers, and offered practical implications for improving the psychological health and job performance for service workers.