Losing the meaning of being a socially responsible service worker: Moderating effects of customer and coworker incivility

Abstract

This study investigates how a service company's corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities enhance frontline service employees' (FSEs) job performance and the contextual variables that moderate the effect of CSR on FSEs. It is proposed that FSEs' perceptions of their company's level of CSR involvement, called CSR perceptions, positively affect their customer orientation and job performance. It is also suggested that two types of harmful workplace contexts—customer and coworker incivility—reduce the positive impact of CSR perceptions. Three-month time-lagged data collected from 435 frontline employees in 21 hotels in South Korea showed that FSEs' CSR perceptions lead to higher levels of customer orientation and supervisor-rated job performance. It was also shown that customer incivility moderates the positive effect of CSR perceptions but coworker incivility does not. These results suggest that negative experiences related to customers decrease the positive effect of CSR more than those related to the workplace atmosphere or culture. Further, the theoretical and practical implications of the results are discussed.