When service providers become service recipients: negative spillover effects of burnout among luxury service providers

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of frontline luxury service providers’ emotional labor induced burnout on their retaliatory behaviors in two contexts: within the organizational context (frontline luxury service providers’ work domain) and outside of the organizational context (frontline luxury service providers’ personal domain: when they become luxury service recipients). The moderating effects of extrinsic motivations (organizational rewards and social rewards) on the relationship between emotional labor and burnout is also explored. A total of 283 frontline luxury service providers participated in the survey. Structural equation modeling was employed to test the theoretical model. The results show that frontline luxury service providers’ burnout is positively related to retaliatory behaviors, both as providers and recipients of luxury services. Moreover, this study finds that only surface acting, not deep acting, is positively related to burnout in the context of luxury services. When it comes to moderation effect, only extrinsic motivation for organizational rewards is found to have a moderating effect on the relationship between deep acting and burnout. This study contributes to the literature by extending the scope of the domain of workplace burnout, from within organizational context to outside of the organizational context, based on the horizontal negative spillover effects. In this study, the authors make the first attempt to explore a new context of the luxury providers’ personal domain (when frontline luxury service providers become service recipients) in response to their workplace burnout.