A COVID-19 contextual study of customers’ mistreatment and counterproductive work behavior at coffee cafés

Purpose: The issue of customer mistreatment in food and retail sectors has come under the spotlight during the COVID-19 crisis. The purpose of this paper is to examine the problem in the COVID-19 pandemic context and study its implications for employee counterproductive behavior in the workplace. Sp...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Ahmad, S. (Author), Ahmed, I. (Author), Islam, T. (Author), Kaleem, A. (Author)
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Emerald Group Holdings Ltd. 2021
Subjects:
Online Access:View Fulltext in Publisher
LEADER 02410nam a2200241Ia 4500
001 10.1108-BFJ-07-2020-0664
008 220427s2021 CNT 000 0 und d
020 |a 0007070X (ISSN) 
245 1 0 |a A COVID-19 contextual study of customers’ mistreatment and counterproductive work behavior at coffee cafés 
260 0 |b Emerald Group Holdings Ltd.  |c 2021 
856 |z View Fulltext in Publisher  |u https://doi.org/10.1108/BFJ-07-2020-0664 
520 3 |a Purpose: The issue of customer mistreatment in food and retail sectors has come under the spotlight during the COVID-19 crisis. The purpose of this paper is to examine the problem in the COVID-19 pandemic context and study its implications for employee counterproductive behavior in the workplace. Specifically, this study aims to investigate the relationship between customer mistreatment and employee counterproductive behavior by considering the mediating role of cognitive rumination and moderating role of servant leadership at coffee cafés that operated during the COVID-19 smart lockdown period. Design/methodology/approach: Structured questionnaires were distributed to 479 frontline staff working at cafés and coffee shops located in two large cities of Pakistan. The questionnaire data were analyzed by using bootstrapped regression procedures to determine how the investigated variables influenced counterproductive work behavior during the pandemic. Findings: The findings revealed a positive influence of customer mistreatment on counterproductive work behavior both directly as well as indirectly in the presence of employee rumination as a mediator. Furthermore, the presence of servant leadership at cafés and coffee shops was found to moderate the impact of customer mistreatment during the pandemic. Originality/value: The study offers a novel insight into the relationships between mistreatment by customers, counterproductive work behavior, employee rumination and servant leadership in the COVID-19 pandemic context, hitherto unexplored. © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited. 
650 0 4 |a Coffee cafés 
650 0 4 |a Counterproductive behavior 
650 0 4 |a COVID-19 
650 0 4 |a Customer mistreatment 
650 0 4 |a Employee rumination 
650 0 4 |a Servant leadership 
700 1 |a Ahmad, S.  |e author 
700 1 |a Ahmed, I.  |e author 
700 1 |a Islam, T.  |e author 
700 1 |a Kaleem, A.  |e author 
773 |t British Food Journal