Does customer aggression more strongly affect happy employees? The moderating role of positive affectivity and extraversion

Customer abusive behavior has been found to be a major source of stress for service workers. The main purpose of the present
research was to investigate the moderating role of positive affectivity (PA) on the relationship between customer verbal aggression
and organizational outcomes. Three studies, based on three separate samples of service employees (Study 1: N = 187; Study 2: N = 422, Study 3: N = 156) demonstrated that frequency of customer aggression was a strong predictor of job-induced tension, job-related attitudes
and emotional dissonance even after controlling for negative affectivity. A primary finding of this research was that positive
disposition of employees did not reduce the negative consequences of interactions with aggressive customers, but rather increased
them. The research provides additional support for the notion that positive disposition can be associated with unfavorable
organizational outcomes in certain situation. The results also point out that those who are more likely to be negatively affected
by frequent interactions with aggressive customers, are the very service workers that organizations tend to value most. Implications
for management and future research are discussed.