School of Management, Harbin Institute of Technology, China
Customer mistreatment is an inevitable part of service sectors. Although we have accumulated certain knowledge about how employees respond to experienced customer mistreatment, less is known about how third parties react to customer mistreatment. Based on deontic justice theory, we propose that observed customer mistreatment increases observers’ sympathy for coworkers and anger at customers, subsequently enhancing their adaptive behaviors in the workplace, namely, coworker–directed helping and customer–directed cheating. We further suggest that such effects will be influenced by observers’ team identification and prosocial identity. Specifically, observers with higher (vs. lower) team identification will be more inclined to experience sympathy for coworkers and anger at customers, and those with higher (vs. lower) prosocial identity will be more inclined to engage in coworker–directed helping and less inclined to customer–directed cheating. We tested our hypotheses using a multi-wave and multisource field study. The results support our hypotheses. Implications to theory, research, and practice are discussed.
