Frontline Service Employees' Profiles: Exploring Individual Differences in Perceptions of and Reactions to Workplace...

Area of Science:

• Organizational Behavior
• Human Resource Management
• Service Industry Studies

Background:

• Employee turnover is a significant challenge in the service sector.
• Workplace incivility is a key job stressor contributing to turnover.
• Understanding employee responses to incivility and support is crucial.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify distinct profiles of frontline service employees based on perceptions of incivility and social support.
• To examine how these profiles relate to different job outcomes, particularly turnover intention.
• To explore the moderating role of tenure and social support on the impact of incivility.

Main Methods:

• Cross-sectional study with 291 Norwegian frontline service employees.
• Data collected via questionnaires.
• Analysis included correlation, K-means clustering, and ANOVA with Bonferroni correction.

Main Results:

• Three distinct employee clusters emerged based on incivility and social support perceptions.
• Employees reporting high incivility and low social support exhibited the highest turnover intention.
• Longer tenure and high social support were associated with better coping with incivility and lower turnover intention.

Conclusions:

• Employee profiles regarding workplace incivility and social support significantly influence turnover intention.
• Social support and employee tenure are critical factors in mitigating the negative effects of workplace incivility.
• Targeted interventions to enhance social support can reduce employee turnover in the service industry.