顾客言语侵犯对服务人员离职意愿的影响研究:心理资本的调节作用

Influence of Customer Verbal Aggression on Employee Turnover Intention in a Service Business: Psychological Capital as a Moderator

本文从顾客视角研究服务人员的离职问题,探讨顾客言语侵犯对服务人员离职意愿的影响,并引入心理资本、组织支持感进行调节。通过对呼叫中心客服代表的深度访谈和大规模问卷调查,运用相关、回归等统计分析,本文发现:(1)顾客言语侵犯对服务人员的离职意愿有显著的预测力;(2)服务人员个体的心理资本水平调节顾客言语侵犯与其离职意愿之间的关系,拥有高水平心理资本的员工在遭受顾客言语侵犯时产生离职意愿的可能性小;(3)组织支持感在顾客言语侵犯与服务人员的离职意愿之间起调节作用,员工感受到的组织支持越强,顾客言语侵犯对其离职意愿的影响就越小。这些结论启示服务型企业:在探讨员工离职问题时要关注来自顾客方面的影响;甄选员工和培训员工要重视其心理资本;提高员工心理资本水平和增强组织支持力度可以有效缓解顾客言语侵犯造成的员工情绪资源耗竭,有利于降低员工的离职意愿。

The research on employee turnover intention in the service business has focused on salaries, working conditions, the employees themselves, and similar factors. Yet little is known on how customer behavior affects employee turnover intention. We address this gap and examine the role that verbal aggression by customers plays in employee turnover intention. Another aim of this study is to examine what factors may help alleviate employee turnover intention under the condition of customer verbal aggression. Therefore, the study also explores that psychological capital （individual＇s positive psychological state of development, which is characterized by both trait and state） and perceived organizational support （employee perceived the orga- nization valued their contributions and cared about their well-being） may function as potential moderators between the customer verbal aggression and the employee turnover intention. According to these objectives, we offer a theoretical model using Conservation of Re- sources （COR） theory as the theoretical lens. The data were collected from two call centers, 1112 employees in China. Through in-depth in- terview （12 interviewees）, open survey （100 participants） and a large- scale questionnaire survey （1000 participants）, we find that customer verbal aggression has a significant and positive effect on employee turnover intention. The results also indicate that psychological capital moderates the positive association between customer verbal aggres- sion and turnover intention; this relationship is weaker for employees who possess higher level of psychological capital. Furthermore, the call center employees who perceive higher level of organizational support show less turnover intention. Our empirical results identify that customer behavior is an important dimension influencing em- ployee turnover intention in a service business. Our evidence further suggests that the psychological capital plays an important role in selecting and training employees, because high-level psychological capital can help reduce the employee turnover intention - inducing effects of customer verbal aggression. Interventions targeted at reducing the employee turnover intention in the service business associated with the psychological capital and perceived organizational support should therefore be both feasible and effective.