When the Customer is Not Always Right: A Comparison Between Salvadorean and Taiwanese Employees in the Service Industry

Abstract

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Emotions play an essential role in the customer service industry. Employees who work attending customers are expected to display certain emotions and suppress others, and this effort of managing emotions in exchange for a wage, has been defined as “emotional labor.” This study aimed to investigate the relationship between emotional labor and burnout, furthermore examine the role of customer mistreatment as a moderator, making a comparison between Salvadorean and Taiwanese employees in the service industry. The sample of this study were 289 employees in the service industry who have frequent interaction with customers. The sample is divided by 154 Salvadorean responses and 135 Taiwanese responses. Hierarchical regression, structural equation modeling (SEM) and multi-group SEM were used to test the hypotheses. The findings showed that surface acting is positively related to burnout (more emotional exhaustion, more depersonalization, and personal accomplishment) However deep acting was not associated with any of the three components of burnout. Significant differences between the main effects of surface acting or deep acting between Taiwan and El Salvador were not observed. Customer mistreatment was not found to have a moderating effect between emotional labor (surface acting and deep acting) and burnout. However, the multi-group moderation test revealed that customer mistreatment towards Salvadorean service employees had a more positive moderating effect of surface acting on depersonalization compared to Taiwanese service workers. Customer mistreatment was not found to have a moderating effect between deep acting and burnout.