Customer incivility and emotional labor: the mediating role of dualistic work passion and the moderating role of conscientiousness

Customer incivility is common in service-oriented organizations, possibly having a detrimental effect on the jobs of employees who experience it. Based on the affective events theory, this study explored the mechanism of customer incivility on emotional labor. We also explored the mediating role of dualistic work passion and the moderating role of conscientiousness. We surveyed employees from the catering and hospitality industries, collected data at two time points, and performed data analysis using structural equation modeling. The study found that harmonious passion mediated between customer incivility and deep acting, while obsessive passion mediated between customer incivility and surface acting. Conscientiousness not only moderated the relationship between customer incivility and dualistic work passion but also moderated the mediating role of dualistic work passion in the relationship between customer incivility and emotional labor. Our findings enrich related research on customer incivility, and theoretical and practical implications and future research directions are proposed.