%0 Journal Article
%T Beyond Tit
%A Prashant Bordia
%A Rajiv K. Amarnani
%A Simon Lloyd D. Restubog
%J Group & Organization Management
%@ 1552-3993
%D 2019
%R 10.1177/1059601118755239
%X Customer mistreatment is a ubiquitous and pernicious form of interpersonal mistreatment leveled by customers against employees. Service workers¡¯ reactions to customer mistreatment have been traditionally viewed as tit-for-tat reactions in which service workers respond to customers¡¯ aggression with retaliation in kind. However, this tit-for-tat account does not capture the broad range of possible service worker responses to customer misbehavior. We build the case for self-esteem threat as an overarching framework for divergent employee reactions to customer mistreatment, and explain how service workers¡¯ behavioral reactions and emotional labor may systematically vary according to where service workers stake their self-esteem¡ªin performance, in others¡¯ approval, or in status¡ªusing contingencies of self-worth theory. Other features of the self-concept are identified as boundary conditions of the process
%K customer mistreatment
%K contingencies of self-worth
%K incivility
%K self-concept
%K self-esteem threat
%K service work
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1059601118755239