Why customer mistreatment undermines hospitality employees' performance: the moderating role of job crafting

Purpose Based on the person-environment (P-E) fit theory, this study aims to explore the effect of customer mistreatment on the reduced service performance of hospitality employees mediated by person-job (P-J) fit perceptions and moderated by job crafting. Design/methodology/approach The authors tested this study's hypotheses with a nine-day diary study involving 83 service employees located in Lanzhou, China; a total of 548 daily surveys were completed. The authors used multilevel structural equation modeling to analyze the data. Findings Employees who experienced daily customer mistreatment suffered diminished P-J fit perceptions, leading to lower levels of service performance the next day. In addition, job crafting significantly buffered the impact of customer mistreatment on P-J fit perceptions and the indirect impact of customer mistreatment on service performance through P-J fit perceptions. Practical implications Given the damaging effect that customer mistreatment has on service performance, where employees' P-J fit perceptions are impaired, hotel managers should implement service competence improvement training programs and managerial preventions to reduce the possibility of customer mistreatment behavior. The moderating role of job crafting behavior suggests that managers should offer supportive practices (i.e. job autonomy) to encourage job crafting behaviors among employees. Originality/value This study reveals that individuals' P-J fit perceptions can explain the damaging impacts of customer mistreatment on service performance, a finding that contributes valuable information to the literature on customer mistreatment and P-E fit. Second, this study also tests the impact of individuals' job crafting behaviors in terms of mitigating the negative effect of customer mistreatment. Finally, this study's findings broaden the scope of predictors of P-J fit perceptions by revealing that customer mistreatment can pose a threat to hospitality employees' P-J fit perceptions.