The emotional toll of customer incivility: exploring the links to work–family conflict and organizational support

Purpose Grounded in the Affective Events Theory (AET), this study aims to delve into the relationship between customer incivility and work–family conflicts, as well as the underlying mechanisms. By incorporating negative affect as a mediator and perceived organizational support as a moderator, the proposed conceptual model investigates how customer incivility affects employee work–family conflict with negative affect playing a mediating role. Design/methodology/approach A two-stage (one-time and diary survey) and multiperiod (daily and nightly surveys, 11 times each day for seven days a week) data-collection method was adopted. Eventually, 559 valid records from 162 frontline employees were obtained and analyzed using SPSS 25.0, STATA 18.5, Mplus 8.3 and R 4.3.1 statistical software, thereby empirically validating the model. Findings The results demonstrate that customer incivility has a significant and positive impact on employees’ negative affect. Moreover, this negative affect significantly and positively influences work–family conflicts, thus mediating the relationship between customer incivility and work–family conflict. Perceived organizational support also positively moderates the effect of customer incivility on negative affect, as well as the mediating role of negative affect in the connection between customer incivility and work–family conflicts. Originality/value This study broadens the scope of the impact of customer incivility to the organizational context and considers its influence on the family, another crucial life domain for employees. This fills a research gap regarding the consequences of customer incivility and enriches the understanding of the emotional burden it imposes.