An exploratory study of retail sales employees’ service sabotage: Examining the impact of emotional exhaustion and organizational support

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how emotional exhaustion may increase the likelihood of a retail salesperson’s usage of service sabotage. This paper also investigates how perceived organizational support alleviates a retail salesperson’s emotional exhaustion and service sabotage. Two hundred sixteen non-management sales employees across a variety of retail organizations were sampled. Results found that emotional exhaustion positively impacts service sabotage. In addition, emotional exhaustion partially mediates the relationship between perceived organizational support and service sabotage. These findings have important implications for service providers. In order for a retail organization to be sustainable, employers need to look for and seek to minimize signs of emotional exhaustion in their employees. In addition, employers need to make employees aware of the support provided by the organization that may help to reduce service sabotage.