From laughter to order: Examining how and when employee humor mitigates customer mistreatment

Abstract

While interest in how to mitigate customer mistreatment in the hotel context is increasing, few studies have examined this issue from the perspective of employee behavior. To address this gap, we focus on the role of humor and examine how and when employee humor can mitigate customer mistreatment. By integrating affective event theory and social exchange theory, we propose that employee humor can reduce customer mistreatment by increasing customer positive affect. Moreover, the influence of employee humor on customer positive affect as well as the indirect influence of employee humor on customer mistreatment through customer positive affect are particularly pronounced among female customers compared with male customers. We find support for our predictions in a field study (Study 1) and a scenario experiment (Study 2). Overall, this study advances existing studies on humor and customer mistreatment and provides insightful implications for managers to foster healthy and sustainable employee-customer interactions.