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Service sabotage: A study of antecedents and consequences

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Abstract

Although much of the existing research on employee sabotage and deviance focuses on the manufacturing sector, studies have also found evidence of deliberate employee misbehavior in a variety of service settings. In this study, the authors conceptualize and test a model of service sabotage dynamics that incorporates both the antecedents and the consequences of such behaviors. In doing so, the study contributes contemporary empirical evidence of factors associated with the deliberate sabotage of service by frontline customer-contact personnel. Using a survey-based approach, the authors collected data from 259 respondents from a sample of 1,000 respondents. The findings largely support the hypothesized antecedents of service sabotage and show that a range of individual characteristics, management control efforts, and perceived labor market conditions are linked with service sabotage. Furthermore, the analysis suggests that service sabotage behaviors are associated with individual and group rewards, effects for customers, and other performance measures.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Cardiff University, UK

    Lloyd C. Harris & Emmanuel Ogbonna

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  1. Lloyd C. Harris
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  2. Emmanuel Ogbonna
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Lloyd C. Harris (Harris@Cardiff.ac.uk) (PhD, Wales) holds the Sir Julian Hodge Chair in Strategic Marketing at Cardiff Business School. His main research interests include dysfunction at work, the marketing-organizational behavior interface, market orientation, dysfunctional behavior during consumption, e-loyalty, and organizational culture. His work has been published in theJournal of Retailing, theJournal of Service Research, theJournal of Business Research, theJournal of Management Studies, theInternational Journal of Human Resource Management, and theJournal of Services Marketing.

Emmanuel Ogbonna (Ogbonna@Cardiff.ac.uk) (PhD, Wales) is a professor of management and organizational behavior at Cardiff Business School. His major research interests are in the areas of organizational strategy, culture, human resource management, and the U.K. food retail sector. His other research interests cover all aspects of race discrimination on government-sponsored training programs. His work has been published in theJournal of Business Research, theJournal of Service Research, theJournal of Management Studies, theBritish Journal of Industrial Relations, andWork, Employment and Society. He serves on the review board of several international journals.

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Harris, L.C., Ogbonna, E. Service sabotage: A study of antecedents and consequences. JAMS 34, 543–558 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1177/0092070306287324

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