Hostname: page-component-cb9f654ff-d5ftd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-08-22T18:49:02.821Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Subtle Discrimination in the Service Sector

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2017

Amanda A. Yazejian ,
Valerie J. Morganson  and
Andrea M. Cornelius
Amanda A. Yazejian*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, The University of West Florida
Valerie J. Morganson
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, The University of West Florida
Andrea M. Cornelius
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, The University of West Florida
*
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Amanda A. Yazejian, Department of Psychology, The University of West Florida, 11000 University Parkway, Pensacola, FL 32514. E-mail: ay14@students.uwf.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

A hotel concierge notices that her White female coworker earns higher tips from guests and wonders whether this disparity is attributable to race. A financial service specialist working at a bank considers whether his age is the reason why customers in need of consultation approach his younger coworkers more often. As these examples indicate, Jones, Arena, Nittrouer, Alonso, and Lindsey's (2017) multidimensional framework extends to customer service contexts. In the sections that follow, we contextualize and extend many of Jones et al.’s arguments to the customer service industry, providing implications for both research and practice.

Information

Type
Commentaries
Information
Industrial and Organizational Psychology , Volume 10 , Issue 1 , March 2017 , pp. 100 - 107
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

DeMarco, R. (2002). Two theories/a sharper lens: The staff nurse voice in the workplace. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 38 (6), 549–556. doi:10.1046/j.1365-2648.2992.02221.x CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Deng, H., Walter, F., Lam, C. K., & Zhao, H. H. (2016). Spillover effects of emotional labor in customer service encounters toward coworker harming: A resource depletion perspective. Personnel Psychology. Advance online publication. doi:10.1111/peps.12156 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ferrand, C. (2016, July). Businesses closed during Essence get backlash from skeptics; restaurants explain closures. WDSU News. Retrieved from http://www.wdsu.com/news/local-news/new-orleans/businesses-closed-during-essence-get-backlash-from-skeptics-restaurants-explain-closures/40323576 Google Scholar
Gutek, B. A. (1995). The dynamics of service: Reflections on the changing nature of customer/provider interactions. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.Google Scholar
Jackson, D., Hutchinson, M., Luck, L., & Wilkes, L. (2013). Mosaic of verbal abuse experienced by nurses in their everyday work. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 69 (9), 2066–2075. doi:10.1111/jan.12074 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jones, K. P., Arena, D. F., Nittrouer, C. L., Alonso, N. M., & Lindsey, A. P. (2017). Subtle discrimination in the workplace: A vicious cycle. Industrial and Organizational Psychology: Perspectives on Science and Practice, 10 (1), 51–76.Google Scholar
Kern, J. H., & Grandey, A. A. (2009). Customer incivility as a social stressor: The role of race and racial identity for service employees. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 14 (1), 46–57. doi:10.1037/a0012684 Google Scholar
Krischer, M. M., Penney, L. M., & Hunter, E. M. (2010). Can counterproductive work behaviors be productive? CWB as emotion-focused coping. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 15, 154–166. doi:10.1037/a0018349 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Maslach, C., Schaufei, W. B., & Leiter, M. P. (2001). Job burnout. Annual Review of Psychology, 52, 397–422. doi:10.1146/annurev.psych.52.1.397 Google Scholar
McCance, A. S., Nye, C. D., Wang, L., Jones, K. S., & Chiu, C. (2013). Alleviating the burden of emotional labor: The role of social sharing. Journal of Management, 39, 392–415. doi:10.1177/0149206310383909 Google Scholar
Morganson, V. J. (2008). The line in the sand: Understanding customer sexual harassment through a psychological contract framework (Master's thesis). Retrieved from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. (Accession No. 1458065)Google Scholar
Morganson, V. J. (2010). Qualitative study concerning retaliation in response to customer sexual harassment. Unpublished data. Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA. Google Scholar
Morganson, V. J. (2011). Coping with customer sexual harassment: Examining retaliation as a coping strategy and testing a contextual model (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. (Accession No. 869468048)Google Scholar
Morganson, V. J., & Major, D. A. (2014). Exploring retaliation as a coping strategy in response to customer sexual harassment. Sex Roles: A Journal of Research, 71, 83–94. doi:10.1007/s11199-014-0373-9 Google Scholar
Oliveira A., R., & Flava, A. (2008). Gender violence against the female nursing staff of a Brazilian hospital in Sao Paulo city. Revista de Saude Publica, 42, 868–876. doi:10.1590/S0034-89102008000500012 Google Scholar
Schneider, B. (1987). The people make the place. Personnel Psychology, 40, 437–453. doi:10.1111/j.1744-6570.1987.tb00609.x CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schneider, B., Gunnarson, S. K., & Niles-Jolly, K. (1994). Creating the climate and culture of success. Organizational Dynamics, 23, 17–29. doi:10.1016/0090-2616(94)90085-X CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schneider, B., White, S. S., & Paul, M. C. (1998). Linking service climate and customer perceptions to service quality: Test of a causal model. Journal of Applied Psychology, 83, 150–163. doi:10.1037/0021-9010.83.2.150 Google Scholar
Skarlicki, D. P., van Jaarsveld, D. D., & Walker, D. D. (2008). Getting even for customer mistreatment: The role of moral identity in the relationship between customer interpersonal injustice and employee sabotage. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93 (6), 1335–1347. doi:10.1037/a0012704 Google Scholar
Sliter, M., & Jones, M. (2016). A qualitative and quantitative examination of antecedents of customer incivility. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 21, 208–219. doi:10.1037/a0039897.Google Scholar
U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2015a). Employment projections: 2014–24. Retrieved from http://www.bls.gov/news.release/ecopro.nr0.htm Google Scholar
U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2015b). Labor force characteristics by race and ethnicity. Retrieved from http://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/race-and-ethnicity/2015/home.htm Google Scholar
Walker, D. D., van Jaarsveld, D. D., & Skarlicki, D. P. (2014). Exploring the effects of individual customer incivility encounters on employee incivility: The moderating roles of entity (in)civility and negative affectivity. Journal of Applied Psychology, 99 (1), 151–161. doi:10.1037/a0034350 Google Scholar