The relationship between customer incivility, restaurant frontline service employee burnout and turnover intention

Employee turnover continues to represent one of the most significant challenges faced by the U.S. restaurant industry, and customer incivility is regarded as being related to this phenomenon. In order to obtain a better understanding about the relationships between customer incivility, restaurant frontline service employee burnout and their turnover, information was obtained from 228 frontline service employees working in 28 independent Florida-based restaurants. Employees provided details of their experiences and attitudes regarding customer incivility as well as information on their job burnout and turnover intention. Hierarchical linear modeling was used for data analysis. Results confirmed that customer incivility has a positive relationship with restaurant frontline service employee job burnout. Further, this study found that the relationship between customer incivility and turnover intention through job burnout was fully mediated. The moderating roles that organizational support and supervisory support play upon the relationships between customer incivility and burnout were also investigated. Results confirmed that organizational and supervisory support moderates the relationship between customer incivility and burnout. Managerial implications for developing effective employee management strategies are provided for restaurant managers.