Employees’ proactive customer service performance in hospitality: impacts of customer mistreatment and team performance pressure

Purpose This study aims to examine the joint impact of customer mistreatment (external stressor) and team performance pressure (internal stressor) on employees’ proactive customer service performance (PCSP) using the stressor-emotion model. Design/methodology/approach The sample consisted of 220 employees and 54 branch leaders from a large restaurant chain in China. This study conducted a multi-time and multi-source design study using Mplus 7.4 to examine the hypotheses. Findings Customer mistreatment has a positive effect on employees’ emotional exhaustion, which further reduces PCSP. Team performance pressure strengthens the dysfunctional effect of customer mistreatment on emotional exhaustion, whereas leaders’ positive affective presence mitigates the negative relationship between emotional exhaustion and PCSP. Originality/value This study investigates how internal and external stressors jointly affect employees’ PCSP. Thus, it provides a comprehensive perspective of employee stress management and active service management for organization managers.