Investigating Burnout as a mediator between Organisational Citizenship and Counterproductive Workplace Behaviours among Frontline Employees.

Consistently high frontline employee (FLE) performance is central to the sustainable performance of the service firm. Discretionary extra-role performance, called organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB), helps in the smooth functioning of the service organisation. By contrast, counterproductive workplace behaviour (CWB) detracts from service performance. This study draws on data from 805 FLEs, working across a range of service sectors, to understand a condition under which employees engage in both OCB and CWB at the same time. Specifically, we investigated the relationship between these behaviors in the presence of burnout. Drawing upon Conservation of Resources theory, we evaluated how this relationship is influenced by the presence of affective commitment and self-esteem as ‘resources’, and continuance commitment as a stressor. We also examined the moderating role of gender. The results expose a dark side to OCB. The study also advocates that service managers seeking sustainable service performance should devote resources towards supporting FLEs who, in addition to their service roles, assist other co-workers through OCB.

This is one of a series of seminars in the Whitaker Ideas Forum. Elaine will be representing the Performance Management research cluster.

The Whitaker Ideas Forum is a weekly seminar, running Wednesday’s throughout the semester from 1:00pm-2:00pm in CA110. It provides the opportunity for members of the Institute to showcase their research. The result are presentations that highlight the diversity of the research being undertaken, while allowing for an opportunity to engage in discussions and, sometimes, collaboration with attendees. Below, you will find a list of this semester’s seminars, please click the title for more information on that seminar.