Workers in the customer service industry must frequently interact with customers who treat them in a dismissive, discourteous, or demeaning manner. These “uncivil service encounters” can provoke stress and work withdrawal. Through interviews with 84 frontline employees (FLEs) across a variety of service organizations, we develop new theory about the role that supervisors can play within these interactions. We identify five supervisor intervention behaviors that differ based on whose interests they prioritize (the worker’s and/or the customer’s), as well as whether they are primarily active or passive. These interventions in turn yield distinct emotional and cognitive outcomes for FLEs, as well as for the quality of their relationship with their supervisor. We additionally develop the concept of uncivil customer self-efficacy, which captures workers’ comfort and willingness to positively take charge of an interaction with an uncivil customer. By explaining how each supervisor intervention can affect the development of uncivil customer self-efficacy, we provide insight into how to protect FLEs from the damaging effects of customer incivility. Our findings contribute to the nascent literatures on the role of supervisors in helping FLEs cope with customer incivility, and on the constructive outcomes of workplace mistreatment. We also outline actionable recommendations for service organizations.
