Organizations Leadership Social Impact Mar 7, 2019

Podcast: Revenge of the Customer Service Rep

Name: Kellogg School of Management
Price range: $

Why employees sabotage customers, and what companies can do about it.

0:00 / 9:27

Based on the research of

Yu-Shan (Sandy) Huang

Rebecca L. Greenbaum

Julena M. Bonner

Cynthia S. Wang

a customer service representative ends a call.

Michael Meier

Based on the research of

Yu-Shan (Sandy) Huang

Rebecca L. Greenbaum

Julena M. Bonner

Cynthia S. Wang

Listening: Revenge of the Customer Service Rep

0:00

9:27

Employees in all kinds of industries have to deal with unpleasant customers.

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Waiters get mistreated. Call center operators get screamed at. Salespeople have to smile at difficult clients. But why do those tense moments sometimes escalate to sabotage?

On this episode of the Kellogg Insight podcast, Cynthia Wang, clinical professor of management and organizations at Kellogg, shares what she discovered—and what companies can do about it.

The good news? There’s a way companies can help keep their employees from turning on their customers.

Note: The Kellogg Insight podcast is produced for the ear, and not meant to be read as a transcript. We encourage you to listen to the audio version above. However, a transcript of this episode is available here.

Featured Faculty

Cynthia S. Wang

Clinical Professor of Management & Organizations; Executive Director of Kellogg's Dispute Resolution and Research Center

About the Research

Huang, Yu-Shan (Sandy), Rebecca L. Greenbaum, Julena M. Bonner, and Cynthia S. Wang. 2018. “Why Sabotage Customers Who Mistreat You? Activated Hostility and Subsequent Devaluation of Targets as a Moral Disengagement Mechanism.” Journal of Applied Psychology.

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