Customer-Related Stressors and Effects
on Burnout: A Study in Turkey
Serpil Aytac and Mustafa Aytac
Abstract Customer aggression is a significant organizational problem in modern
working life, particularly for employees in the service sector who are in direct
contact with customers. For employees in this sector, the high level of customer
interaction may be the reason for undesired consequences like stress and burnout. In
the context of a service, it is possible to define customer aggression as a customer’s
behavior aimed at harming or discomfiting those giving service. Customer
aggression has a negative effect on the employee’s health and safety. This study
aimed to demonstrate the effect on the burnout level of salesman and cashier
exposed to customer related stressor. The study sample comprised 403 employees
of service sector. In the data analysis, T-test, correlation and regression analysis
were used. From the results of the analyses, the finding was obtained that verbal
abuse significantly increased the emotional burnout, job stress and depersonaliza-
tion levels of workers. According to the results obtained from the research, while a
positive significant relationship was determined between customer aggression and
Burnout tendency.
Keywords Human factors aggression Customer Burnout Stress
1 Introduction
The service sector is currently the fastest growing sector. However, for employees
in this sector, the high level of customer interaction may be the reason for undesired
consequences such as customer aggression.
Customer aggression became a master issue of working life through the last
decade. This type of aggression is a significant organizational problem in modern
working life, particularly for employees in the service sector who are in direct
contact with customers. In the context of a service, it is possible to define customer
S. Aytac (&) M. Aytac
Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences,
Uludag University, Gorukle Campus, 16059 Bursa, Turkey
© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2017 227
R.H.M. Goossens (ed.), Advances in Social & Occupational Ergonomics,
Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing 487,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-41688-5_20
228 S. Aytac and M. Aytac
aggression as a customer’s behavior aimed at harming or discomfiting those giving
service.
This definition includes some sub-dimensions. Firstly, customer aggression is
seen in a wide area such as retail sales, restaurants, hotels, airlines and railways, call
centers and the banking sector. Secondly, psychological aggression (shouting,
gestures, threats etc.) and physical violence (physical attacks), which harm
employees both physically and psychologically, must be considered in the frame-
work of a series of behaviors. Thirdly, just as the interaction between customer and
employee may be direct face-to-face interaction, it may also occur in the form of
service given via e-mail or telephone [1]. In other words, customer aggression has
two dimensions. These are involves verbal threats, threatening behavior or physical
assaults by an assailant who either receives services from or is under the custodial
supervision of the affected workplace or the victim [2]. This aggressive behavior
varies according to demographic differences and professional groups.
As understood Just as aggressive behavior by the customer may be psycho-
logical, such as rudeness, verbal abuse or hostile behavior (shouting, swearing etc.)
and threats, it may also be in the form of physical aggression including violent
actions [3]. However widespread customer aggression has been shown to be, it
cannot be said to occur in every sector.
This kind of workplace violence has many negative consequences upon worker
and also organization. Increased rates of turnover in the labor force, decreased
employee performance, increased unease between employees, increased absence
because of illness or on request are only a few of the negative consequences of this
kind of behavior from an organizational perspective. On the other hand, these types
of aggressive events have an some negative effect on an individual’s involvement
and behavior related to work. These go from dissatisfaction and decreased orga-
nizational commitment, low morale and motivation to absence from work [4]
tendency leave job to stress and burnout can be observed.
For this reason, the approachment of organization and the policies it has
developed to combat customer violence is also important for preventing violence
and compensating its damages.
Although almost all literature on burnout implicitly assumes that burnout is
primarily caused by stressful employee-customer interactions, only a few studies
have addressed this empirically. Job Stress and Burnout tendency can be described
as the physical and emotional devastation arising from job and workplace
conditions.
Customer aggression has a negative effect on the employee’s health and safety.
According to studies conducted on this subject, the individual feels worthless and
levels of depression and stress increase [5] causing somatic symptoms of emotional
burnout and emotional dissonance [1, 6]. In a study by Boyd [5], it was reported
that 53 % of employees in the airline and railways sector had been exposed to
verbal abuse in the previous 12 months. According to the results of a study by
Akgeyik and Gungor [12], 77.2 % of supermarket cashier, 85.2 % of call center
Customer-Related Stressors and Effects on Burnout: A Study … 229
operator and 64.5 % of sales clerk employees had suffered customer violence at
least once in their career. This phenomenon which threats workers physical and
mental health is more prevalent especially among the cashier [12].
2 Methodology
This study aimed to evaluate the effects of verbal abuse from customers on the
burnout levels of Shopping Mall employees (cashier, sales clerk employees, sales
man etc.).
2.1 Sample and Measurement Scales
In this study, a questionnaire was created which made use of the measurement
scales in previous studies, whilst also taking into consideration particular Turkish
cultural characteristics. The dimensions in the questionnaire and the measurement
scales are as follows.
• Verbal Abuse Scale [8]: This scale used in the measurement of verbal abuse
directed at employees was the social stresses scale related to customers which
was developed by Dormann and Zapf [8], consisting of 5 questions of the verbal
abuse dimension. The items in the scale are of a 5-point Likert type with
answers varying from ‘never true’ to ‘always true’.
• Burnout Scale: The Maslach Burnout Scale, which was developed by Maslach
and Jackson (1986) and evaluated for validity and reliability in Turkey by Ergin
(1992) was used in the study. The scale consists of 22 items in the 3
sub-dimensions of emotional burnout, depersonalization and low personal
accomplishment. The items in the scale are of a 5-point Likert type with answers
varying from never to always.
• Job Induced Tension Scale: Job-induced tension was measured using a 7-item
sub-scale of an anxiety-stress instrument developed by House and Rizzo (1972).
Measures all scales used a 5-point Likert scale format with responses ranging
strongly agree to strongly disagree.
The study was conducted on Shopping Mall cashier and sales clerk employees.
The study sample consisted of 403 employees whose are working in a Big shopping
Mall in a Bursa city in Turkey. Questionnaires were delivered in sealed envelopes,
completed by voluntary participants and collected one week later. Of 500 dis-
tributed questionnaires, 417 were returned (return rate, 84 %) and 14 were excluded
from the study due to incomplete data.
230 S. Aytac and M. Aytac
3 Result
The mean age of the study participants was 22.20 ± 4.79 years (mean ± standard
deviation), ranging from 18 to 50 years. The mean duration of employment in the
Mall was 1.91 ± 0.86 years. 43.9 % of the participants were female and 56.1 % were
male. Educational status of the participants was determined as 14.3 % high school and
12 % postgraduates. Marital status was 55.6 % married and 44.4 % single.
The results of the reliability analysis of the scales used are shown in Table 1.
As seen in Table 1, the reliability values obtained from all scales are within the
limits accepted in the social sciences, and it is seen that ranged from 0.70 to 0.88.
According to the findings shown in Table 2, there is a significant correlation
between the all scales. All correlation coefficients realized in line with the expectations
and generally appeared at levels that can be considered high for this type of work.
When the correlation analysis results of verbal abuse and the burnout dimension
were examined, a positive significant relationship was seen between verbal abuse
and emotional burnout (r = 0.30; p < 0.01), depersonalization (r = 0.35; p < 0.01)
and Job stress (r = 0.28; p < 0.01).
Verbal aggression of the customer is affected by age? The answer to the question
was sought, As shown in Table 3, verbal aggression varies by age of the person.
(t = −2.12; p < 0.05) The difference between the averages is statistically
Table 1 Results of the reliability analysis of the scales
Variable Item Mean ± SD C. Alpha
Burnout 22 37.47 ± 9.06 0.75
Emotional burnout 9 11.66 ± 6.72 0.88
Depersonalization 5 4.08 ± 3.44 0.70
Personal accomplishment 8 21.59 ± 4.81 0.72
Verbal abuse 5 10.0 ± 3.21 0.80
Job stress 7 16.02 ± 5.80 0.83
Table 2 Results of the correlation between variables
1 2 3 4
1. Verbal Abuse 1
2. Emotional burnout 0.302 (**) 1
3. Depersonalization 0.350 (**) 0.681 (**) 1
4. Personal accomplishment −0.145 (**) −0.227 (**) −0.121 (*) 1
5. Job stress 0.280 (**) 0.593 (**) 0.711 (**) −0.147 (**)
**p < 0.01
Customer-Related Stressors and Effects on Burnout: A Study … 231
Table 3 Customer verbal abuse difference by age
Variable Under Upper Total t p Mean
30 age 30 age difference
Verbal 2.22 ± 0.70 2.38 ± 0.72 4.60 ± 0.71 −2.12 0.03* −0.16
abuse
*p < 0.05
Table 4 Customer verbal abuse difference by education level
Variable High school University Total t p Mean
difference
Verbal 2.28 ± 0.69 2.43 ± 0.76 2.35 ± 0.72 −2.02 0.04* −0.15
abuse
Table 5 Customer verbal abuse difference by gender
Variable Woman Men Total t p Mean
difference
Verbal 2.40 ± 0.76 2.27 ± 0.68 2.33 ± 0.72 1.79 0.07 0.13
abuse
*p < 0.01
Table 6 Results of the regression analysis of the effect of verbal abuse on burnout
Model Unstandardized Standardized coefficients t p
coefficients
b Std. error b
(Constant) 1.309 0.067 19.514 0.000
Verbal abuse 0.163 0.027 0.285 5.947 0.000
a
Dependent variable: Burnout
**p < 0.01; 1 All coefficients are standardized
significant. In other words, people with average age 30 and older are higher victim
than up the 30 years old (Table 4).
Table 5 is present to verbal abuse and gender difference. As it seen is not
significant relationship (79; p = 0.07).
According to Table 6, in the model established for burnout, In the regression
analysis performed to explain the burnout levels of the employees, the variable of
verbal abuse was found to be statistically significant. Thus, verbal abuse caused an
increase in the level of burnout (p < 0.01). The variable of verbal abuse was found
to be statistically significant (p < 0.01).
232 S. Aytac and M. Aytac
4 Discussion and Conclusion
Aggression in working life causes significant problems for an individual’s health
and safety. Although employees in every sector are at risk of being exposed to
aggressive behavior, the risk is much greater for employees in the service sector.
There is increased risk of violence more often in interaction with people outside the
workplace for employees in this sector. The high level of interaction with customers
brings with it the risk of exposure to aggressive behavior for employees in the
service sector. Significant findings of the analyses performed in this study show the
effect on burnout levels of employees who suffer verbal abuse.
In this study, in the data analysis, correlation and regression analysis were used.
From the results of the analyses, the finding was obtained that verbal abuse sig-
nificantly increased the emotional burnout and depersonalization levels of
employees. According to the analysis results of the current study, customer verbal
abuse was determined to have a significant positive effect on emotional burnout and
insensitivity (p < 0.05). Thus with increased customer verbal abuse the emotional
burnout and depersonalization levels of the employees also increased. No signifi-
cant effect of customer verbal abuse was found on personal accomplishment
(p > 0.05). Similar findings have been reported from other previous studies on this
subject in the service sector. For example, in a study by Grandey et al. [6] of call
center employees, a significant positive relationship was determined between the
frequency of customer aggression and emotional burnout. In a similar study by
Dierendonck and Mevisen [7] of tram drivers, a significant relationship was
determined between aggressive behavior and burnout. Dormann and Zapft [8]
studied different occupations (airline staff, travel agency employees, sales person-
nel) in the service sector and a significant positive relationship was determined
between customer verbal abuse and emotional burnout and depersonalization while
a significant negative relationship was determined between customer verbal abuse
and personal accomplishment. A study of hotel workers by Karatepe et al. [9] and
in a study of travel agency, hotel and restaurant employees by Kim et al. [10] results
were obtained demonstrating that customer verbal abuse significantly increased
emotional burnout. In another study by Ben-Zur and Yagil [11] was determined that
customer aggression increased employees’ levels of emotional burnout and
depersonalization. In the another study [13] the burnout dimensions of customer
aggression found to have any significant effect on personal accomplishment [11].
At last we can discusses and suggest that individual and organizational prevention
strategies that incorporate ergonomic and occupational therapy concepts can
increase work productivity and job satisfaction.
Acknowledgments We would like to thank all the workers and the management of the Shopping
Mall who participated in the study.
Customer-Related Stressors and Effects on Burnout: A Study … 233
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