Drawing on extensive empirical evidence, taken from a regional Employment Service, this PhD explores in depth, how frontliners cope with the experience of customers' violence on the frontline. Analysis of empirical data led to the finding that frontliners cope in a number of ways which were both collective and individual. The coping mechanisms used were influenced by the different organisational constructions of customer violence. This PhD has brought the emotional labour and the organisational violence literature together using insights from both to inform the other and aid understanding of not only organisational violence in general, but specifically the way that frontliners cope with the experience of customer violence. This is an aspect somewhat neglected in both the emotional labour literature and the organisational violence literature to differing extents. Although the emotional labour literature does examine ways that frontliners cope with the difficulties of customer service, it frequently fails to examine the interplay of the formal and informal organisation in influencing the means of coping used by frontliners and it has yet to consider the way that frontliners cope specifically with customer violence. The organisational violence literature tends to take the concept of violence as an unproblematic, objective term and ignores the fact that violence is a constructed subjective concept. I see this as problematic. The more interpretevist literature, which does recognise the polysemic nature of violence, only considers customer violence in passing. This literature completely fails to consider the part that the customer sovereignty plays in this violence, a significant omission, which I believe, has implications for our understanding of organisational violence. A number of theoretical points from this study have wider implications that are applicable to more than just the regional Employment Service explored. It was found that the customer sovereignty ideology played an important role in not only the ways that frontliners cope, but also in customer violence in general. Customer sovereignty underpinned the invisibility of violence and the concern for customers' well-being over those of frontliners. Both these findings were applicable to other frontline organisations. This study also found that the customer service ideology contributed towards conditions which fostered customer violence. This PhD also found that those with hierarchical power will be able, to some extent; to impose their construction of what is violent on those with less hierarchical power. However, this study emphasises the importance of human agency in arguing that those with less hierarchical power will still be able to contribute to creating organisational reality. Workers were not taken to be passive recipients of the dominant approach, but were helped shaped the construction of violence. This finding has implications for not only the construction of customer violence within organisations, but for the nature of power and the construction of organisational reality. This study has outlined many areas that need further consideration. The relationship between the customer service ideology and customer violence is currently under-researchedM. ore studies are needed examining this in different frontline settings, including both public and private sectors. Specifically, research is needed to consider the extent to which this ideology is used to justify customer violence and difficult frontline conditions in general. In examining the ways that frontliners cope with the experience of customer violence; this study integrated both the emotional labour and organisational violence literature. It is hoped that in using insights from both to inform the other, together with my own empirical research, this PhD has deepened understanding of not only the coping devices used by frontliners, but also customer violence in general.

Titel: Kunden har alltid rätt, eller? En kvantitativ studie om maktobalans inom fastighetsmäklarbranschen Nivå: Examensarbete på grundnivå (kandidatexamen) i ämnet företagsekonomi Författare: Julia Häggström och Rebecca Odhe Handledare: Jonas Molin Datum: 2022 - Juni Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka kundmötet i fastighetsmäklarbranschen ur ett maktperspektiv med avseende på verbal, fysisk och sexuell kundaggression. Vidare ska undersökas vilka som utsätts för kundaggression med hänsyn till kön, ålder, branschvana och lönesystem.  Metod: Studien är av kvantitativ art och präglas av en deduktiv ansats. Datainsamlingen består av en webbaserad enkät som skickats till 2 533 yrkesverksamma fastighetsmäklare i Sverige vilket besvarades av totalt 198 respondenter. Analyserna genomfördes i JASP vilka består av deskriptiv-, korrelations-, faktor- och nätverksanalys. Resultat och slutsats: Av resultatet bekräftades två hypoteser och tre fick förkastas. I studien konstateras att kundaggressioner inte beror på maktobalans i affärsrelationen. Kvinnor, yngre och fastighetsmäklare med en kortare branschvana upplever i större utsträckning att deras lönesystem bidrar till en maktobalans. Sveriges fastighetsmäklarbransch omfattas av flertalet tillfällen eller situationer där kundaggression uppstår och kvinnor samt yngre anser att de är särskilt utsatta på grund av deras kön eller ålder. Det går även konstatera att yngre fastighetsmäklare är de som i störst utsträckning utsätts för sexuella kundaggressioner.  Examensarbetets bidrag: Denna studie bidrar till nyutvecklad kunskap om svenska fastighetsmäklares utsatthet att drabbas av kunders aggressiva och våldsamma beteenden. Genom att synliggöra denna problematik kan uppsatsen dessutom ge chefer och arbetsledare riktlinjer för vilka förebyggande insatser som kan tänkas behövas och hur dessa bör utformas.  Förslag till fortsatt forskning: Förslag till vidare forskning är att undersöka vilka konsekvenser som kan föreligga av att bli utsatt för kundaggression samt utreda orsaken till aggressiva kundbeteenden. Utöver detta ses även stora fördelar med en sådan undersökning i utbildningssyfte för Sveriges fastighetsmäklare. Slutligen vore det intressant att tillämpa Big Five för att utreda om vissa personlighetsdrag tenderar att anse sig vara mer utsatta. / Title: The customer is always right, right? A quantitative study of the power imbalance in the real estate industry. Level: Final assignment for Bachelor Degree in Business Administration Author: Julia Häggström and Rebecca Odhe Supervisor: Jonas Molin Date: 2022 - June Aim: The purpose of this study is to examine the customer meeting in the real estate industry from a power perspective with regard to verbal, physical and sexual customer aggression. Furthermore, it will be investigated who is exposed to customer aggression with regard to gender, age, industry experience and salary system. Method: The study is of a quantitative nature and is characterized by a deductive approach. The data was collected by a web-based survey sent to 2 533 Swedish real estate agents, which was answered by a total of 198 respondents. The analyzes were performed in JASP, which consists of descriptive-, correlation-, factor- and network analysis. Results and conclusion: Of the results, two hypotheses were confirmed and three were rejected. The study states that customer aggressions are not due to a power imbalance in the business relationship. Women, young people and real estate agents with a shorter industry experience tend to experience that their salary system contributes to a power imbalance. Sweden's real estate industry is covered by multiple occasions or situations where customer aggression occurs. Women and younger people believe that they are particularly vulnerable due to their gender or age. It can also be stated that younger real estate agents are the ones who are most exposed to sexual customer aggression. Contribution of the thesis: This study contributes to newly developed knowledge about Swedish real estate agents' exposure to customers' aggressive and violent behavior. By making this problem visible, the thesis can also provide managers and supervisors with guidelines for what preventive measures may be needed and how these should be designed. Suggestions for future research: Suggestions for further research are to investigate the consequences from being exposed to customer aggression and the causes of aggressive customer behavior. In addition to this, great advantages are also seen with such a survey for educational purposes. Finally, it would be interesting to apply the Big Five to investigate if certain personality traits feel more vulnerable.

<p>Managers within the hospitality industry are often required to handle irate guests through various service-recovery situations and thus are exposed to frequent guest aggression. Consequently, manager work is associated with high stress and anxiety. This study used several theories to understand the complex landscape of manager stress and anxiety within the hospitality industry. The Conservation of Resource Theory (Hobfoll, 1989), Stress as Offense to Self Theory (Semmer et al., 2007), and the Social Exchange Theory (Baumeister & Leary, 2005) are used as the foundation to delineate the roles of guest aggression and workplace social support played in reducing manager turnover intention through stress and anxiety. The study results identify that stress and anxiety are vital in impacting turnover intention; however, only certain forms of workplace social support (such as appraisal support) moderate the relationship in such a way that turnover intention decreases.</p> <p>The study design utilized a moderated-mediation analysis with a two-time cross-sectional survey. Respondents were guest-facing managers in various hospitality organizations, including restaurants, hotels, and clubs. Two hundred and sixty-three participants completed the first and second waves of the survey, and after data cleaning, a total of 260 usable responses remained. This study employed Hayes' (2018) mediation analysis model 4 and the moderated mediation analysis model 58 to test all hypotheses.</p> <p>This study shows that guest aggression is a significant predictor of turnover intention, and anxiety mediates the relationship leading to turnover intention. At the same time, stress only has a direct effect itself on turnover intention. In addition, this study found that some forms of workplace social support increased turnover intention, while supervisor appraisal (words of affirmation) moderated the relationship. Ultimately, this study helps guide organizations in making decisions that may reduce managers' intention to quit while providing a foundation for future researchers to examine how workplace social support uniquely affects managers.</p>