Does cultural economics affect country’s competitiveness?

Abstract

The present study examined customer ostracism and emotional exhaustion among frontline service employees in Kerala. Customer ostracism refers to customer behaviours such as ignoring, avoiding, remaining silent, refusing to acknowledge service efforts, and treating employees with indifference during service encounters. The study adopted a descriptive and analytical research design. Data were collected from 200 frontline service employees working in selected service sector organisations in Kerala. A structured questionnaire consisting of demographic information, Customer Ostracism Scale, and Emotional Exhaustion Scale was used for data collection. The collected data were analysed using EDUSTAT. Descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation, simple linear regression, independent samples t test, and one-way ANOVA were used for analysis. The results revealed that customer ostracism and emotional exhaustion were experienced at a moderate level among the respondents. A significant positive relationship was found between customer ostracism and emotional exhaustion. The regression result showed that customer ostracism significantly predicted emotional exhaustion. The findings also revealed significant differences in customer ostracism and emotional exhaustion with respect to selected demographic and employment-related variables. The study concludes that customer ostracism is an important workplace stressor that affects the emotional well-being of frontline service employees.

Keyword : Customer ostracism; Emotional exhaustion; Frontline service employees