Explore the association between customer aggression and employees' work performance in the hospitality industry, leading to insights about the outcomes of workplace aggression upon hospitality organizations

1. ABSTRACT
The dissertation seeks out how customer aggression affects the way hospitality
employees carry out their work, thereby providing organizations with solutions in
handling customer misbehavior and recovering service failure. Subsequently, the
reasons of customer misbehavior in this industry are explored, followed by common
responses of the service staff. The effects of experiencing workplace aggression on
the service provider are then figured out.
Qualitative methods are adopted for this dissertation. Around 50 Vietnamese
hospitality employees will be invited to semi-structured interviews to gain insights for
the research in a specific cultural context. The data will be analyzed by the thematic
technique.
The findings suggest that customers in this industry hold relatively high expectations
of how they deserve to be served, while employees are likely to suppress their
irritating emotions and maintain smiles in all situations. Customer incivility even
trivial verbal sayings can lead to employees' psychological problems from slight to
severe, which trigger them to lose work satisfaction or leave their job. These come up
with the service employer's poor service quality, staff turnover and revenue losses,
etc. However, a strong service climate can help hospitality employees and
organizations in coping with customer aggression.
The dissertation is structured in four main sections: (1) Introduction, addressing the
research rationale, aim and objectives; (2) Literature Review, providing relevant
theoretical background and research questions; (3) Methodology, explaining the
significance of qualitative methods for the research topic; (4) Conclusions,
Limitations & Future Research, enveloping the main findings, obstacles to achieving
better results and recommendations for future research.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. INTRODUCTION (...)
1.1. Background & rationale (...)

2. 1.2. Research Aim & Objectives (...)
2. LITERATURE REVIEW (...)
2.1. Main Causes of Customer Aggression (...)
2.2. Why is Customer Aggression Common in the Hospitality Industry? (...)
2.3. Frontline Employees' Responses to Customer Aggression (...)
2.4. Outcomes of Experiencing Workplace Aggression (...)
3. METHODOLOGY (...)
3.1. Research Approach (...)
3.2. Research Technique (...)
3.3. Sampling (...)
3.4. Research Procedure & Data Collection (...)
3.5. Data Analysis (...)
3.6. Ethics (...)
4. CONCLUSIONS, LIMITATIONS & FUTURE RESEARCH (...)
4.1. Finding Implications & Managerial Applications (...)
4.2. Limitations & Future Research (...)
REFERENCES (...)
APPENDICES (...)
Self-reflection (...)
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1. Background & rationale
Achieving customer satisfaction materializes as firms' principle endeavors of all times
(Gupta & Stewart, 1996; Ruggieri & Silvestri, 2014; Forné, 2015), as customer
satisfaction leads to customer loyalty and sales increase (Ryu et al., 2012; Ma et al.,
2014). Thus, companies worldwide try to furnish their customers with top-notch
customer service as one of the decisive strategies. This act is the backbone in the
hospitality sector because guest experience is the pivot of hospitality organizations to
gain competitive advantages (Hemmington, 2007).
Hospitality industry is a business which delights people regarding food, beverage and
lodging services (Skripak, 2018). One of its distinctive characteristics is the

3. mandatory arrival of guest staff (Skripak, 2018). Guest staff or frontline employees
play an essential role in this customer-centric area, owing to their direct connection
with customers (Paswan et al., 2005; Gounaris, 2008; Cambra et al., 2014). They help
convey the service provider's philosophy and grasp the opinions of customers about
their experience while using the service (Forné, 2015).
However, gaining customer satisfaction has never been less laborious because
employees in this sector face customer aggression to a notable degree. According to
Boyd (2002, cited in Karatepe et al., 2009, p. 714), 74% of the staff in the sector of
airline and railways were subjected to passengers' verbal abuse at least once a month.
Voss et al. (2004) estimated how often front-of-store attendants in the UK got abused
in terms of different types of customer misbehavior: verbal assault, threatening and
violence, equivalent to once per 3.75 days, once per 15 days and once per 31 days
respectively. Harris and Daunt (2004) reported that 92% of the employee informants
admitted that they experienced oral abuse from customers.
More to this point, Dursun & Aytac (2014) defined customer aggression as an act that
rattles or harms customer service staff on purpose; it can be either physical attacks or
psychological attacks such as shouting or threatening. Baron (1993) clarified
customer aggression in three levels including offensive verbal behaviors, fiery verbal
confrontations and physical violence as the first, second and third level respectively.
Overall, verbal aggression is most prevalent in the service context (Karatepe et al.,
2009; Li & Zhou, 2013). Customer aggression has been concluded to generate
employees' emotional strain and emotional exhaustion (Grandey et al., 2004; Ben-Zur
& Yagil, 2005; Dursun & Aytac, 2014). However, the employees are expected to cope
with it with a polite attitude (Yagil, 2008, cited in Karatepe et al., 2009, p. 714),
leading to their lack of energy and poor work performance (Celik et al., 2007; Yoo et
al., 2015). For these reasons, employees show a tendency to leave their job (Yagil,
2008, cited in Karatepe et al., 2009, p. 714). Evidently, weak work performance and
job leave put pressure on the organization's service quality and human resource
quality. Thus, it is essential to investigate the outcomes of workplace aggression in
this industry, for the sake of assisting service staff and organizations in recovering
service failure toward customer incivility.

4. Additionally, cultural attributes with certain communication styles can trigger
aggression (Bond, 2004; Ramirez, 2007). Broadly considering, there have been no
specific papers regarding customer aggression within Vietnamese communication
culture. The author decided to fill this gap in the next sections.
1.2. ResearchAim & Objectives
The dissertation aims to explore the association between customer aggression and
employees' work performance in the hospitality industry, leading to insights about the
outcomes of workplace aggression upon hospitality organizations. In order to achieve
this aim, four objectives were developed:
First, it is vital to determine the reasons for the frequency of customer aggression.
This objective was designed to figure out why customer aggression becomes very
common in this sector. Subsequently, the main roots of customer aggression and the
significance of customers in this sector will be explored.
Second, the dissertation seeks out how employees respond to customer aggression.
This will bring insights about the way service staff copes with irritations during their
working time. Not only shedding the light on their service etiquette, but the objective
also attempts to understand what traits can create more or less pressure on them in this
context.
Third, the consequences of workplace aggression for hospitality staff and
organizations will be identified. As customer aggression can harm employees
physically or psychologically, a view on business outcomes is necessary to further
understanding of how they and their organization will be influenced in depth.
Fourth, potential solutions/strategies to handle customer aggression will be explored.
This aims to help the management team solve the aftermath of customer aggression
and support their employees into the bargain.

5. Also, an empirical approach will be proposed to investigate the influence of
Vietnamese communication culture on generating customer aggression, in order to
contributing practical results to the research topic.
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
Every single customer wants to be treated with respect and dignity. Customer service
has remained its essential role in the competitive hospitality sector. However,
customer aggression puts employees under hard pressure and crashes into the
organization's business performance. To advance understanding of this matter
concerning the research aim, this section will go through various theories and
empirical studies relevant to customer aggression in the said context.
Regarding the four research objectives, four sub-sections are produced:
 Main Causes of Customer Aggression
 Why is Customer Aggression Common in the Hospitality Industry
 Frontline Employees' Responses to Customer Aggression
 Outcomes of Experiencing Workplace Aggression.
These topics will help formulate germane research questions (abbreviated as "RQ")
and link them with appropriate research design in the next section.
2.1. Main Causes of Customer Aggression
Coming to customer aggression, a vast number of papers have mentioned similar
conceptions such as deviance (Mills, 1981; Moschis & Cox, 1989), aberrant
consumer behavior (Fullerton & Punj, 1993), inappropriate behavior (Strutton et al.,
1994), problem customers (Bitner et al., 1994), jaycustomer behavior (Lovelock,
2001; Harris & Daunt, 2004), dysfunctional customer behavior (Harris & Daunt,
2003) or customer misbehavior (Harris and Daunt, 2013). Overall, these terms refer to
a type of customer behavior that links to the violation of commonly accepted norms in
exchange settings. Customer aggression is a commonplace part of customer
misbehavior, which widely exhibits in hospitality arena under some main forms:

6. psychological abuse (e.g. verbal hostilities, threatening messages), physical abuse
(e.g. hitting, using weapons) or obstructionism (e.g. confiscating the employee's
working materials) (Dursun & Aytac, 2014; Nwokorie & Ezeibe, 2016).
Getnet and Malik (2012) theoretically reviewed the causes of customer aggression
from three dimensions: the consumer, marketing institutions and service employees.
Regarding the consumer point of view, aggression emerges from demographic or
psychological factors (Fullerton & Punj, 1993, cited in Getnet & Malik, 2012, p. 7).
In terms of demographic factors, age, sex and socioeconomic status prevail over other
facets (Fullerton & Punj, 1993, cited in Getnet & Malik, 2012, p. 7). Solnick &
Hemenway (1992) and Getnet & Malik (2012), however, claimed that there is no
association between a customer's age and their aggressive behavior, as misbehavior
can happen in all age levels. Such behaviors can materialize no matter the consumer's
gender and education level as well. Still, misbehavior is on the cards from males than
females, and higher educated people tend to be aggressive than other groups
(Fullerton & Punj, 1993; Getnet & Malik, 2012). Fullerton and Punj (1993, cited in
Getnet & Malik, 2012, p. 7-8) also pinpointed some main psychological roots of
aberrant behavior including personality tendency, psychological problem and frame of
mind onto large business. To be specific, personality tendency emphasizes the close
connection between an individual's personalities and their deviance. Psychological
problem implies that someone's misbehavior reflects their personal issues. Frame of
mind or attitude onto large business means that customers are more willing to
victimize big companies than small ones. Apart from these, misbehavior can be
supported by social norms or group influence (Albers-Miller, 1999; Fukukawa, 2002).
As "aggression" indicates an emotional state, these psychological characteristics can
never be overlooked.
In respect to marketing situations or exchange settings (the process between economic
parties for reciprocity, as Bagozzi, 1975), Getnet and Malik (2012) declared that types
of products or services that an organization offers (e.g. self-service options or gates to
return policy), physical environment, attitudes of employees or the earlier condition a
customer experienced can eventually cause customer aggression.

7. Regarding the interaction between customers and service staff, customer aggression
often happens when customers consider service quality as poor, or when they perceive
that they are not treated with fairness, respect and worthy value (Deffenbacher et al.,
2002 & McColl-Kennedy et al., 2003, cited in Getnet & Malik, 2012, p. 8).
Empirically, Getnet and Malik's (2012) single case study at Björken hotel showed the
main reasons of customer dissatisfaction: employees' poor support, noise from other
customers, tardiness, errors of billing (in order from the most to the least popular
reason) and others. These responses were obtained from 96 customers through a
quantitative approach by questionnaire. They remarkably supported the authors'
theoretical causes of customer aggression based on exchange settings and the link
with employees, but revealed little evidence of psychological and demographic
causes. On the other hand, Getnet and Malik (2012) conducted semi-structured
interviews with 2 hotel employees as a qualitative approach. Those pointed out that
customer aggression arose from the reasons related to psychological traits and outside
the service itself. However, this finding was rooted in a too-small sample size.
Overall, Getnet and Malik (2012) did not make it clear if aggressive behaviors were
produced from those dissatisfying experiences.
To summarize, the antecedents of customer aggression come from a variety of
motives: psychological factors, demographic factors, components related to exchange
settings, the interaction between customers and employees or other reasons outside
the service provision.
Accordingly, the first research question is generated:
*RQ1. What factors from employees can lead to customers' actual aggressive
behaviors?
2.2. Why is Customer Aggression Common in the Hospitality Industry?
Customer aggression is seen as widespread in the hospitality sector. The reality
instances stated in 'Introduction' only show part of the evidence for this fact.
According to Enosh and Tzafrir (2015), up to 80% of the social worker informants
experienced client aggression in the last 3 months. Schablon et al. (2018) reported that

8. 94.1% and 69.8% of the employees in healthcare facilities suffered oral attacks and
physical violence respectively during 12 months before the survey.
So as to advance knowledge about this frequency of customer aggression, it is vital to
dig into the main characteristics of the hospitality industry. Though Kandampully et
al. (2014) saw a gap of knowledge about an ultimate definition of hospitality, the term
has been broadly understood as an industry about food, beverage and lodging service.
It is generally accepted that the guest help is an inseparable chunk of hospitality
(Hemmington, 2007; Langvinienė & Daunoravičiūtė, 2015; Kandampully et al.,
2017). In other words, guest help helps to define hospitality. Thus, attracting
customers and satisfying customers are the topmost tasks in this sector. By the same
token, Hemmington (2007) emphasized the importance of customers by featuring
hospitality under a "behaviour and experience" view in commercial environments.
Bagdan (2013) even declared that customers play the conclusive role in this industry.
Consequently, the mantra "The customer is always right" or "The customer is king"
has become clichéd in this arena for the purpose of gaining customer satisfaction.
Furthermore, certain traits which distinguish hospitality from other fields consolidate
understanding of the in-depth nature of service. Research by Langvinienė and
Daunoravičiūtė (2015) named them "intangibility", "inseparability", "perishability",
"lack of ownership" and "heterogeneity". In detail:
 Intangibility: Despite the strong association with catering and lodging that go
with tangible elements, the hospitality industry is meant to supply a wide
range of intangible products. These are services and experiences that are not
physical objects, which people can do nothing to touch but feel. "An
experience and nothing" is how Dikmen and Bozdağlar (2017) named the
nature of service.
 Inseparability: This trait differs a service from a product. Services are
indistinguishable from the provider in both production and consumption
aspects. They are used by customers at the same time they are produced.
 Perishability: Services are not stock assets (Gadrey, 2000) so they cannot be
stored for the future. Hence, hospitality organizations are put under pressure to
attract customers so that they can avoid the revenue loss of unsold services.

9.  Lack of ownership: A customer cannot possess a service. However, as services
firmly associate with customer experience and satisfaction, hospitality
organizations have to serve customers proper service quality to ensure
business performance.
 Heterogeneity: Each service produced at a certain time is different from ones
from the same provider. This singleness of service requires organizations to
maintain the similarity of their service quality.
Those traits elucidate the firm link between customers and service performance and
shed light on the supreme role of customer satisfaction in the hospitality context. As a
result, service marketers try not to fail customer expectations, otherwise,
organizations can lose their customers, money, time and market position (Bhavani &
Pawar, 2013). A high chance of customer aggression is produced owing to this
significance of customers in this industry. When someone goes to a hotel, restaurant
or any place of hospitality service, what they "pay" contains an expectation of being
treated specially. If given high values thanks to unique products and services,
customers will probably be ready to pay more (Serrat, 2012, cited in Langvinienė &
Daunoravičiūtė, 2015, p. 906). Otherwise, they may reveal negative emotions toward
frontline employees due to dissatisfying experiences, which is the antecedent of
possible aggression.
Altogether, employees' pressure can come from their managers, harsh policies or
other grounds which do not relate to customers. Notwithstanding, employees in this
industry interact with customers almost their whole working time and more than the
time they spend with their managers or colleagues (Dursun & Aytac, 2014). Dursun &
Aytac (2014) also declared that the risk of employees getting health and safety
problems under workplace aggression in the hospitality industry is much higher than
in other sectors. At this point, it is crucial to observe how employees cope with
customer aggression, which then advances understanding of experiencing workplace
aggression.
2.3. Frontline Employees' Responses to Customer Aggression

10. Lashley (2000) considered hospitality as the host-guest correspondence. The host is in
charge of bringing memorable experiences and numerous little surprises to customers
(Hemmington, 2007). Customers need to be targeted at every point of the service
delivery process (Barsky & Nash, 2003). Thus frontline employees are at the helm of
pleasing and amusing customers. When customer aggression is vented, frontline
employees are proposed to cool the predicament down with a professional attitude
(Dallimore et al., 2007) and the "service with a smile" method (Grandey et al., 2010).
Confrontation and retaliation to customers are strictly dissuaded as a social norm in
the service sector, although customer aggression can cause the frontline employees
unfair treatment and plentiful negative outcomes (Jerger & Wirtz, 2017). Since the
staff mostly acts in a close manner regarding these hospitality etiquettes, relevant
papers about the factual responses of frontline employees toward customer aggression
can hardly be found.
Jerger and Wirtz (2017) tried to add more insights to this matter by examining
customer status and service climate, through theoretical explanation and experimental
study (role-played field experiment and survey-based experiment) on 80 service
employees. Regarding customer status, both of their literature review and practical
findings indicated the strong arm of high-status individuals in social situations, where
these people often receive better attention, and they are expected to display more
aggression than lower-status ones (Keltner & Robinson, 1997, Tiedens et al., 2000
and Locke, 2003, as cited in Jerger & Wirtz, 2017, p. 363). Employees are inclined to
keep their mood inward before high-status customers in an effort of recovering
service failure (Jerger & Wirtz, 2017).
Service climate is shaped by a shared sense of the service provider's service-related
policies and practices (Schneider et al., 1998 and Bowen & Schneider, 2014 as cited
in Jerger & Wirtz, 2017, p. 364). Jerger and Wirtz's (2017) experiments claimed that a
potent background of service climate accommodates employees with more reasonable
emotions and more service-oriented doings toward customer aggression. They enable
to eliminate the impact of high-status customers and firmly focus on the service
quality itself. In contrast, employees from a weak service climate are more likely to
act on their own beliefs. Low-status customers are more likely to be vulnerable to

11. those employees, as they experienced less sympathy and assistance from this staff
group during the experimental study.
The dissection of this sub-section implies three main points. Firstly, frontline
employees hold pressure under customer aggression and they are expected not to act
out because of customer satisfaction maintenance. Secondly, employees' responses
toward customer aggression differ based on their service climate conditions and
customers' social status. Last but not least, there is room to accommodate service
quality under customer aggression pertaining to service climate consolidation.
The second research question comes after as below:
* RQ2. What traits of a service climate should be improved to help handle customer
aggression?
Clearly, employees take loads of pressure and difficulties under customer aggression,
as they cannot show their irritation for the sake of customers' pleasant feelings. The
next sub-section is meant for exploring the consequences of this workplace aggression
upon employees and organizations in this industry.
2.4. Outcomes of Experiencing Workplace Aggression
Workplace aggression or workplace bullying describes a state under long-term
aggressive behavior or harassment in the workplace where the victim can hardly resist
(Leyman, 1996 and Rayner et al., 2002, cited in Grandey et al., 2004, p. 2). The
consequences of workplace aggression for frontline employees are negative, wide-
scale and existent in a divergence of aspects. First and foremost, it directly crashes
into the employees' emotions, in a way the emotional and psychological damage can
be demonstrated as stress, absenteeism, fatigue (Harris & Daunt, 2003; Grandey et al.,
2004; Dallimore et al., 2007) or being filled with hostility and yearning for retaliation
(Skarlicki et al., 2008; Wang et al., 2011; Harris, 2013). However, they have to
suppress their real emotions and maintain a pleasant attitude.
In this customer-centric business, frontline employees interact directly with
customers. They help convey the organization's brand message. They act as the

12. organization's "brand face" with the ultimate goal of gaining customer satisfaction and
loyalty. This can lead to an emotional outburst because the negative feelings have
been choked inward while the positive expressions have been exaggerated for a long
time. Negative emotions up to a level of depression and stress under workplace
aggression can cause employees health and safety problems such as emotional
burnout and dissonance (Boyd, 2002; Grandey et al., 2004; Bedi & Schat, 2007).
In terms of psychology, it was found out that facing aggressive behavior, even a tiny
hassle, can put a disruption into the aggression recipient's cognitive performance,
problem-solving performance and creativity (Beal et al., 2005; Porath & Erez, 2009;
Miron-Spektor et al., 2011; Rafaeli et al., 2012). Rafaeli et al. (2012) comprehended
the interference of verbal aggression on cognitive processes based on four
experiments - mostly laboratory sessions. The participants of Study 1, 2 3 and 4 were
36 students from one university in Israel, 72 employees from one company in Israel,
86 students from different universities in the UK and 101 students in Israel on a
voluntary basis respectively. The results depicted some main points: 1) Verbal
aggression (even an ephemeral encounter) weakens recall, recognition and working
memory; 2) Verbal aggression weakens work performance; 3) Verbal aggression from
high-status individuals markedly weakens work performance. Dursun and Aytac
(2014) also mentioned that employees' emotional burnout is caused by customers'
verbal abuse.
Moreover, Zablah et al. (2017) proved that emotions of frontline employees and
customers are mingleable or contagious, as the same emotions can be developed over
time if they have more chance to connect to each other. Consequently, if the
employee cannot balance their mental life to be at the helm of customer service
activities, their negative emotional state can influence customers too and vice versa.
When an employee suffers negative feelings, it seems to be their personal "cost"
merely. Poor work performance afterwards, notwithstanding, is another wheelhouse
because the consumer is the one who directly suffers the "cost" of poor service quality
at this point. Owing to the paramount role of customers in the hospitality arena, the
role of service offerings are sovereign and organizations are recommended to advance
their service quality without exception. Thus, the decrease in work productivity of an

13. employee (who might be experiencing distress, fear or anger under workplace
aggression) certainly brings a negative impact upon the employer, which foresees
organizational costs such as lack of the employees' work commitment in the long run
(Karatepe et al., 2009), or revenue loss and churn rate (Porath & Pearson, 2013).
To encapsulate, customer aggression (even being a trivial form like verbal offence)
can cause episodic consequences upon frontline employees and hospitality
organizations. It brings negative emotional and psychological effects on service
employees. The long-term suppression of authentic emotions is likely to create
employees' health and safety problems. The exposure to aggression even in the short
term leads to poor work performance. It is also worth to mention that customers'
emotions and employees' emotions can mingle and a balanced work-life for service
staff is required. Those can lead to the organization's poor service performance, staff
turnover, customer turnover or revenue losses, etc.
Accordingly, the third research question is generated as below:
* RQ3. To what extent/Under what context can customer aggression trigger an
employee to quit their job?
This dissertation, moreover, is meant to provide insights about the effects of customer
aggression on employees' work performance within Vietnamese communication
culture. The next section 'Methodology' will help clarify this association and examine
the three research questions by proposing relevant research methods.
3. METHODOLOGY
This section begins with "3.1. Research Approach" that explains an appropriate
research orientation, followed by "3.2. Research Technique". Coming after those,
"3.3. Sampling" illustrates how participants will be selected. "3.4. Research Procedure
& Data Collection" and "3.5. Data Analysis'' explain how the information will be
gathered and processed. The last sub-section "3.6. Ethics'" mentions ethical issues of
the chosen methodology.
3.1. ResearchApproach

14. The research questions mostly focus on the exploration of personal experiences and
the culture of the chosen context, leading to the choice of an interpretive paradigm.
Accordingly, qualitative methods will be adopted as the primary research approach, as
it aims to depict phenomena and advance knowledge about stories, experiences and
meanings for concerning concepts from the participants (Decarlo, 2018). The
quantitative approach can help answer the questions too, but owing to nomothetic
results as it is statistics-driven (Bhattacherjee, 2012). Moreover, the qualitative
approach offers more depth on the investigation within a small size of cases, whilst
quantitative approach can bring broad insights based on a large sample (Decarlo,
2018). Hence, quantitative methods are considered more scientific, but they can
hardly provide elaborate answers like qualitative methods (Decarlo, 2018).
An exposure to both of these research approaches was considered for comprehensive
outcomes. However, this requires much more work, as data needs to be collected and
analyzed from two components and matched into one cooperative system at the same
time (Decarlo, 2018). Due to the time frame for this dissertation, only one research
approach should be adopted to guarantee work productivity. As this dissertation seeks
to grasp the real experiences and emotional-psychological processes of people in the
chosen arena, a qualitative approach will be applied.
One plus point to opt for qualitative research in this context is its flexible nature.
Concepts and ideas conceptualized in qualitative inquiry are not set in stone like
quantitative research (Decarlo, 2018); qualitative interviews use open-ended questions
whilst quantitative research focuses on close-ended questions (Creswell, 1994). Due
to these traits of qualitative research, researchers can learn valuable information and
insights from the participants.
Furthermore, looking at how the research questions were generated from the literature
review, quantitative methods play a major role in various empirical studies e.g. the
research by Getnet & Malik (2012), Rafaeli et al. (2012) and Jerger & Wirtz (2017).
Hence, the adoption of a mere qualitative approach is expected to contribute
distinctive insights to practical results about the chosen context.

15. 3.2. ResearchTechnique
In order to explore the research questions based on a qualitative approach, data can be
collected by various means of narratives relating to different forms of speaking or
writing (Cropley, 2019). Participant observation, in-depth interviews and focus
groups are the most popular methods in qualitative research (Mack et al., 2005).
Participant observation enables researchers to observe and engage with the
participants in the natural setting (Mack et al., 2005; Cropley, 2019). This is a hands-
on method which brings a nuanced understanding to the researchers based on their
own personal experience (Mack et al., 2005). However, Mack et al. (2005) questioned
the method's efficiency regarding the researchers' time management, recording
process and quest for objectivity. Moreover, de Munck & Sobo (1998) and DeWalt &
DeWalt (2002) saw the partiality in conducting this method and in collecting data
through this method.
In-depth interviews are one-on-one interviews between the researcher(s) and a
participant, where the researcher(s) conjures up the research topic and the participant
expresses their own attitudes, thoughts and feelings (Mack et al., 2005). This method
helps gain insights from each unique individual's perspective to a profound, detailed
degree. Possible disadvantages of this technique were revealed by Showkat and
Parveen (2017): inadequate quality of results due to the small size of sample, time-
consuming, partiality and lack of confidentiality.
Focus group takes place in a way the researcher(s) and several participants gather and
talk about the research topic, which advances knowledge about a community's well-
grounded norms, as well as provides a variety of opinions in a short time (Mack et al.,
2005). This method can bring rich data in a more efficient amount of time, but also
trouble the interviewer in handling and controlling the discussion between a group
(Leung & Ratnapalan, 2009). Furthermore, the researchers can find it difficult to
analyze data from the complexity of opinions (Leung & Ratnapalan, 2009).
To conclude, each technique contains certain pros and cons; the bias of opinions and
insights in the final data set is inevitable. The researcher decided to opt for in-depth

16. interviews for the purpose of grasping personal and unique opinions from every single
participant.
In terms of interviews for qualitative data collection, there are three generally
accepted ways: structured, semi-structured and unstructured (Qu & Dumay, 2011;
Adhabi & Anozie, 2017). Research by Jamshed (2014) stated that all kinds of
qualitative interviews carry structures, yet the rigidity tells them apart. Adhabi and
Anozie (2017) likened structured interviews to job interviews with straightforward
sayings, tense atmosphere, no further explanation for the questions, no mingling
between subjects and so on. Unstructured interviews, in contrast, are implemented
with informality and elasticity based on the interviewer's interests (Adhabi & Anozie,
2017). Semi-structured interviews are something in between. They are prepared and
outlined but the two parties do not have to adhere strict rules as much as structured
ones, enabling researchers to unfold more questions and obtain more insights (Adhabi
& Anozie, 2017). This versatility makes semi-structured interviews favorable and
ideal for qualitative research (DiCicco-Bloom & Crabtree, 2006; Adhabi & Anozie,
2017). As a consequence, semi-structured interviews were selected for the
dissertation's empirical study.
3.3. Sampling
Semi-structured interviews will take place with the assistance of frontline employees
in Vietnamese hospitality organizations as the participants. As in-depth interviews can
create bias results due to small sample size, the author plans to conduct a sufficient
amount of interviews with the equivalent number of people. There is no fixed number
for an effective size of the sample and it varies due to each researcher's perspective
and experience. However, it should be large enough for data richness to produce
useful insights, and small enough into the bargain for deep analysis of specific cases
(Sandelowski, 1995). According to Green and Thorogood (2004), 20 participants or
so do not bring much new information. Ritchie et al. (2003) recommended no more
than 50 people, thereby researchers can manage to examine the collected data.
Meanwhile, Britten (1995) suggested a larger number of 50 or 60. The dissertation
aims to interview around 50 employees. When applied in reality, the actual number

17. can be equal or more. The study will not be finished with less than 50 interviewees to
guarantee the data outcomes' quality.
Apart from a decent quantity, the sample requires certain qualities as well. According
to Taherdoost (2016), there are two primary sampling techniques: probability
sampling and non-probability sampling. Probability sampling refers to a random
selection, which gives people an equal chance to join an empirical study. Even though
a random manner can take bias off the table and the participants can be filtered
afterwards based on the study's requirements, this method is not representative
enough for the group of interests, which thereby makes less sense with qualitative
approach. Meanwhile, a non-probability sample is obtained from a non-random
selection with rationale, which is commonly applied for case study and qualitative
research. Thus, non-probability sampling will be adopted to select participants for the
intended in-depth interviews.
Taherdoost (2016) also mentioned four non-probabilistic formula: Whilst quota
sampling and purposive sampling use predetermined criteria to collect members of the
population; snowball sampling and convenience sampling recruit people based on
ease of access e.g. using researchers' friends or their acquaintances. Apparently, the
two latter methods are more biased than the two former ones. To gain wide insights
for the study, the employee participants are expected to possess a variety of
demographic traits such as different genders, different ages and different work
positions (e.g. waiter, receptionist, bar staff, etc.). All of them must be Vietnamese
residents working for hospitality organizations in Vietnam to thoroughly understand
Vietnamese communication culture. They will be recruited through various channels
e.g. social media, word-of-mouth marketing, email, referral, etc. Incentives will be
considered if needed. Thus, purposive sampling is the most favorable method, as the
researcher can control over relevant variables by selecting individuals based on
strictly particular characteristics (Maxwell, 1996, cited in Taherdoost, 2016, p. 23).
3.4. ResearchProcedure & Data Collection
After the target people consent to join the interviews, a brief about the meaning of the
interview will be sent to them via email. The participants will be clarified about the

18. dissertation aim and main ideas of the interview. They will also be explained about
some concepts to avoid confusion and optimize the interview time. Importantly, they
will be informed about their identity confidentiality.
The interviews must be face-to-face and semi-structured. They can be conducted
either online or offline. For offline interviews, privacy and space with little distraction
are needed to make the interviewees comfortable and focused. Those are required for
online interviews too, plus a stable Internet connection from both parties. All the
interviews will be fully recorded under the participants' permission. A questionnaire
will be designed as the instrument to envelop the researcher's entire questions.
Each interview will take place within 30 minutes at least. As the participants will be
taken from non-probability sampling, basic information such as name, gender, age,
service background, etc. will be collected via email before the interviews start. Thus,
those details will not be put in questions in the interview session. This will help spare
the interviewer and interviewee more time for meaningful discussion. However, the
first 2 minutes will be well spent on greeting and making the interviewee feel at ease.
If any new ideas are invented during an interview process, the questionnaire can be
developed and the adjusted or new questions will be applied for the next interviews.
The researcher will manage to complete the whole process within 3 weeks.
3.5. Data Analysis
Results from the recorded interviews will be precisely translated into English with the
aid of transcription software like EvaSys or Atlas.ti. The translated results will be
precisely transcribed. After that, all transcriptions will be synthesized into one table
on Microsoft Word or Microsoft Excel. This table will include three columns for
"No." as the number order of the investigative questions, "Question" for the content of
each question and "Answer" as responses for the corresponding questions. All names
will be numerically coded for anonymity to guarantee the author's promise about the
participants' identity. This file will be the data set for further analysis. These results
might be scattered and messy. A response to one question might contain information
for other questions. Answer ideas for similar questions might vary due to their

19. momentary thoughts and feelings. Thus, it is vital that the collected data must be
carefully categorized and precisely interpreted.
To analyze a qualitative data set, there are both manual methods such as Content,
Narrative, Discourse, Grounded Theory, Thematic or Conversation (Archer, 2018)
and technological methods like HubSpot, Quirkos, Nvivo, Dedoose, Transana,
Raven's Eye or webQDA, etc. Thematic analysis has been popular across papers due
to its flexibility and attainability for both surface and underlying meanings of patterns
(Braun & Clarke, 2012). Furthermore, Archer (2018) claimed that thematic analysis
forms the cornerstone for most other types of qualitative approaches, which depends
on dissecting the data set into smaller components (codes) then grouping these
components into common themes. This method will be undertaken for data analysis.
During the analysis process, the transcriptions will be read word by word. Relevant
phrases will be highlighted with different colors then noted in a new file as a filter of
key answers. Outstanding ideas from the answer set to each question will be
summarized. The findings will be examined by rereading the whole data set and
consulting literature sources to avoid any mistake or missing information.
These findings are the primary data. Besides, secondary data from other theoretical
papers and empirical studies will be considered too to bring wide-scale insights for
the end outcomes.
3.6. Ethics
Ethical considerations in qualitative research have been widely discussed across
papers. A major part of them agree on these common issues: participants'
confidentiality, distress during the interview and data misinterpretation (Orb et al.,
2001; Dilmi, 2012; Arifin, 2018).
First of all, it is vital the participants' identities stay anonymous after their answers are
collected. Their confidentiality is a mandate in research, as in some special cases, the
answers can somewhat reveal their identity (Orb et al., 2001). Thus, informed consent
is discussed to help gain potential participants' trust, making them voluntary to join

20. the study (Kvale, 1996; Orb et al., 2001; Arifin, 2018). Hence, before the interview,
participants are often required to sign a sheet form of ethics checklist, so that the
researchers can be approved to conduct their study. However, for some reasons that
legal purposes must intervene in e.g. abuse cases, researchers have no way to
guarantee that the participants' information will go completely anonymous (Orb et al.,
2001).
Besides, distress may happen during an interview process, often caused by sensitive
topics or potential conflicts of interests that trigger the participants' negative emotions
(Orb et al., 2001). During an in-depth interview which mostly occurs in a face-to-face
setting, the presence and observation of the researcher can unintentionally put
pressure on the participant when the participant is expressing their feelings (Arifin,
2018). The dissertation seeks out employees' attitudes toward customer aggression
which may remind them of negative experiences. This will probably lead to this
dilemma. In this case, being aware of potential harms during an interview is needed
(Arifin, 2018). The researcher may stop in the middle to help the participant get rid of
their vulnerability (Orb et al., 2001).
Furthermore, ethical issues exist through the process of data collection and analysis.
Many elements can affect the outcome objectivity and precision such as the
relationship between the researcher and the participant, or momentary feelings of the
participants, or inaccurate information caused by an inappropriate sample (Field &
Morse, 1992; Orb et al., 2001). Hence, this is crucial that researchers are aware of
potential risks to come up with relevant strategies during the whole process.
4. CONCLUSIONS, LIMITATIONS & FUTURE RESEARCH
4.1. Finding Implications & Managerial Applications
From a theoretical perspective, four research objectives of the dissertation are
clarified as follows:
1) The reasons for customer aggression frequency originate from the strong
significance of customers in the hospitality arena, where service quality has a

21. sovereign link with customer satisfaction and the service provider's business
performance. The mantra "The customer is king" exists to ensure that services are
well conveyed and implemented. Due to this familiar concept, in this industry,
customers show a tendency in highly expecting what they think they deserve to be
served, leading to a relatively high chance of aggression if the service goes wrong in
their perception. Their misbehaviors are caused by plentiful motives from
psychological and demographic factors to certain elements of exchange settings.
Notably, the interaction between customers and employees has been seen dominant at
the root of customer aggression.
2) The responses of employees to customer aggression follow the social norms of
service etiquette, that is, employees restrain their temper and maintain a professional
manner with smiles. However, there see discrepancies in their reactions due to
customers' social status and service climate conditions: High-status customers are
expected to show more aggression; employees are likely to suppress their negative
emotions toward them than toward lower-status customers. Nevertheless, employees
from a strong service climate tend to be firmly service-oriented. They focus on
reasonable service recovery instead of customers' social status.
3) The outcomes of workplace aggression upon employees and organizations:
Workplace aggression even trivial verbal sayings can bring a variety of psychological,
health and safety problems to employees e.g. fatigue, depression, emotional burnout
or emotional dissonance, followed by poor work performance or job leave. This leads
to inevitable drawbacks for the business such as service quality deduction, customer
turnover, staff turnover or revenue losses. The revenue losses, however, are likely to
be foreseen, anticipated or implied rather than evidently proved.
4) Potential solutions for the management team to cope with customer aggression:
First and foremost, hospitality managers should understand the motives of customer
aggression to likely come up with appropriate responses. Importantly, it is suggested
that managers consolidate their resource capacity particularly service quality to gain
customer satisfaction. In terms of handling customer aggression, service climate
enhancement has been proved to be one of the effective ways, so managers should
grow proper service climate conditions or hire frontline applicants from a strong

22. service climate background. Besides, the managers should create a balanced work
environment with proper incentives and relevant mental support to assist their service
staff.
4.2. Limitations & Future Research
It is acknowledged that due to the Covid-19, all practical studies can hardly be done.
Thus the intended interviews have not been implemented and this dissertation can
only bring insights in a theoretical fashion at the moment. Furthermore, the Covid-19
has dragged plentiful hospitality organizations down to crisis, leading to pressure on
employees in the meantime. The interviews may not go smoothly because of their
mental burden, while they are expected to take place in a stable setting.
In case the interviews for this research are implemented, they go along with inevitable
bias due to small sample size. The utilization of only qualitative methods is possible
to bring subjective results; final results may not be validated enough to generalize
answers for the research questions. Also, this interpretive approach can cause missing
insights as it depends on the researcher's ideas, conceptualizations and capability of
analyzing data. In the future, quantitative methods will be supplemented into related
research topics for comprehensive outcomes.
Additionally, customer aggression firmly engages with psychological traits. Within
the dissertation context, the researcher did not dig much into the psychology aspect.
This is a significant shortage for the research outcomes, as understanding
psychological traits can greatly explain how customer dissatisfaction or frustration
leads to actual aggressive behaviors. For further research, it is crucial to investigate a
customer's emotional development journey in depth.
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SELF-REFLECTION
This has been such a tough period of time, as I had to complete the dissertation under
odd conditions. The pandemic Covid-19 has spread all over the world, leading to
movement control in an extremely wide scale. Within the past four months, I kept
writing my dissertation and worrying at the same time, as all my plans were ruined
mostly regarding their schedule and space. These are some main problems I have
faced so far:
First and foremost, I had to stop implementing all the intended interviews for my
dissertation, which is a big shortage for the research results. Not only did I stop them
all, but I also kept working on this dissertation under mental pressure, because there
were loads of questions running through my mind, and the dissertation was gradually
reaching its deadline. Being in the UK and studying in an international environment
had been always my dream until all these things happened and I could not help
brooding on what would occur in the future for me. I chose to study on the hospitality
industry, which is one of the fields dropping in crisis right when the pandemic
appeared. Hospitality is always my interest and also one of my expected occupational
goals. This circumstance has scared me, as I have wondered if I can find a job
afterwards.
Secondly, I have been truly worried about what people out there were facing. Are
they okay these days? Can they survive in this crisis? Does the homeless have enough
foods? Any more death cases in a day? Importantly, the frequent questions crossing
my mind are: Is Vietnam okay before this pandemic? Can the elderly survive these
days, as the government policies for them and the homeless are quite limited? Are my
family and friends doing well under all these difficulties? When can I see them again
if this pandemic keeps lasting for a longer term and all the aircrafts have to stop
working? etc. Till now I believe that my family and friends are fine, as nothing has

34. happened to them yet. However, not everyone is blessed the same. I have a friend
who is in Malaysia. One day she told me a sad story, that she saw a super skinny man
who was trying to stand up on his own, but could not as he was too weak. She tried to
feed him with water and offered him her food. He could not even say a thank, as he
was too weak to make a normal move. Another friend of mine in Vietnam reported to
me that there seemed to be more beggars around his neighborhood. He gave some of
them money, but not able to feed them all the times. This sounds terrible, and I
realized how lucky I am to have a good budget to accommodate myself daily.
All these distractions disturbed me day and night, about myself, about my folks and
about mankind. I could hardly focus on writing my dissertation for a while. Within
the past four months, I kept writing my dissertation and worrying at the same time. At
the first beginning, I was always procrastinating what I should do and must do, as I
kept telling myself that I would have enough time. I indulged myself with sleeping,
gaming and surfing social media every single minute. Obviously, lots of people have
been doing the same things, which made me lie myself more about the time budget I
had got. This lifestyle had lasted till one day I identified that the more I had written
about my research topic, the less I realized I had known. This suddenly triggered me
to work much more on the research, as I wanted to complete my task with an utmost
capacity.
No matter how hard I and many other foreign students have been facing abroad, I
truly believe that all difficulties happen for a reason. There are so many lessons I
have figured out during this period, which inspired me to reveal right here:
Apart from all troubles in daily life during the movement control, all of us have
discovered how fresh the atmosphere can be when people are forced to care about
sanitary, how peaceful the atmosphere can be when there is not much of traffic
outside. The air in the UK is much cleaner than my hometown Vietnam for sure. I felt
so blessed that I can be here to enjoy the weather and all. Now I can even see more
birds on the yard around my house and the air seems to have another scent compared
with the first day I arrived. This taught me a big lesson about how much pollution
people can dump in the world. This change is magic, as I can see how clean the air is
after only a few weeks of after the government conducted the movement control

35. policy. This clean air brings me so much joy that I want to wake up in this quiet and
wholesome environment every single morning of my life.
My and other people's habits have also positively changed due to this circumstance.
Each of us has adapted to this new life by various means. Some learn how to cook.
Some spend more time reading alone. Some change their clubbing habit to spending
quality time with their family. Personally, I have learned to create professional
websites, to do some simple codes, to fix certain problems in my laptop, to watch
more meaningful documentary shows and so on. Particularly, I have tried to journal
every day, so that I can memorize all what have happened to me and other people. All
these "new" slowly have became "normal" with practice on a frequent basis. My
stress under the circumstance is apparent and unchangeable, but my thirst for
knowledge and for not wasting quality time is significant too. Those habits kept me
awake rather than sleeping during my spare time at home, and helped me understand
how much I can improve myself alone.
Above all, the most crucial lesson I have learnt is not about the new skills I have just
adopted. I just discovered how valuable time is. Only when the pandemic happens, I
know how much of quality time we all waste every single day. People often say that
"time is gold", but complain that they do not have time by the same token. When the
Covid-19 has restrained people from going out and doing their favorite activities, lots
of people choose to play games more than actually learn something new, lots of
people keep complaining how bored they feel rather than actually exploring a new
adventure in this quiet setting. After all procrastination on writing the dissertation and
indulgence in entertaining myself with games and shows, all of a sudden I realized
how much of time I had been wasted. Since then I tried to discipline myself and
started to learn new things while doing the dissertation. The process was quite tough
and struggling at first. I just managed it better day by day.
Overall, this is an eventful occasion that I will remember it my whole life. I will
definitely remember the time I had to complete my dissertation without conducting
real interviews and without entertaining myself outdoors and so on. I never imagined
that I would study and work on a dissertation like that. It was tough, but also a
challenge I would like to overcome.