The Mediating Role Of Emotional Exhaustion And Job Satisfaction In The Relationship Between Workplace Ostracism, Customer Incivility And Turnover Intention In The Hospitality Sector In Vietnam

Abstract

The tourism and hospitality industry is making a major contribution to the growth of the global economy, not to mention Vietnam (Statista, 2024). Yet, employee turnover intentions constitute serious managerial concerns; specifically, the industry is facing an alarming turnover rate (Careers, 2023) because of a poor degree of job satisfaction, which hinders the performance and growth of the hotels as well as the sector (O’Neill et al., 2011; Pranoto, 2011). For the betterment of a hotel’s operation, scholars have investigated the influences of either workplace ostracism, regarded as an internal factor (Schilpzand, Leavitt, & Lim, 2016) or customer incivility, regarded as an external contributor - on turnover intention (Sakurai & Jex, 2012; Han, Bonn, & Cho, 2016). Past research has separately analyzed the effects of those two factors. Furthermore, there have been limited studies examining the impact of these factors on employee turnover intention within Vietnam's hospitality industry. Hence, there is a prominent space for the current research to combine both workplace ostracism and customer incivility into one research model, and investigate their impacts on turnover intention, especially in the context of Vietnam's hospitality industry. This study used a quantitative approach by collecting data from survey questionnaires from 316 employees working in hotels across Vietnam. The study employed SPSS for descriptive analysis and SmartPLS for reliability, validity, and partial least square tests to examine the proposed associations between workplace ostracism, customer incivility, and turnover intention. The findings demonstrate that workplace ostracism and customer incivility both have positive impacts on employee turnover intention. Additionally, the association between customer incivility, workplace ostracism, and employee turnover intention is mediated by emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction. Academic and practical implications are provided for future research and practitioners in the final part of this research.