Threat appraisal_combined.sav

It is becoming increasingly frequent for customers to treat employees disrespectfully, challenge their authority, or neglect to show courtesy through words such as "please" and "thank you". This type of incivility is a serious problem that must be addressed immediately. This study examined how customer incivility predicts employee anger and the role of threat appraisal in this relationship. The sample group (<em>N</em>=405) was recruited through an online survey platform and asked to rate their experiences of customer incivility, threat appraisal, anger, sense of power and power distance orientation. Results showed that 69.9% of employees reported experiencing customer incivility daily, 28.1% reported it weekly, and 49.9% reported it monthly. Threat appraisal was found to mediate the positive relationship between customer incivility and employee anger. Additionally, there was a three‐way interaction on threat appraisal between customer incivility, employee sense of power, and employee power distance. Employees with a high sense of power and a high-power distance orientation appraised customer incivility as more threatening than their counterparts with a low and low power distance orientation. This study provides valuable insights for selecting and training individuals with high power distance orientation. Implications for research and practice are also discussed.