The impact of third-party aggression on Italian and Irish employees’ well-being and job satisfaction

Third-party workplace aggression represents a serious threat to workplace safety and organizational well-being. Nevertheless, existing research on workplace aggression has been mainly restricted to situations involving intra-organizational members. To fill this gap, the current dissertation concentrates on third-party workplace aggression. Third-party workplace aggression may manifest itself through a tremendous range and variety of acts which may be perpetrated by unknown persons outside the organization who have no legitimate relationship to it (i.e., external), or by someone who is either the recipient of or the object of a service provided (i.e., client-initiated). The current dissertation examines two client-initiated forms of workplace aggression, namely customer incivility and verbal aggression, and two external expressions of workplace aggression, namely robberies and thefts at work. In doing so, it focuses on the service sector because generally workers who have face-to-face communication with customers tend to report the highest levels of incidence of both client-initiated and external aggression. Despite being different by their nature, these types of third-party workplace aggression can be perceived as particularly stressful situations which may produce detrimental effects at the individual and the organizational level. Indeed, previous studies have shown that robberies at work may be traumatizing experiences which may affect employees' psycho-physical well-being by stimulating the development of numerous mental health problems, such as long-term psychological distress and post-traumatic stress symptoms. These symptoms may lead to poorer occupational functioning, absenteeism, difficulties to meet work-related demands and reduced overall job satisfaction. Similarly, prior investigations have demonstrated that encounters with uncivil or verbally aggressive clients may undermine service providers’ well-being, leading them to experience, for instance, negative mood, emotional dissonance and exhaustion. This may reduce the quality of the service provided and generate negative organizational outcomes, including withdrawal behaviors and retaliatory intentions toward the source of misbehavior. Despite of these findings, several research questions remain to be answered. For instance, which psychological characteristics may make some individuals more resilient than others to third-party workplace aggression? May words hurt individuals? Through which psychological mechanisms may a target of uncivility decide to treat the instigator uncivilly? Do different forms of aggression result in different individual- and organizational-level consequences? Which factors may influence victims’ job satisfaction perceptions? More specifically, may an accumulation of uncivil acts have the power to affect an employee in the same way as verbally aggressive acts? Do the victims of robberies experience the same consequences of the victims of thefts? Do individuals from different countries react differently to aggressive acts occurring in the workplace? The present dissertation seeks to answer these questions by investigating how experiencing different forms of customer mistreatment and how being victims of diverse property crimes may differentially affect employees’ mental health and work-related outcomes, with a focus on job satisfaction. Moreover, to detect cultural similarities and differences in terms of workplace aggression perceptions and victimisation, the current dissertation adopts a cross-cultural perspective, comparing results between two nations, namely Italy and Ireland. Additionally, the role of specific personal resources is investigated with the purpose of identifying protective factors against the development of negative outcomes following critical events. Investigating effects and dynamics underlying these phenomena is crucial to formulate preventive measures and tailored interventions for victims.