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Perceptions of interactional justice ([9] Bies and Moag, 1986) influence decisions about whether individuals will engage in retaliatory behaviour ([41] Skarlicki and Folger, 1997). Interactional justice ([8] Bies, 2001; [9] Bies and Moag, 1986) comprises both interpersonal justice ([20] Greenberg, 1990), defined as the degree to which individuals perceive they are treated with dignity, respect and politeness and informational justice, which involves the quality of information individuals receive about why certain procedures are used. Interactions are perceived as interpersonally just when employees are "treated with dignity and respect and prejudicial statements and personal attacks are refrained from" ([38] Rupp and Spencer, 2006, p. 971).
Much of the interactional justice research focuses on co-workers, supervisors and the organization as sources of interactional injustice (e.g. [23] Jones, 2009; [12] Colquitt et al. , 2001) and studies show that employees' perceptions of interactional injustice predict their behaviour towards the source of injustice (e.g. [33] Masterson et al. , 2000; [37] Rupp and Cropanzano, 2002). Recently, [38] Rupp and Spencer (2006) introduced customers as an additional source of interactional injustice and argue that customer initiated injustice will also predict employee outcomes that are directed towards the customer. The lack of research attention focusing on the customer-employee interpersonal interaction is surprising as recent empirical data suggest that customer mistreatment is associated with employee burnout and increased absence from work ([19] Grandey and Dickter, 2004). Furthermore, customer non-physical aggression directed towards an employee is associated with psychological (e.g. depression) and somatic symptoms (e.g. sleep disturbance) ([29] LeBlanc and Kelloway, 2002). Although researchers have examined psychological outcomes associated with customer mistreatment, little is known about behaviours that are motivated by interpersonal mistreatment from customers. Furthermore, researchers have demonstrated that interpersonal mistreatment from intra-organizational sources result in retaliatory employee behaviour ([16] Folger and Baron, 1996; [41] Skarlicki and Folger, 1997; [40] Sheppard et al. , 1992) as a means of restoring justice. These findings suggest that employees may also engage in retaliatory behaviour if they perceive they have been mistreated by a customer.
The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between interpersonal mistreatment from customers and employee retaliation against the customer. Building on this interest, the moderating effect of employee psychological strain on the relationship between interpersonal mistreatment from the...