Expressions of anger in Israeli workplaces: The special place of customer interactions

Abstract We examine norms regarding displays of anger in interactions with different target persons in Israeli organizations. Israeli university students who had been employed in the last year were asked about displaying anger to managers, subordinates, coworkers, customers and customer service representatives. For comparison, data about displays of another negative emotion—fear—were also collected. Our predictions—that anger expression is influenced by the power of the target person—were supported. There was stronger agreement that anger should be suppressed with managers than with coworkers and subordinates. Agreement that anger should be suppressed was also stronger regarding displays toward customers than toward coworkers, subordinates and managers. Norms of suppressing anger were particularly strong for displays toward customers, and far stronger than the parallel of customers' displays toward customer service representatives. These finding are suggested to imply the penetration of global customer service norms to the Israeli economy.

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