ABSTRACT
Purpose: With theoretical underpinnings in the conservation of resources theory, this research aims at understanding the link between workplace ostracism (WPO) and its effects on customers' interests in the context of COVID-19, with the mediation of stress and moderation of self-efficacy (SE). Design/methodology/approach: The study followed a time-lagged design. A sample of 217 frontline employees working in the food sector of southern Punjab, Pakistan responded to the study questions using survey method with structured questionnaires. A Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) tool was utilized for data analysis with bootstrapping and PROCESS macro. Findings: The findings show that an important mechanism by which ostracism translates into customer service sabotage (CSS) is the increase in perceived stress levels of the employees. Additionally, SE was found to be an important personal resource that acts as a moderator in the said relationship. Practical implications: Employees with high SE sense less workplace stress even during a pandemic. Leadership should consider the stress-alleviating effect of SE for lessening the damaging influence of WPO on customers. Originality/value: The study fills an important empirical gap in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, by showing that due to resource loss perceived by employees while being targeted by ostracism, they may decide to transfer their frustration towards organizational customers by sabotaging their service experience. © 2022, Ambreen Sarwar, Muhammad Ibrahim Abdullah, Muhammad Kashif Imran and Nazia Rafiq.
ABSTRACT
Given they are two critical infrastructure areas, the security of electricity and gas networks is highly important due to potential multifaceted social and economic impacts. Unexpected errors or sabotage can lead to blackouts, causing a significant loss for the public, businesses, and governments. Climate change and an increasing number of consequent natural disasters (e.g., bushfires and floods) are other emerging network resilience challenges. In this paper, we used network science to examine the topological resilience of national energy networks with two case studies of Australian gas and electricity networks. To measure the fragility and resilience of these energy networks, we assessed various topological features and theories of percolation. We found that both networks follow the degree distribution of power-law and the characteristics of a scale-free network. Then, using these models, we conducted node and edge removal experiments. The analysis identified the most critical nodes that can trigger cascading failure within the network upon a fault. The analysis results can be used by the network operators to improve network resilience through various mitigation strategies implemented on the identified critical nodes.