Turning lemons into lemonade: The role of proactive personality and information exchange in limiting reciprocal negative affect transference in service encounters

Drawing upon theory and research on affect transference and proactive personality, we examine the proactive behaviors employees enact to limit the reciprocal transference of negative affect between customers and employees during service encounters. Results of two event-based, multi-source field studies in the service industry show that employee proactive personality weakens (a) the positive relationship between customer negative affect before the service encounter and employee negative affect during the service encounter and (b) the negative relationship between employee negative affect during the service encounter and customer ratings of service quality after the service encounter. Employee information exchange with the customer mediates these moderating effects. These findings highlight the potential for employee proactive personality and information exchange with customers in limiting the transfer of negative affect in service encounters and minimizing negative further downstream effects on customers' perceptions of service quality.