How illegitimate tasks impair banking frontline employees’ customer-directed extra-role performance: the role of psychological distress and agreeableness

Purpose Drawing on the integration of the stress-as-offense-to-self theory and the conservation of resources theory, this study aims to investigate the relationship between illegitimate tasks and frontline employees’ (FLEs) customer-directed extra-role performance, concentrating on psychological distress as a mediator and agreeableness as a moderating boundary condition. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from a sample of 414 FLEs working in 12 banks in Vietnam. Partial least squares structural equation modeling was used to examine the research model. Findings The results reveal that illegitimate tasks are negatively associated with customer-directed extra-role performance. Psychological distress mediates this relationship. Moreover, agreeableness weakens the positive relationship between illegitimate tasks and psychological distress. Originality/value This study provides valuable insights for the banking industry by examining how illegitimate tasks are associated with FLEs’ customer-directed extra-role performance. Specifically, the study extends prior research by introducing psychological distress as a resource-loss mechanism linking illegitimate tasks to customer-directed extra-role performance and by identifying agreeableness as a stable dispositional boundary condition.