Discrimination takes its toll: unraveling employee service sabotage from a cognitive-appraisal perspective

Purpose Drawing on the cognitive appraisal theory and organizational justice theory, this paper aims to examine how organizational and customer unfairness and discrimination influence restaurant employees’ service sabotage through negative emotion and rumination, with personality traits as moderators. Design/methodology/approach Multiple quantitative studies were conducted with US restaurant employees. Study 1 examined organizational and customer discrimination separately using 300 respondents. Study 2 extended these findings with a time-lagged sample of 234 respondents by introducing perceived unfairness as an antecedent of discrimination and personality traits as moderators of the emotion–rumination process. Findings Results show that perceived unfairness contributes to perceived discrimination, which is indirectly associated with service sabotage through negative emotion and rumination. Organizational discrimination showed a more consistent pattern than customer discrimination. Personality effects were limited, with only extraversion moderating the emotion–rumination process. Originality/value Although service sabotage is well documented in restaurants, how discrimination leads to such behavior remains less understood. This study explains how perceived unfairness develops into discrimination, which is associated with negative emotion, rumination and service sabotage. By comparing organizational and customer sources, it reveals source-specific differences and the limited role of personality as a boundary condition.