When helping violates the rules: mindfulness-contingent effects of pro-customer deviance on employee service innovation

Frontline employees in hospitality frequently engage in pro-customer deviance (PCD) – behaviors that violate organizational norms to enhance customer value. Such paradoxical conduct embodies simultaneous pressures for compliance and responsiveness, raising important questions about its role in service innovation. Drawing on the cognitive appraisal theory of stress and coping and self-regulatory theory, this study develops a moderated mediation model to examine how PCD influences employee service innovation through distinct cognitive mechanisms. Using time-lagged, multi-source data from employee–supervisor dyads in the hotel industry, the findings show that PCD fosters innovation among high-mindfulness employees but constrains it among those low in mindfulness. Moreover, paradox mindset and self-regulation impairment serve as mediators, reflecting dual cognitive pathways that explain these divergent outcomes. By conceptualizing PCD as a paradoxical stressor, this study enriches understanding of how frontline employees cognitively manage service paradoxes and provides insights for promoting innovation within compliance boundaries.