Proactive Customer Service Performance: Relationships With Individual,Task, and Leadership Variables

Despite the increasing interest in specific forms of proactive employee behavior in domains such as career development and organizational change, little research has investigated proactive behavior in the realm of customer service. Based on a review of the literatures on proactive behavior, customer service, and job performance, this study investigated relationships between a relevant set of individual and situational predictor variables and proactive customer service performance (i.e., individual service employees' self-started, long-term-oriented, and persistent service behavior that goes beyond explicitly prescribed requirements). Field survey data from 186 supervisor-subordinate dyads working in a large financial services organization demonstrated that proactive service performance, as rated by supervisors, was factorially distinct from prescribed task performance. Multiple regression analysis revealed that proactive service performance was significantly and positively associated with employee ratings of trait personal initiative, affective organizational commitment, task complexity, and participative leadership. The task and leadership variables explained incremental variance in proactive service performance beyond the individual predictors.     

An experimental investigation of justice-based service recovery on customer satisfaction, loyalty, and word-of-mouth intentions

Service recovery is related to many important organizational outcomes such as customer satisfaction, loyalty, and profitability. Within the theoretical framework of organizational justice, an experiment using a simulated "live" service failure was used to assess the effects of justice-based service-recovery strategies on customer satisfaction, loyalty, positive word-of-mouth intentions, and negative word-of-mouth intentions. Analysis indicated that strategies including interactional justice, distributive justice, and a combination of these were equally effective in maintaining customer satisfaction, loyalty, and positive word of mouth, and minimizing negative word of mouth after a service failure. No support for the service recovery paradox, that is, increased satisfaction following service failure and recovery compared to never having a problem, was found. Satisfaction and loyalty for those in the failure conditions were equal to, although not higher than, in the no-failure control condition. Practical implications for organizational practices are discussed.     

Relating career stage to attitudes towards HR practices and commitment: Evidence of interaction effects?

A dominant theme within the human resource management (HRM) literature concerns the identification of "best practices" that will enhance both organizational performance and employee commitment. Although research exploring the impact of these practices at the level of the individual is considerably limited, it is implied that they may be applied both across and within organizations, yielding favourable outcomes such as higher organizational performance and enhanced employee commitment. This is despite claims that commitment is multidimensional and that certain organizational and individual variables are related to different forms of commitment. It is possible that organizations seeking to promote commitment might need to tailor HR practices to suit employees' needs, thus challenging the best practice perspective at the employee level. This article extends on the literature by examining whether the relationship between attitudes towards HR practices and commitment is moderated by career stage. The empirical research is based on an employee attitude survey within three financial service organizations in Ireland (N?=?288). Using hierarchical regression analysis, the findings show that interaction effects are evident regarding attitudes towards HR practices and affective, continuance, and normative commitment. The implications of these findings for the management of commitment are discussed.     

The relationship between human resource investments and organizational performance: a firm-level examination of equilibrium theory

It is commonly believed that human resource investments can yield positive performance-related outcomes for organizations. Utilizing the theory of organizational equilibrium (H. A. Simon, D. W. Smithburg, & V. A. Thompson, 1950; J. G. March & H. A. Simon, 1958), the authors proposed that organizational inducements in the form of competitive pay will lead to 2 firm-level performance outcomes--labor productivity and customer satisfaction--and that financially successful organizations would be more likely to provide these inducements to their employees. To test their hypotheses, the authors gathered employee-survey and objective performance data from a sample of 126 large publicly traded U.S. organizations over a period of 3 years. Results indicated that (a) firm-level financial performance (net income) predicted employees' shared perceptions of competitive pay, (b) shared pay perceptions predicted future labor productivity, and (c) the relationship between shared pay perceptions and customer satisfaction was fully mediated by employee morale.     

A Commentary on 'Exploring the Nature of Human Resource Developers' Expertise"

Previous research has shown that organizational identification (OI) of leaders is positively related to employee OI and, in turn, linked to positive behaviours of employees towards the organization. In the present study, we argue that leader OI does not only affect variables at the employee level but, through its influence on employees, also contributes to important customer outcomes (i.e., customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, and customer recommendations). Drawing on self-concept based theories of leadership effectiveness and insights from service linkage research, the present article proposes that OI plays an important role in these influence processes. Additionally, the article delineates the behavioural and psychological variables that intervene employee OI and customer outcomes. More specifically, we suggest that leader OI is positively related to follower OI, which results in customer-oriented service behaviour. Customer orientation, in turn, should positively affect customers' identification with the organization and, ultimately, result in customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, and customer recommendations. Results of a multilevel field study using data from leaders, employees, and customers provide support for our theoretical model.     

Unlocking the black box: exploring the link between high-performance work systems and performance

With a growing body of literature linking systems of high-performance work practices to organizational performance outcomes, recent research has pushed for examinations of the underlying mechanisms that enable this connection. In this study, based on a large sample of Welsh public-sector employees, we explored the role of several individual-level attitudinal factors--job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and psychological empowerment--as well as organizational citizenship behaviors that have the potential to provide insights into how human resource systems influence the performance of organizational units. The results support a unit-level path model, such that department-level, high-performance work system utilization is associated with enhanced levels of job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and psychological empowerment. In turn, these attitudinal variables were found to be positively linked to enhanced organizational citizenship behaviors, which are further related to a second-order construct measuring departmental performance.     

Toward Higher Levels of Ethics: Preliminary Evidence of Positive Outcomes

Based on previous research, this study proposes conceptualization and measurement of five distinct ethical levels. The ideas are tested with secondary data obtained from responses of 246 salespeople to a nationwide survey conducted by a leading research firm. Results support a hierarchically indexed measure of ethical level and offer evidence that ethical level relates to a number of important organizational outcomes relevant to long-term viability and success. Specifically, ethical level is positively associated with salesperson well-being, customer and societally related measures, and also with a set of proxies for market and financial performance. This paper brings an important contribution to the sales and ethics literature by demonstrating that a true commitment to ethics is beneficial to salespersons and the firm, and that higher ethical commitment above and beyond codes and enforcement is even more beneficial. A discussion of implications and directions for further research is provided.     

Customer service providers' attitudes relating to customer service and customer satisfaction in the customer-server exchange

The authors proposed and tested a model describing the relationship between customer service providers' perceptions and attitudes toward their service-related duties and their customers' perceptions of satisfaction with their service experiences. Results indicated that the perception of having standards for service delivery in an organization is strongly related to line-level employees' perceptions of support from coworkers and supervisors. Perceived support from coworkers was significantly related to service providers' customer orientation, whereas perceived support from supervisors showed a weaker relationship to a customer orientation. Ultimately, service providers' customer orientation was strongly related to customers' satisfaction with service. Finally, a set of post hoc analyses indicated that coworker and supervisory support explained a greater proportion of incremental variance in the model than did perceived organizational support alone.     

Manager personality, manager service quality orientation, and service climate: test of a model

This article conceptually and empirically explores the relationships among manager personality, manager service quality orientation, and climate for customer service. Data were collected from 1,486 employees and 145 managers in grocery store departments (N = 145) to test the authors' theoretical model. Largely consistent with hypotheses, results revealed that core self-evaluations were positively related to managers' service quality orientation, even after dimensions of the Big Five model of personality were controlled, and that service quality orientation fully mediated the relationship between personality and global service climate. Implications for personality and organizational climate research are discussed.     

Managing Employees in the Service Sector: A Literature Review and Conceptual Development

Our economy is slowly shifting from a manufacturing base to a service base. Yet, management literature has been slow to respond. We know little about the unique challenges faced by managers in the service sector. This paper reviews literature on research on management practice and employee perceptions that lead to positive customer outcomes. Specifically, relational coordination efforts by a manager are suggested to lead to specific employee behaviors that have been correlated with customer outcomes. This literature review and conceptual development are presented here in hopes that future research will take a deeper look at the challenges faced by service sector managers.     

An examination of the role of perceived support and employee commitment in employee-customer encounters

The authors examined the relationships between perceived organizational support, organizational commitment, commitment to customers, and service quality in a fast-food firm. The research design matched customer responses with individual employees' attitudes, making this study a true test of the service provider-customer encounter. On the basis of a sample of matched employee-customer data (N = 133), hierarchical linear modeling analyses revealed that perceived organizational support had both a unit-level and an employee-level effect on 1 dimension of service quality: helping behavior. Contrary to affective organizational commitment, affective commitment to customers enhanced service quality. The 2 sub-dimensions of continuance commitment to the organization--perceived high sacrifice and perceived lack of alternatives--exerted effects opposite in sign: The former fostered service quality, whereas the latter reduced it. The implications of these findings are discussed within the context of research on employee-customer encounters.     

The Dual Effects of Organizational Citizenship Behavior: Relationships to Research Productivity and Career Outcomes in Academe

Organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) has been shown to be important for organizational effectiveness, yet less is known about the relationship between OCB and objective outcomes for individuals. We investigate the relationship between OCB and both short-term and longer term outcomes within the context of an outcome-based reward system. We also investigate a type of OCB specific to professional occupations, namely, professional service OCB. Using resource allocation and social exchange theories, we hypothesize that OCB directed internally to the employing organization may have a negative impact on individuals’ productivity and career outcomes while engaging in professional service OCB would be positively related to these outcomes. Results from a survey of 622 faculty members in research universities provide support for these hypotheses. Future research directions are discussed.     

Extending the expanded model of organizational identification to occupations

We extend Kreiner and Ashforth's (2004) research on the expanded model of organizational identification to the occupational level of self. A survey of 251 customer service representatives from an Indian call center indicates that occupational identification, occupational disidentification, ambivalent occupational identification, and neutral occupational identification are empirically differentiable. Further, each form of identification in the expanded model was related to certain predictors from a set of ten situational and individual difference variables, and to certain outcomes from a set of five adjustment variables. The differing patterns of antecedents and outcomes for each form of occupational identification suggest that each form constitutes a relatively unique phenomenon.     

Reporting ethical practices in journal articles

Little attention has focused on the reporting of ethical research practices in journal articles. In Study 1, published articles in 2 psychopathology journals were reviewed to ascertain the types of ethical research information that were reported. In Study 2, a survey was sent to authors in Study 1 to determine which ethical practices they engaged in, if they reported this information, and reasons for not including this information in their article. In general, there is a great variability regarding the types of ethical research practices reported in journal articles. Commonly cited reasons for not including ethical research practice information in the articles included the need for brevity, belief that it was common practice, and lack of relevance for the project. These results suggest that there is no standard practice for reporting research practices in journal articles and great variability in the implementation of procedures that are generally considered standard.     

The effects of transformational and change leadership on employees' commitment to a change: a multilevel study

The effects of transformational leadership on the outcomes of specific change initiatives are not well understood. Conversely, organizational change studies have examined leader behaviors during specific change implementations yet have failed to link these to broader leadership theories. In this study, the authors investigate the relationship between transformational and change leadership and followers' commitment to a particular change initiative as a function of the personal impact of the changes. Transformational leadership was found to be more strongly related to followers' change commitment than change-specific leadership practices, especially when the change had significant personal impact. For leaders who were not viewed as transformational, good change-management practices were found to be associated with higher levels of change commitment.     

The Influence of Organizational Culture on Work‐Related Personality Requirement Ratings: A multilevel analysis

The effects of organizational culture on job incumbents' ratings of work‐related personality requirements were investigated. Data collected from 270 customer service representatives working within 37 mobile phone service companies in China demonstrated significant between‐organization differences and sufficient within‐organization agreement on two dimensions of work‐related personality requirements, achievement orientation and conscientiousness, to suggest that these work‐related personality requirements can be interpreted as organizational‐level constructs. Furthermore, incumbents' ratings of the two personality requirements were positively related to two corresponding dimensions of organizational culture, achievement‐oriented culture and integrity‐oriented culture, respectively, and as predicted, both were positively associated with team‐oriented culture. Further analyses revealed that team‐oriented culture appeared to play a particularly salient role in predicting incumbents' perceptions about the importance of the two dimensions of personality requirements.     

Gender,Socialization, and Money1

We examine the familial experiences of 605 university students surrounding money, and their current beliefs and attitudes about money. A survey examined parental practices regarding money, gender beliefs about equal and unequal earnings, money as it relates to assessments of the self and others, current financial practices, and plans and expectations regarding future financial earnings. Gender comparisons of 12 factors revealed separate and distinct money socialization tracks for men compared to women. Parents were described as having a very different set of practices and expectations for sons and daughters, and the male and female students also sharply differed in a number of ways on their attitudes and behaviors regarding money. For males, money was positively valued. Females had a negative value for money. These money tracks were more sharply differentiated and positively associated among students from higher social classes.     

Career Commitment: A Reexamination and an Extension

Compared to the other forms of work commitment, there is a paucity of research on career commitment. In this article, the authors seek to address this relative gap in the literature by building on previous research on the correlates and antecedents of career commitment and adding “new” variables to the framework. More specifically, they investigate the effects of a few previously studied factors such as job involvement, organizational commitment, and job satisfaction, and they add two more individual factors (need for achievement and work ethic) as well as some situational variables (organizational uncertainty/fear of job loss and job fit) that, to the best of their knowledge, have not been investigated in previous research. Furthermore, they examine the effects of extra-work variables (family involvement and number of dependents) on career commitment. Finally, they control for a number of key demographic variables. The authors find considerable support for the hypotheses that job involvement, organizational commitment, and job satisfaction are positively related to career commitment and find some support for a similar effect for need for achievement and work ethic. Furthermore, as predicted, fear of losing one's job was negatively related to career commitment, whereas “job fit” was positively related. The extra-work variables did not have any significant effects on career commitment. The implications for theory and practice are discussed.     

Relationships between organizational justice, identification with organization and work unit, and group-related outcomes

This research examined the differential antecedents and consequences of organizational identification and work-unit identification. Specifically, we hypothesized that organization-focused procedural justice and distributive justice would be positively related to organizational identification, whereas supervisor-focused interactional justice would be positively related to work-unit identification. A further hypothesis was that organizational identification would relate to organization-focused outcomes (turnover intentions and extra-role behavior toward the organization), and work-unit identification to work-unit-focused outcomes (extra-role behavior toward the work unit). Our results from a sample of 160 employees of a research institution supported these hypotheses. In addition, we found some evidence that organizational identification and work-unit identification differentially mediated the relationships between organization-focused and supervisor-focused justice, and organization-focused and work-unit-focused outcomes. We discuss our findings in terms of their implications for social-identity research on organizational identification, and for research on organizational justice.     

Supervisor Support for Employee Performance in Australia: Mediating Role of Work‐Life Balance,Job, and Life Attitude

Drawing on the job‐demands resources model, we investigated the relationship between supervisor support and employee performance and the mediating effects of work‐life balance (WLB), job and life satisfaction, and organizational commitment in a sample of 305 financial‐sector employees in Sydney, Australia. Results reveal that supervisor support is positively related to employee performance, WLB, job and life satisfaction, and organizational commitment. In turn, WLB, job and life satisfaction, and organizational commitment are positively linked to employee performance. The findings indicate a significant mediation between supervisor support and employee performance only through WLB and organizational commitment. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.