A store-level analysis of frontline employees as enhancers of store loyalty

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine the influence of workplace happiness and work engagement on employee service innovative behavior from the perspective of positive psychology. The study also examines if work engagement mediates the relationship between workplace happiness and employee service innovative behavior. Finally, it investigates how co-worker socializing and the service climate of the organization moderate the relationship between work engagement and employee service innovative behavior.Design/methodology/approachThe study used survey data from 321 frontline employees working in the service sector in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Six major hypotheses were established and examined using the SPSS Statistics V22.0 Process. The measurement model was analyzed using Amos 22.FindingsWorkplace happiness and work engagement are found to be important factors affecting employee service innovative behavior. Workplace happiness influences employee service innovative behavior directly and indirectly through work engagement. Both service climate and co-worker socializing play a significant moderating role in the relationship between work engagement and employee service innovative behavior among frontline employees. Interestingly, service climate erodes this relationship while co-worker socializing enhances it.Practical implicationsThis study provides guidelines for managers and practitioners in the service industry to promote frontline employee service innovative behavior. Specifically, the findings provide guidance for decision-makers on how to use workplace happiness to trigger the innovative service behaviors of frontline employees, taking into consideration the conditional role of service climate and co-worker socializing.Originality/valueThe literature on factors affecting the service innovative behavior of frontline employees in the service sector from the perspective of positive psychology is limited, especially in the context of the UAE. The data, framework and outcomes of this research address this gap and contribute to the current body of knowledge. Specifically, the study contributes to the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions in the field of positive psychology by validating the applicability of the theory in a wider organizational context.

Relationships among service climate, psychological contract, work engagement and service performance

Purpose– Frontline employees (FLEs) represent a major source of value creation for the modern firm. As such, firms are constantly evaluating different attributes of potential and current employees in the hopes of attracting, retaining, and rewarding key employees. Recently, the construct of work engagement has garnered interest as an important indicator of employee performance. However, much is unknown about this construct with regards to antecedents, outcomes and measurement. Thus, the purpose of the current research is to contribute to the developing literature on work engagement.Design/methodology/approach– Data were collected from FLEs across high and low customer contact service contexts. The hypothesized relationships in the model were tested using structural equation modeling (SEM).Findings– This research provides empirical evidence that service climate, job satisfaction and affective commitment influence work engagement. Employee's work engagement subsequently impacts constructs such as career commitment and adaptability. Furthermore, the authors conceptualize work engagement as a multidimensional higher order construct that exhibits a superior fit compared to a simple first order conceptualization.Research limitations/implications– This research provides guidance on how to measure work engagement as well as identifying both antecedent and outcomes variables associated with the construct.Practical implications– Results suggest that the service firm has some impact on the level of work engagement FLEs exhibit. Furthermore, this research highlights the importance of the link between positive emotions and FLE performance.Originality/value– By utilizing the contemporary broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions, this research makes contributions in the developing understanding of the impact of positive emotions on FLEs.

Purpose This study aims to develop and test a comprehensive model that begins with management commitment/concern and progresses through intermediate links of service climate and in-role frontline employee (FLE) performance to customer satisfaction and eventually to sales performance. Design/methodology/approach Branches of a major retail bank in New Zealand serve as the study setting. Data pertaining to management commitment/concern and service climate were collected using an intranet survey distributed to the branch employees, and customer satisfaction data were gathered via mail questionnaires from the branch customers. Objective measures of in-role FLE performance and sales performance were provided by the bank from corporate records. Findings Results showed that management commitment/concern was significantly related to service climate; service climate to in-role FLE performance; in-role FLE performance to customer satisfaction; and customer satisfaction to branch sales. Research limitations/implications Testing viability of the model in other service sectors would be fruitful. Practical implications Since service climate has a direct positive influence on FLEs' in-role performance, branch management should focus on creating a positive service climate by taking the necessary actions to improve training, rewards and technological support. Originality/value The study uses an objective in-role performance measure in measuring branch employees' performance.

Marketing scholars have recognized that building and maintaining strong employee-customer relationships are contributors to the performance of organizations. Empirical evidences concerning employee-customer interaction with the help of integrated framework by using the data from supervisor, employee and customer is scarce. Insights from literature, application of service profit chain and unique set of triad (supervisor, employee and customer) as a unit of analysis, enables an examination of various relational paths among the antecedents and outcomes of interactional quality and fills in the aforementioned void. This study seeks to model and empirically test key cognitive (role overload, self-efficacy, and service climate) and emotional aspects (emotional regulation) on outcome variables (interactional quality, customer satisfaction, service performance). An integrated theoretical model rooted in the reflections of emotional cognition theory, cognitive energetical theory and cognitive emotional theory is developed. A survey questionnaire on the basis of well-established measurements from the previous research studies is adopted for data collection from insurance sector of Pakistan. Data is collected with the help of purposive sampling. A total of 270 sets of survey responses are used to empirically test the measurements and propositions through structural equation modelling using AMOS 23. The findings are in support of a significant model and proposed relational paths. In general, results revealed that role overload, self-efficacy, service climate and emotional regulations lead towards customer satisfaction and service performance through interactional quality. This research offers a number of academic and practical implications. The main implication of this research is the extension in conceptual research of marketing literature by providing empirical evidence regarding employee-customer relationship. Managers should recognize that frontline employees, whether they simply interact or actually render the service are the central actor in delivering better quality services that resulted in customer satisfaction. A number of academic as well as managerial implications are proposed and discussed.

This study theorized and examined the influence of the interaction between Service-Oriented high-performance work systems (HPWSs) and service leadership on collective customer knowledge and service climate. Using a sample of 569 employees and 142 managers in footwear retail stores, we found that Service-Oriented HPWSs and service leadership reduced the influences of one another on collective customer knowledge and service climate, such that the positive influence of service leadership on collective customer knowledge and service climate was stronger when Service-Oriented HPWSs were lower than when they were higher or the positive influence of Service-Oriented HPWSs on collective customer knowledge and service climate was stronger when service leadership was lower than when it was higher. We further proposed and found that collective customer knowledge and service climate were positively related to objective financial outcomes through service performance. Implications for the literature and managerial practices are discussed.

PurposeThis study attempts to contribute to the knowledge of how service climate improves customer satisfaction in the hospitality industry based on evidence from mainland China. It considers different dimensions of service climate separately, including customer orientation, managerial support and work facilitation, and introduces an important mediator – employee commitment – to examine the relationship between service climate and customer satisfaction.Design/methodology/approachA theoretical framework is proposed to suggest links among the three dimensions of service climate, employee commitment and customer satisfaction. A structured questionnaire was developed to collect data from employees in the hospitality industry of China. The constructs were measured by using established scales. Structural equation modeling was used to examine the theoretical hypotheses.FindingsEmpirical results indicate that different dimensions of service climate have different effects on customer satisfaction. For instance, customer orientation, as one dimension of service climate, has a direct and positive influence on customer satisfaction, while two other dimensions of service climate, managerial support and work facilitation, have indirect positive influence on customer satisfaction, through improving employee commitment.Practical implicationsThe results indicate that managers should create customer orientation in hotels, including clarifying the value of providing customers with high quality service, and developing a system of emphasizing the importance of customer feedback. Meanwhile, managers need to pay attention to two neglected components of service climate, managerial support and work facilitation, rather than focusing on physical infrastructure only.Originality/valueThis paper makes an important empirical contribution by treating various dimensions of service climate separately, and exploring their relationships with customer satisfaction by introducing a mediator, employee commitment. The results indicate that various dimensions of service climate play different roles in improving customer satisfaction. This study contributes to the theories of service climate and customer satisfaction.

Although the supply chain and logistics sector in Indonesia is developing very well and contributes very significantly to the Indonesian economy, which is about 25% of Indonesia's total GDP (World Bank 2018), the industry is very competitive. To survive in this sector, companies must be able to compete through price, service quality, and product innovation. Work engagement can help employees remain focused, motivated, and productive in such a fast-paced and complex environment. The focus of this research is to confirm the effect of leadership, rewards, and service climate on work engagement and the mediating effect of service climate on work engagement. The sample of this study consists of 287 respondents who work in various divisions and branches of a logistics company in Jakarta, metropolitan Indonesia. The data is analyzed using the Smart PLS version 3.0 application. All of the research hypotheses were accepted, there for Leadership practices have a positive and significant effect on work engagement and service climate, Total Rewards have a positive and significant effect on service climate and work engagement, and Service Climate mediates the effect of Leadership practices and Total Reward on work engagement. It is expected the research findings can be used by the company to understand and improve their service delivery processes, enhance employee engagement and satisfaction, and ultimately increase customer satisfaction and loyalty, which are critical factors to survive in a competitive market.

Drawing on service climate theory, this study examined the mediating effect of service-oriented organizational citizenship behavior on the relationship between service climate and customer satisfaction, and the moderating effects of three potential factors for service core attributes (customer contact frequency, service intangibility, and service employee interdependence) on service climate-customer satisfaction link. The research objective in this study is banking service industry in Taiwan. Sample data from 40 branches will be collected from employees, customers, and their supervisors. In this study constructs with three sources (e.g., customers rated customer satisfaction, and contact employees rated their perceived service climate, and service-oriented organizational citizenship behavior in individual level, while their supervisor rated service attributes in work unit level) will be measured in order to reduce the possibility of same source bias. Confirmatory factor analysis, reliability, correlation and regression analyses and hierarchical linear modeling were conducted to test research hypotheses. The results showed that (1) a positive, direct relationship is expected between frontline contact employees’ perceptions of climate for service and customer satisfaction; (2) service-oriented organizational citizenship behavior of employee does not mediate the relationship of service climate on customer satisfaction; (3) service employee interdependence moderates the relationship between service climate and customer satisfaction, this relationship will be significantly stronger when service intangibility is high.

For service businesses, a key goal is the consistent delivery of exceptionally high levels of service quality. A hospitality organisation that emphasises service in everything it says and does is more likely to achieve high levels of service quality, customer satisfaction and competitive advantage. This thesis applies a services management framework to the study of casinos. The research contributes to knowledge by examining the differential effects of employee interpretations of human resources (HR) practices on service climate and job-related attitudes. The research problem has three aspects. First, academics and practitioners need to better understand the internal dynamics that affect the development of an organisational climate for service. A positive service climate encourages desirable service-related behaviours. Second, although it is widely understood why human resource management (HRM) can contribute to positive organisational outcomes, it is not well understood exactly how HRM is connected with such desirable outcomes. In particular, this thesis explores the effect of the differential attributions that employees make regarding why their organisation has implemented its chosen set of HR practices. Third, research that addresses HR and service-related variables in the casino industry is lacking. Some evidence suggests that the casino industry has specific contextual characteristics that may set it apart from other industries in terms of organisational dynamics. The purpose of this thesis is to examine the impact of employee attributions regarding HR practices on perceptions of service climate and important work-related employee attitudes in the context of the casino industry. Further aims are to provide insight into the specific working conditions in the casino industry that have an impact on employee perceptions and attitudes, and to examine what causes these employees to make particular attributions regarding HR practices. The research questions to be addressed are: RQ1: What is the influence of employee attributions of HR practices on job satisfaction and organisational commitment? RQ2: How do employee perceptions of service climate explain the relationships between employee attributions of HR practices and job satisfaction and organisational commitment? RQ3: What are the salient features of the casino working environment that have an impact on employee HR attributions, perceptions of service climate, job satisfaction and organisational commitment? The study is premised on a post-positivist perspective, with a realist approach to knowledge. The research design included a mix of methods in a sequential explanatory design involving two stages. The study organisations were two Australian casino hotels, “Casino Ace” and “Casino Baccarat”. Both participating casino hotels are located in regional and remote locations. Employees of these two casino hotels were participants for each data collection stage. The first stage was quantitative and explored the first two research questions. The data collection instrument was a self-report questionnaire designed to measure each of the variables of interest: employee attributions of HR practices, perceptions of service climate, job satisfaction and organisational commitment. A total of 443 usable surveys were collected across the two data collection sites: 139 completed questionnaires at Casino Ace and 304 at Casino Baccarat (representing a response rate from the sample of 87% and 95% respectively). Data analysis techniques adopted to explore the research questions included confirmatory factor analyses, tests of validity and reliability, and structural equation modelling to assess the hypotheses. The second stage was qualitative and explored the third research question. A series of interviews was conducted with employees from both of the participating casino hotels. A total of 23 interviews were conducted – 11 at Casino Ace and 12 at Casino Baccarat. Thematic analysis techniques were used to analyse the data. Findings indicate that when employees attribute HR practices to a concern for employee well-being and a commitment to quality service delivery (the Internal Commitment HR attribution), higher levels of job satisfaction and organisational commitment result. In contrast, when employees attribute HR practices to either a desire to cut costs and exploit employees (the Internal Control HR attribution) or the need to comply with external regulations (the External Compliance HR attribution), there is little to no influence of job-related attitudes. A positive level of service climate is highly related to the Internal Commitment HR attribution. Service climate is also positively related to job-related attitudes. Contrary to expectations, there is limited evidence to suggest that service climate mediates the relationship between HR attributions and job-related attitudes. Implications of the study are wide-ranging. The newly emerging theory of HR attributions has merit, although there appear to be contingencies and boundary conditions on the hypothesised relationships. Further research into employee HR attributions is warranted. The remote location of the two casino hotels appears to have influenced the results. This unplanned finding highlights the need for a better understanding of the impact of operating in remote location on workplace outcomes.

Purpose– The purpose of the current research is to evaluate how customer contact level and customer service-based role conflict influence the relationship between customer emotions and work engagement, while simultaneously evaluating psychological capital as an outcome of work engagement. Customer service research highlights the impact of employee attitudes and behaviors on customer satisfaction. More recently, this relationship has been examined in reverse, evaluating how customer emotions influence the employee. Unfortunately, previous research has not evaluated variables that inhibit the impact of customer emotions on the employee.Design/methodology/approach– Data were collected from frontline employees across high and low customer contact service contexts. The hypothesized relationships were tested using structural equation modeling.Findings– This research provides empirical evidence that employee-perceived customer delight impacts employee work engagement. However, through a process of feedback, customer service-based role conflict impacts the relationship between customer emotions and employee emotions. Finally, the conceptual model illustrates how engaged employees can create their own personal resourcesvis-à-visthe broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions.Research limitations/implications– This research identifies both antecedent and outcomes variables associated with work engagement, as well as identified mediating factors.Practical implications– Results suggest that the quality and level of contact that frontline employees have with customers impact their work engagement. Furthermore, engaged frontline employees have the ability to create their own personal resources.Originality/value– This research makes contributions to the understanding of the impact of positive customer emotions on frontline employees.

Rapid growth of the service sector worldwide highlights the importance of service quality as a key to organisational performance. As service quality is influenced by the way service is delivered to customers, a key mission of service organisations is to facilitate their employees to form appropriate attitudes and behaviours that deliver quality service. However, increased workforce diversity presents an array of challenges to organisations in effectively fostering employees to develop exemplary service attitudes and behaviours. Employees from different backgrounds tend to have diverse views and motivations towards customer service. Therefore, organisational success largely depends on how managers understand the effects of employees’ personal attributes on their perceptions, attitudes and behaviours towards customer service. This thesis examines the role of personal values and provides an insight into how personal values interact with employee perceptions of service climate and their service delivery. The research problem in this thesis is twofold. First, while many studies discuss various organisational factors that influence employee perceptions of service climate, there is a limited understanding of how employees’ ‘personal attributes’ affect their service climate perceptions. Specifically, there has been a lack of research examining the effects of personal values on employee perceptions of service climate. Personal values are recognised as the guiding principles of one’s life and fundamental motivations that influence perceptions, attitudes and behaviours. Therefore, employees who embrace different types of personal values would be likely to perceive service climate differently. Unfolding the relationships between personal values and employee perceptions of service climate would help to effectively promote a service climate in a workplace and facilitate employee service attitudes and behaviours. Second, previous research in personal values suggests limited understanding about the effects of personal values on employee service delivery. By addressing the effects of personal values on employee perceptions of service climate and directly on their service delivery, this study provides insights into how personal values play an important role in customer service. As such, this thesis addresses two overarching research questions: RQ1: What are the relationships between employees’ personal values and their service climate perceptions? RQ 2: What are the relationships between employees’ personal values and their service delivery? This thesis is guided by a post-positivist paradigm and comprises two stages. The first stage is a quantitative study, using a survey technique to address the first research question. A total of 487 usable surveys were collected from customer-contact employees working at nine four- and five-star hotels in Australia. The second stage, a qualitative study, involved in-depth, semi-structured interviews. In this stage, two issues were addressed. First, to gain deeper insights into the findings of the first study, the second study sought to examine the underlying reasons that could explain the results of Study 1. Second, it explored the second research question. Critical incident and laddering techniques were used to effectively elicit meaningful information from the interviewees. The survey results found that personal values have only limited effects on employee perceptions of service climate. Underlying reasons to explain this result include the suppressing effects of several key organisational factors, the complexity and focus of the questionnaire, inculcation of organisational values and self-suppression of personal value effects. Contrarily, the study identifies strong effects of personal values on employee service delivery. It also suggests that employees tend to use different attributions for different types of service delivery. Specifically, employees tend to attribute the motivation to deliver quality service to their personal values. On the other hand, they often attribute their service recovery efforts to organisational factors. The study provides several key implications for theory and practice. Given a lack of research examining the effects of personal values on employee perceptions of service climate and service delivery, this thesis extends our understanding of how an employee’s personal values interact with the factors that are crucial in determining customer-perceived service quality. Furthermore, by clarifying the role of an employee’s personal values in customer service, this thesis contributes to the literature of diversity management in the context of customer service. In practice, the current study offers service and hospitality managers insights into developing better communication systems that make full use of the fundamental motivations of workforce, so as to effectively achieve organisational service excellence.

Impact of service climate and psychological capital on employee engagement: The role of organizational hierarchy

Customer-oriented behaviour of front-line service employees: The need to be both willing and able

Drawing on service climate theory, this study examined the mediating effect of service-oriented organizational citizenship behavior on the relationship between service climate and customer satisfaction, and the moderating effects of three potential factors for service core attributes (customer contact frequency, service intangibility, and service employee interdependence) on service climate-customer satisfaction link. The research objective in this study is banking service industry in Taiwan. Sample data from 40 branches will be collected from employees, customers, and their supervisors. In this study constructs with three sources (e.g., customers rated customer satisfaction, and contact employees rated their perceived service climate, and service-oriented organizational citizenship behavior in individual level, while their supervisor rated service attributes in work unit level) will be measured in order to reduce the possibility of same source bias. Confirmatory factor analysis, reliability, correlation and regression analyses and hierarchical linear modeling were conducted to test research hypotheses. The results showed that (1) a positive, direct relationship is expected between frontline contact employees’ perceptions of climate for service and customer satisfaction; (2) service-oriented organizational citizenship behavior of employee does not mediate the relationship of service climate on customer satisfaction; (3) service employee interdependence moderates the relationship between service climate and customer satisfaction, this relationship will be significantly stronger when service intangibility is high.