Are Committed Employees More Service Oriented?

Abstract

The frontline employees who are responsible for the day-to-day interactions with customers determine, in large part, the quality of their organization's service. And a study of 156 frontline employees in various service firms in Mexico reveals that the degree of their commitment to the organization will affect their service orientation. The results showed that employees who have positive feelings toward the organization are likely to have a stronger service orientation and, therefore, deliver service that results in better performance evaluations. The theoretical and research implications of this investigation are that the affective dimension of the organizational commitment construct explains the largest variance of service orientation; there is a positive relationship among organizational commitment, service orientation, and service performance; and service orientation has a mediation effect on the relationship between organizational commitment and service performance. On a practical level, understanding the factors that lead to quality service is relevant for managers of organizations that face financial and market pressure to improve service performance. ©2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.