Creating a Service Climate for Enhancing Employee Value through the Role of Middle Managers: A Case Study in Leading Insurance Company

Abstract

The creation of value for customers depends significantly on the knowledge, skill and motivation of service employees. Heskett, Sasser and Schlesinger (2003, The value profit chain. New York, NY: The Free Press) argued that customer value is created by satisfied, productive and loyal employees. This indicates that the company must first provide value to employees. What has not sufficiently been analysed is how to and who should provide value to employees. We verified that not only the company provides value through its policies or systems, but also through those managers who lead at middle level. They play an essential role in creating value for employees when guiding them consistently through specific behaviours that promote value for customers. Our research has focused on developing specific middle managers’ behaviours in order to create a climate focused on service that contributes to enhancing employee value in the commercial unit of a leading insurance company in Peru. The literature explains the need of a generic climate (GC) as a foundation for focused climates, but it has not been demonstrated how to link these climates through the leadership of middle managers. We applied a model of service leadership that facilitates this link, emphasizes excellence in service and enhances employees’ value.