Frontline Service Staff Research Articles

Customer Satisfaction of Students with Front-Line Service Delivery at a Private Higher Institution in Cavite, Philippines

This study investigates student satisfaction with frontline service delivery at San Sebastian College-Recoletos de Cavite (SSC-R), recognizing the critical role of service providers in enhancing student experiences. The primary aim is to assess the level of satisfaction among students, identify challenges faced by frontline staff, and evaluate existing support strategies to recommend evidence-based approaches for improvement. Employing a mixed-methods research design, the study combines descriptive and evaluative methods, utilizing an online survey questionnaire to gather data from senior high school and college students, as well as frontline service staff across ten service offices. The findings reveal that students generally express satisfaction with the quality of services, particularly in terms of timeliness, quality, efficiency, and adequacy. However, senior high school students reported higher satisfaction levels compared to their college counterparts. The study identifies significant challenges faced by frontline staff, including data fragmentation, diverse student needs, and a demanding work environment. In conclusion, the research highlights the necessity for targeted interventions to bridge the satisfaction gap, improve staff effectiveness, and foster a culture of continuous improvement, ultimately enhancing the overall student experience at SSC-R.

What Can Hospitality Do to Encourage Gen Z to Pursue Frontline Service Jobs with Enthusiasm in The Industry?

Through an exploratory literature search, the author aims to use these realistic recruitment strategies to appeal to the Generation Z hospitality workers and examine the benefits and drawbacks for them. This paper surveys the research on four main key words: 1. Work passion, based on the model of two dimensions by Vallerand et al. (2003): harmonious passion and obsessive passion, 2. Talent management, which contrasts the conventional approach to talent management with the post-pandemic era and the emergence of ESG, 3. Front-line hospitality service staff, describing their roles and significance, 4. What are the traits of Generation Z that distinguish them from other generations. Next, the researcher reviews the 7 characteristics of Gen Z from the literature findings and explore how to enhance the motivation of Gen Z hospitality frontline service staff and propose efficient management strategies based on these characteristics. The paper identifies 7 strategies to attract Gen Z to the hospitality industry with talent management. It suggests innovative and feasible ways to hire hospitality talent from the reports. It also examines how to make frontline service jobs more satisfying for Gen Z and address career challenges. The paper helps the hospitality sector in drawing Gen Z workers, who are essential to reduce the gap and shortage of workers and staff turnover.

Impact of a Distress Brief Intervention on Suicidal Ideation, Suicide Attempts and Self-harm in the immediate, short and longer term: a mixed method evaluation study protocol

Background The Distress Brief Intervention (DBI) is a new approach aimed at reducing distress and is embedded in Scotland’s suicide prevention and mental health strategies. People in distress can be referred to DBI by front-line healthcare and emergency service staff. DBI promises to make contact within 24 hours and offers people in distress 14 days of compassionate, community-based, and person-centred support. The development of NHS 24, a new specialist National Health Service Mental Health Hub (MHH) embedded in Scotland’s urgent care service created a new national route to access DBI. Protocol This study is a mixed-method evaluation of the impact of DBI on suicidal ideation, suicide attempts and self-harm in the immediate, short and longer term among people presenting in distress. Evaluation participants include adults who access DBI, DBI staff, individuals who have used NHS 24 MHH, and GPs. A combination of analysis of quantitative survey and linked administrative data, including a comparator group analysis, qualitative interview and focus group data will support understanding of whether and how DBI can reduce suicidal ideation, suicidal behaviour and self-harm among those presenting to front-line services in distress. A survey of General Practitioners and a review of existing literature will be used to model typical care pathways for individuals in distress and at risk of self-harm. Modelled resource use and costs will be explored. All data collected will be triangulated through a summative evidence synthesis to develop evidence-based insights and conclusions to inform policy and practice development. Discussion Understanding whether, how and why DBI has helped prevent future suicidal thoughts and behaviour in those with a history of suicidal risk will provide important insights into how the intervention can be further developed and optimised as a suicide prevention intervention.

Hospitality Status: It’s Complicated - the Impact of Stakeholder Relationships on Restaurant Resilience During COVID-19

ABSTRACT The interactions between restaurant operators, policy makers and other stakeholders during COVID-19 were examined to identify the actions that contributed the most to the restaurant industry’s efforts to ensure continuity and build resilience. Thematic analysis of media articles and in-depth interviews with restaurant operators were used to analyze the restaurant industry’s response to the crisis in real time. Findings showed that customer loyalty and supplier goodwill played a crucial role in building resilience. Government subsidies preserved a critical aspect of customer loyalty, namely interpersonal relationships between guests and frontline service staff. The technology sector provided education and services at reduced or no cost, effectively speeding up the digitalization of the industry.

Assessing the fidelity of delivery style of a mental skills training programme for young people experiencing homelessness

There is a need for positive youth development/strengths-based approaches to support the wellbeing and social inclusion of young people experiencing or at risk of homelessness. My Strengths Training for Life™ (MST4Life™) uses a strengths-based approach with the aim to improve young people's resilience, self-worth, wellbeing and engagement in education, employment, and training. This mixed methods study assessed the fidelity of delivery style of the MST4Life™ programme, the extent to which frontline service staff can delivery psychologically informed programmes to service users and identified barriers and enablers to delivering with fidelity to the intended style. Observations of programme delivery (two facilitators per session) took place across early, middle, and late phases of the programme across a pilot phase (n=18) and main study (n=45). Facilitators also completed self-reflection forms following each session. The mean observation score was 82.2±15.7 %, and facilitator self-report mean adherence score was 89.3±6.2 % which indicate that the programme was delivered with high fidelity. Quantitative data was also analysed using non-parametric statistical test (Mann-Whitney U Test). There was a significant difference between observation scores for deliverers with postgraduate psychology training compared to deliverers without postgraduate psychology training (p=.029). Qualitative data were analysed using inductive thematic analysis. Barriers and enablers included communication, frontline staff support, logistics, and participant behaviours. Overall, this study highlights that despite the challenges of delivering complex community programmes to young people experiencing homelessness, it was possible for frontline service staff to deliver MST4Life™ with high fidelity.

Can Organizational Support Pull the Voice of Front-line Employees? A Moderated Mediation Model

Although predecessors have recognized the important role of perceived organizational support (POS) in front-line employee initiative behavior, it is not clear whether and how POS affects employee voice behavior. To address this problem, this study developed and validated a moderated mediation model to explore the positive impact of POS on employee voice behavior through employee engagement (job engagement and organizational engagement) and the moderating role of supervisor’s organization embodiment in this process. The data analysis of 353 Chinese front-line service staff shows that POS is positively related to employee voice behavior through employee engagement. In addition, supervisor’s organization embodiment (SOE) strengthens both the direct effect of employee engagement on employee voice behavior and the indirect effect of POS on employee voice behavior through employee engagement. Our research findings not only further develop the previous research viewpoints on POS and employee active voice behavior, but also provide a potential management approach to promote employee voice behavior.

Does incivility in quick service restaurants suppress the voice of employee? A moderated mediation model

Quick Service Restaurants (QSR) have seen overwhelming growth over the past several years worldwide and the onus of delivering superior services lies on frontline employees. Considering high competition and workload, workplace incivility isn’t alien to QSR staff. Based on conservation of resources and stressor-strain-outcomes theories, our paper proposes a theoretical framework examining workplace incivility instigated by coworkers and supervisors on voice of employee via emotional irritation which is contingent upon psychological detachment. Survey data was collected from 518 frontline service staff and 74 direct supervisors of various QSR located in the Southern India. Results indicate psychological detachment played a protective role in mitigating the deleterious effects of workplace incivility on emotional irritation and voice of employee through moderated mediation analysis. The findings of this study also open up new lines of research in the hospitality industry and highlights important theoretical and managerial implications in customer service context. • Workplace incivility will obliterate the voice of employee (VoE). • Employee irritation acts as a mediator between workplace incivility and VoE. • High psychological detachment among employees diminishes the incivility and the resultant employee irritation on VoE. • Implications for Quick Service Restaurants are discussed.

The impacts of cultural intelligence and emotional labor on the job satisfaction of luxury hotel employees

Within luxury hotels targeting multinational segments, frontline service staff are essential to creating unique, personalized experiences for high-value, discerning clientele. Performing emotional labor and utilizing cultural intelligence are key to ensuring exceptional cross-cultural service encounters, but which also create additional pressures for frontline staff. This study aims to assess the impacts of a comprehensive range of emotional labor and cultural intelligence (CQ) on employees’ job satisfaction. Cognitive CQ, motivational CQ, emotive dissonance, and expression of naturally felt emotions were shown to influence job satisfaction. Moreover, the study engaged senior executives from luxury hotels to further discuss the survey results. This approach helped the researchers and practitioners to (re)contextualize the study’s key findings, which were used to reflect on managers’ understanding of cultural intelligence, emotional labor and job satisfaction. The discussions highlighted how these issues were incorporated in luxury hotels’ human resource practices in general and especially during the COVID-19 crisis. • Studies cultural intelligence (CQ) and emotional labor’s (EL) effects on employee satisfaction (JS). • Identifies relationships between a comprehensive range of CQ and EL factors and JS. • Engages senior executives from luxury hotels to expand discussion of survey results. • Reflects on senior hotel managements’ understanding of CQ, EL and JS. • Demonstrates how CQ, EL and JS were incorporated in hotel human resource management strategies and practices.

Implementation support practitioners \u2013 a proposal for consolidating a diverse evidence base

BackgroundWorkforce development for implementation practice has been identified as a grand challenge in health services. This is due to the embryonic nature of the existing research in this area, few available training programs and a general shortage of frontline service staff trained and prepared for practicing implementation in the field. The interest in the role of “implementation support” as a way to effectively build the implementation capacities of the human service sector has therefore increased. However, while frequently used, little is known about the skills and competencies required to effectively provide such support.Main bodyTo progress the debate and the research agenda on implementation support competencies, we propose the role of the “implementation support practitioner” as a concept unifying the multiple streams of research focused on e.g. consultation, facilitation, or knowledge brokering. Implementation support practitioners are professionals supporting others in implementing evidence-informed practices, policies and programs, and in sustaining and scaling evidence for population impact. They are not involved in direct service delivery or management and work closely with the leadership and staff needed to effectively deliver direct clinical, therapeutic or educational services to individuals, families and communities. They may be specialists or generalists and be located within and/or outside the delivery system they serve. To effectively support the implementation practice of others, implementation support practitioners require an ability to activate implementation-relevant knowledge, skills and attitudes, and to operationalize and apply these in the context of their support activities. In doing so, they aim to trigger both relational and behavioral outcomes. This thinking is reflected in an overarching logic outlined in this article.ConclusionThe development of implementation support practitioners as a profession necessitates improved conceptual thinking about their role and work and how they enable the uptake and integration of evidence in real world settings. This article introduces a preliminary logic conceptualizing the role of implementation support practitioners informing research in progress aimed at increasing our knowledge about implementation support and the competencies needed to provide this support.

Citizen engagement in public services in low- and middle-income countries: A mixed-methods systematic review of participation, inclusion, transparency and accountability (PITA) initiatives.

How do governance interventions that engage citizens in public service delivery planning, management and oversight impact the quality of and access to services and citizens' quality of life? This systematic review examined high quality evidence from 35 citizen engagement programmes in low- and middle-income countries that promote the engagement of citizens in service delivery through four routes: participation (participatory priority setting); inclusion of marginalised groups; transparency (information on rights and public service performance), and/or citizen efforts to ensure public service accountability (citizen feedback and monitoring); collectively, PITA mechanisms. We collected quantitative and qualitative data from the included studies and used statistical meta-analysis and realist-informed framework synthesis to analyse the findings. The findings suggest that interventions promoting citizen engagement by improving direct engagement between service users and service providers, are often effective in stimulating active citizen engagement in service delivery and realising improvements in access to services and quality of service provision, particularly for services that involve direct interaction between citizens and providers. However, in the absence of complementary interventions to address bottlenecks around service provider supply chains and service use, citizen engagement interventions alone may not improve key wellbeing outcomes for target communities or state-society relations. In addition, interventions promoting citizen engagement by increasing citizen pressures on politicians to hold providers to account, are not usually able to influence service delivery. The citizen engagement interventions studied were more likely to be successful: (1) where the programme targeted a service that citizens access directly from front-line staff, such as healthcare, as opposed to services accessed independently of service provider staff, such as roads; (2) where implementers were able to generate active support and buy-in for the intervention from both citizens and front-line public service staff and officials; and (3) where the implementation approach drew on and/or stimulated local capacity for collective action. From a research perspective, the review found few studies that investigated the impact of these interventions on women or other vulnerable groups within communities, and that rigorous impact evaluations often lack adequately transparent reporting, particularly of information on what interventions actually did and how conditions compared to those in comparison communities.

Does Leisure Involvement Impact on Service Performance? Empirical Finding from the Indonesian Culinary Industry

Many studies have examined the frontline service staff performance of various industries but rarely found to be associated with leisure involvement in the culinary industry. This study discusses the relationship between leisure involvement and service performance with mediation of variables subjective to well-being and job satisfaction. The research model used is PLS or partial least squares modelling, by taking samples from the frontline staff of culinary industry which amounts to 313 samples in Bandung City, Indonesia. The results of this study show that there is a significant relationship between leisure involvement and service performance, as well as with the mediator. In conclusion, an employee who is often involved in leisure activities is likely to be happy and will result in his good performance in serving customers. This is also influenced by his satisfaction in work, although the results are not too significant. The implication is that the management and businessmen need to pay greater attention to the welfare of employees should they wish to improve the service performance of their restaurants. This report is structured to meet one of the conditions for completing education.

CSR AND TOURISM DEVELOPMENT: GREENING THE ACCOMMODATION SECTOR IN MALAYSIA

One of the core resources for destination appeal stems from the availability of quality accommodation. As destinations compete to improve their global ranking, those responsible for managing the hotel and accommodation sector will play a major role in the delivery of positive destination image.  Hotels like any other product must, like any market-driven business, become attractive “products”. The need to improve skills, particularly those of the front-line service staff, in communicating its corporate responsibility to society effectively to target markets is seen to be critical.  This research paper reports on the findings of a fourteen months study on “Redefining Tourism Management: Identifying Critical Success Factors on Tourism Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility” in Malaysia. It examines the challenges faced by the hotel industry as guests become more selective in terms of accommodation choices while on vacation and comparatively seen as a reflection of their lifestyle at home. A qualitative approach to in-depth interviews was conducted with 64 respondents. This included outbound travel agencies and inbound tour operators, accommodation facilities, tourism related non-government organisations and international tourists vacationing in Malaysia. The evidence has shown that corporate social responsibility can no longer be seen as a trend but has implications on the sustainability of the business and may improve market share in the long term.

Service quality evaluation: moderating influences of first-time and revisiting customers

Providing customised services is one of the major approaches the service industry employs to maintain its customer base. Accordingly, this research investigates whether the effects of service quality attributes on customer satisfaction differ between first-time and revisiting customers in the restaurant industry. This research adopts the five gaps model between service quality performance and customer expectations. Based on the expectations-disconfirmation theory, we analysed the DINESERV framework to compare revisiting customers with first-time customers. Our results show no significant difference in the service constructs of empathy, assurance, and reliability. However, the satisfaction of first-time customers is influenced more by the responsiveness of front-line service staff, whereas revisiting customers care more about the dining atmosphere. Our findings could serve as a guideline for restaurants to serve their customers more effectively, as well as to differentiate and fine-tune their marketing strategies.

Midstream social marketing and the co-creation of public services

Purpose This paper aims to highlight the importance of social marketing at the midstream (meso) level as a key component of a proposed model for co-creating public services. The model demonstrates how supportive relationships and conversations within and between service organisations, front-line service staff, social networks and clients are essential for the effective co-creation of health and welfare services and social marketing interventions. Design/methodology/approach This is a conceptual paper that uses network and services theory and a case study to show how the midstream social marketing approach and service co-creation can be applied in practice and how these concepts relate to upstream and downstream social marketing. Findings The case study demonstrates the powerful role of social networks, staff–client relationships and conversations in the co-creation of effective services and the improvement in communications, trust and understanding between service providers and the community. Practical implications The paper shows how service providers and social marketers can achieve co-created, customer-oriented services/interventions through the development of congruent, empathetic narratives, relationships and conversations. The case study demonstrates how this can be achieved in practice through staff training, the identification of “community communicators” and value-based targeting and communications. Originality/value The integration of conversations, relationships, values, services and midstream social marketing into a model for co-creation offers a valuable tool for social marketing and health/welfare service professionals.

Emotional demands, emotional labour and occupational outcomes in school principals

Most research into emotional labour is focussed on front-line service staff and health professionals, in short-term interactions. Little exists exploring the emotional labour involved in repeated on-going interactions by educational leaders with key stakeholders. This study explored the relationships between emotional demands, three emotional labour facets, burnout, wellbeing and job satisfaction in 1320 full-time school principals. Principals displayed significantly higher scores on emotional demands at work, burnout and job satisfaction, and significantly lower wellbeing scores than the general population. Structural equation modelling revealed that emotional demands predicted the elevated use of all emotional labour strategies. Surface Acting-Hiding emotions had an inverse relationship with burnout, wellbeing and job satisfaction. Surface Acting-Faking emotions had an inverse relationship with job satisfaction. Deep Acting demonstrated no significant associations with outcome variables. The findings of this study extend the current literature on the effects of emotional labour. The study also extends understanding about the separate effects of the facets of emotional labour, which will aid in the development of interventions to reduce high levels of burnout reported by educational leaders.

Service nepotism in cosmopolitan transient social spaces

This article examines service nepotism, the practice of bestowing gifts or benefits on customers by frontline service staff based on a perceived shared socio-collective identity. Adopting a micro-sociological approach, it explores the practice as played out in multi-cultural transient service encounters. Given the dearth of existing research and low visibility of service nepotism operating ‘under the radar’, the article assumes an exploratory qualitative research approach to capture it through ‘microstoria’: the sharing of stories by marginal actors, as recounted by West African migrants working in the UK. These stories reveal similarity-to-self cueing, non-verbal communication and the availability of discretionary authority as three salient logics in play. In a highly differentiated multi-ethnic society, service nepotism challenges a very specific customer-oriented bureaucratic ethos that demands impartiality. It also provides contexts for relatively powerless employees to rebalance their relationship with their organizations, thereby addressing a more pressing dysfunction within the market and society more generally.

CSR AND TOURISM DEVELOPMENT: GREENING THE ACCOMMODATION SECTOR IN MALAYSIA

One of the core resources for destination appeal stems from the availability of quality accommodation. As destinations compete to improve their global ranking, those responsiblefor managing the hotel and accommodation sector will play a major role in the delivery of positive destination image. Hotels like any other product must, like any market-driven business, become attractive “products”. The need to improve skills, particularly those of the front-line service staff, in communicating its corporate responsibility to society effectively to target markets is seen to be critical. This research paper reports on the findings of a fourteen months study on “Redefining Tourism Management: Identifying Critical Success Factors on Tourism Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility” in Malaysia. It examines the challenges faced by the hotel industry as guests become more selective in terms of accommodation choices while on vacation and comparatively seen as a reflection of their lifestyle at home. A qualitative approach to in-depth interviews was conducted with 64 respondents. This included outbound travel agencies and inbound tour operators, accommodation facilities, tourism related non-government organisations and international tourists vacationing in Malaysia. The evidence has shown that corporate social responsibility can no longer be seen as a trend but has implications on the sustainability of the business and may improve market share in the long term.

New insights into the climate–attitudes–outcome framework: Empirical evidence from the Australian service sector

Drawing on the climate–attitudes–outcome framework, this article examines the mediating effect of job satisfaction on the relationship between psychological climate perceptions (i.e., service climate, team support, and job security) and the job performance of frontline service employees. The authors further consider whether the link between psychological climate perceptions and job satisfaction may be moderated by three core self-evaluation traits of frontline service staff (emotional labor, self-efficacy, and personal achievement orientation). A survey of 874 frontline service employees reveals that service climate, team support, and job security indirectly contribute to job performance through job satisfaction. When more emotional labor deep acting is performed, the effects of the service climate on job satisfaction grow stronger. However, the effects of team support and job security on job satisfaction are not contingent on self-efficacy or personal achievement orientation, respectively.

Customer service understanding: gender differences of frontline employees

PurposeDespite widespread acknowledgement of the importance of employees to the success of service firms, research into how well frontline service staff understand service remains scarce. This study aims to investigate what constitutes good customer service from the viewpoint of frontline service employees and to explore gender differences in particular.Design/methodology/approachThe data were collected from 876 frontline employees across a wide range of service industries. An automated text analysis using Leximancer explored general and gender‐specific patterns in employees' customer service understanding.FindingsIrrespective of gender, frontline service staff share the perception that the pillars of good customer service are listening skills, making the customer happy, and offering service. Males have a more functional, outcome‐oriented interpretation of customer service; females focus more on the actual service interaction and emotional outcomes.Practical implicationsBy acknowledging gender‐based dissimilarities in the customer service understanding of frontline service employees, the efficiency of recruitment and training processes will be enhanced.Originality/valueThis study contributes to limited work on service models of frontline staff and shows that gender can explain some differences. This study also adds another dimension to the understanding of gender effects in services, beyond its influence on customers' quality perceptions and behaviours. The results are important for services marketing research and for managers in charge of recruiting and training frontline service staff.

Senior Customers' Service Encounter Preferences

Growing segment size and increasing affluence have resulted in a substantial increase in the purchasing power of the senior market. Seniors spend a higher proportion of their total expenditure on services relative to younger consumers, making them an important target market for many service providers. However, seniors' particular concern with the social aspects of service delivery has been recognized as an important managerial issue. To provide further insight into this issue, in-depth interviews and projective techniques were conducted with 60 Scottish seniors of diverse demographic profiles. The findings support previous research indicating that seniors may evaluate service encounters primarily according to the social benefits resulting from them. In the present study, the social benefits sought appeared to be largely determined by seniors' social identities, which were influenced by past experiences as customers and employees. A model of how seniors evaluate their service encounter interactions is suggested, and managerial implications and directions for further research are provided. In particular, the model emphasizes the need for service providers to appreciate the characteristics of frontline service staff that are conducive to satisfactory service encounters for seniors.