Service Recovery Performance Research Articles

The Influence of it Incident Management and Training on Service Improvement: Does Organizational Dehumanization Have an Impact?

This study aims to identify the positive impact of training and incident management on service recovery performance and the negative impact of organizational dehumanization on service recovery performance. The results showed that training and incident management have a positive effect on service recovery performance. However, the moderation of organizational dehumanization does not have a significant effect on reducing service recovery performance but instead strengthens it. This research provides more understanding that the implementation of banking operations, including Islamic banking, must be carried out with strict regulations, including the affirmation of provisions that can be interpreted as a pattern of organizational dehumanization. However, to strengthen and accelerate the post-incident service recovery process, it must be supported by continuous and quality training.

Linkages between service recovery system and customer justice perceptions: A multi-level model of employee service recovery performance.

Past research aimed at service recovery has focused on actions that are taken to retain customers, and the possibility of overcoming the mistakes of service delivery, though the multidimensional nature of the service recovery process has begun to move beyond the complaint handling process. In this paper, we identify the most important issues addressed in service recovery and present a framework for addressing them. We used an extensive integrative review methodology. Between 1988 and 2017 the number of articles in these journals was kept between 26 and 30. The majority took a business perspective to study services recovery, while a minority took an inter-disciplinarity perspective. The study's findings are expected to provide insights into the antecedents and consequences of service recovery performance, particularly how job resources and demands influence employee burnout and work engagement, which in turn affect service recovery performance and customer perceptions of justice. The research aims to contribute to the discourse on service recovery by building a multi-level model that explains the service recovery performance of frontline employees and the impact of the service recovery system on customer justice perceptions. Thus, this research is expected to contribute to robust conclusions on the antecedents and consequences of employee service recovery performance nested within the unit-level construct, i.e., the service recovery system.

The Profitable Art of Managerial Responses to Online Reviews: A Justice-Based Investigation of Service Recovery and Firm-Level Operating Performance

ABSTRACT Building on the justice theory, managerial responses (MRs) to negative online reviews are investigated for their service recovery efficacy. MRs (>2,000) for 106 hotels were analyzed for interactional, procedural, and distributive justice and matched with their property-level room revenue, total revenue, and gross operating profit. Service recovery’s importance was empirically demonstrated via a negative association between negative reviews and performance outcomes and a positive association between MRs and performance outcomes. Justice-based MRs revealed differential impacts on performance outcomes: those with interactional justice were most effective in improving profitability. Findings further highlighted product positioning as a moderator. On one hand, interactional justice worked for lower-positioned hotels by being positively associated with total revenue. On the other hand, distributive justice backfired by being negatively associated with total revenue, suggesting that compensation in service recovery does not necessarily add value.

Influence of customer contact employees (CCEs) competencies on their service recovery performance: a moderated-mediation approach

Purpose This study aims to explore the influence of customer contact employees (CCEs) competencies (social, emotional and professional) on their service recovery performance (SRP) with mediation effect of internal marketing and moderation effect of industry/sector. Design/methodology/approach This study used survey-based dyads of 210 CCEs and their managers/supervisors in three service sectors (hotel and hospitality, automobile service centers and organized retail stores). Repeated-measures analysis of variance, confirmatory factor analysis and PROCESS macro of Hayes (2013) was used to assess reliability, validity and to test mediation, moderation and moderated-mediation. Findings CCEs competencies influenced SRP. The relationship between CCEs competencies and SRP was mediated by internal marketing. The industry/sector was found to be a significant moderator between the internal marketing and SRP. Additionally, a significant moderated-mediation effect was found between CCEs competencies and SRP. Research limitations/implications Longitudinal studies could be particularly helpful to evaluate the impact of internal marketing on SRP. The future researcher may benefit from replicating and extending the model in different industries or can study other factors as mediators or moderators for further contribution to the SRP literature. Practical implications Firms striving for consumer retention and aiming to extend their consumer life cycle can greatly benefit from the results of this study to provide effective SRP. The study also suggests that policymakers and management should adopt properly designed and well-articulated human resource management practices for excellence in SRP in their organizations. Originality/value To the best of the authors' knowledge, there is no study in the past which has addressed employee and organizational factors with the dyadic sample. In addition, it has used a moderated-mediation model in the context of SRP and also contributes to the extant literature by researching in a non-Western setting like India.

Can performance pressure hinder service recovery performance? The mediating role of shame and individual contingencies of work meaningfulness and proactivity

Hospitality employees have long been experiencing high pressure at work, due to the strict performance requirements from organizations and excessive socioemotional demands from customers. Although “performing well under pressure” is often considered a prerequisite for competent employees, findings from organizational psychologists regarding employees' responses to perceived performance pressure are divergent. To further elucidate this relationship, drawing upon the social self-preservation theory, this research proposes that performance pressure can elicit frontline employees' emotional experience of shame, which in turn, hampers their service recovery performance. Furthermore, we propose two individual contingencies of work meaningfulness and proactivity that alter employees' reactions to performance pressure. In particular, the experience of shame is more salient when employees perceive lower levels of meaningfulness or possess lower levels of proactivity. A mixed-method approach, involving both scenario-based experiment and multi-wave survey, is adopted. The results support our hypotheses. The findings provide a more holistic understanding of hospitality employees’ responses to performance pressure by uncovering the rarely investigated emotional pathway following performance pressure and identifying two salient individual boundary conditions.

Humble Leadership, Psychological Capital, and Service Recovery Performance: Exploring the Moderating Mechanism of Mindfulness

ABSTRACT This research adopted self-determination theory (SDT) and employed a model to verify the antecedents of service recovery performance (SRP). Specifically, the effects of humble leadership and positive psychology on SRP were examined. A total of 197 valid questionnaire responses were received from newcomers of 11 hotels in Taiwan. The analysis results revealed that PsyCap fully mediated the relationship between humble leadership and SRP. According to the analysis of the moderated mediating effect, mindfulness moderated the relationship between humble leadership and PsyCap significantly. Based on SDT theory, this research has major contributions to research on organizational psychology. Mindfulness acts as a crucial moderating mediator in the relationship among humble leadership, PsyCap, and SRP in the hospitality industry. The findings of this research provide a critical reference to hospitality industry managers for promoting positive mental states in new employees to elevate their physical and psychological health and thereby enhance their SRP.

Exploring the impact of abusive supervision on employee approaches to managing service errors and failures: Examining the effects of hope and optimism, and service tenure

Drawing from the conservation of resources (COR) theory, the current study posits that leadership in the form of abusive supervision will be more detrimental to subordinates' hope and optimism, due to the loss of accumulated resources for those who have increased service tenure, thereby lowering their ability to alleviate and successfully manage service failures/errors. Using convenience sampling, 174 hotel frontline employees from Istanbul, Turkey, completed survey questionnaires in two separate time waves. Results from SmartPLS indicate that abusive supervision has a significant and adverse association with employees’ hope and optimism. Additionally, the relationship between abusive supervision and employees’ hope and optimism is moderated by service tenure, such that the negative relationship is more profound for those with increased service tenure. Finally, hope and optimism mediate the relationship between abusive supervision and two behaviors for handling service errors/failures (i.e., service recovery performance and error reporting). This study concludes by discussing theoretical and practical implications.

Servant leadership and service recovery performance: influence of creative adaptability and employee psychological well-being

PurposeThis study draws on insights from the theory of conservation of resources to explore the impact of servant leadership (SL), creative adaptability (CA), and psychological well-being (PWB) on the service recovery performance (SRP) of employees. More specifically, the objective of this study is twofold: one to ascertain whether employees' service recovery performance would increase significantly after their exposure to SL, and two, to determine whether CA and PWB serially mediate the link between SL and SRP.Design/methodology/approachTo analyze the data collected from a sample of 371 air service providers’ front-line employees (FLEs), partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was performed.FindingsThe result indicated that SL was positively related to SRP. Likewise, the results of the serial mediation analysis showed that CA and PWB independently and serially mediated the SL-SRP relationship. This study makes significant contributions to the literature on SL and SRP.Originality/valueThis study adds to the growing body of research on how FLEs effectively deal with customers who are dissatisfied with their service failure experiences. Specifically, this research expands on previous results by proving the favorable effect of leadership style on FLE’s service recovery performance. In addition, the current study examines how effective service recovery is by assessing the employee’s resources based on COR theory. Finally, this research provides new insight into the influence of SL on SRP through the serial mediation of CA and FLE’s well-being.

From fumble to flourish: how workplace attachment drives service recovery performance

PurposeDrawing on the conservation of resources theory and attachment theory, this paper proposes that employee–organization relationship and satisfaction with work–life balance mediate the influence of workplace attachment on service recovery performance.Design/methodology/approachData collection was carried out through the distribution of questionnaires among a sample of healthcare providers from Lebanese private hospitals and analyzed via structural equation modeling.FindingsThe results indicate that workplace attachment has a significant impact on employee–organization relationship, satisfaction with work–life balance and service recovery performance. The findings further reveal that employee–organization relationship and satisfaction with work–life balance significantly influence service recovery performance and fully mediate the relationship between workplace attachment and service recovery performance.Originality/valueThis study is the first to investigate the mediating role of the employee–organization relationship and satisfaction with work–life balance between workplace attachment and service recovery performance. Over and above, this study is the first of its kind that the authors are aware of, being conducted in the healthcare sector, specifically in Lebanon. Based on the findings, the paper discusses the theoretical contributions, managerial implications and suggestions for further studies.

Improving Service Recovery Performance through Readiness for Technology Adoption and Structural Empowerment: Evidence from Software Houses of Pakistan

In the rapidly evolving global and Pakistani IT sectors, the challenge of integrating technology adoption with effective service recovery mechanisms has become increasingly prominent. This study addresses the gap in understanding how readiness for technology adoption (RTA), structural empowerment (SE), and top management commitment (TMC) collectively influence Service Recovery Performance (SRP) in Pakistani software houses. Utilizing a quantitative approach, the research quantitatively analyses the relationships between RTA, SE, SRP, and the moderating effect of TMC through a survey of employees within the sector. Findings reveal a positive relationship between RTA and SE, and between SE and SRP, affirming the pivotal role of structural empowerment in mediating the impact of technology readiness on service recovery. Moreover, TMC was found to significantly moderate the SE-SRP relationship, enhancing the effectiveness of empowerment practices in service recovery contexts. These results underscore the importance of cohesive strategies that incorporate technology readiness, employee empowerment, and management support to enhance service recovery outcomes. The study contributes to the literature by providing empirical evidence on the interconnected roles of RTA, SE, and TMC in improving SRP, particularly within the context of emerging markets. For policymakers and business leaders, this research highlights the necessity of fostering an organizational culture that supports technological advancements, empowers employees, and is backed by committed leadership to navigate service recovery challenges effectively, thereby sustaining customer satisfaction and competitive advantage.

Factors Influencing Service Recovery Performance among Educators of Open and Distance Learning in Malaysia: Exploring the Moderating Effects of Educators’ Job Experience

Factors Influencing Service Recovery Performance among Educators of Open and Distance Learning in Malaysia: Exploring the Moderating Effects of Educators’ Job Experience

The impact of core self-evaluations and person-job fit on work-related outcomes.

The aim of this study is to explore the mediating effect of emotional exhaustion (EE) between core self-evaluations (CSE), person-job fit (PJ fit) and service recovery performance (SRP). The current research also examines whether organizational dehumanization (OD) moderates the relationship between two antecedents, EE and SRP. We collected time-lagged and multi-source data from star-rated hotels in three cities in China. In particular, direct supervisors of frontline employees (FLEs) rated their SRP (N = 32 supervisors and their 212 immediate employees). The hypotheses were gauged via PROCESS (version 3.4). The results indicate that CSE and PJ fit alleviate FLEs' EE, which subsequently advances their SRP. OD moderates the direct impact of two antecedents on EE and SRP. Moreover, OD moderates the indirect influence of two antecedents on SRP through EE. The hospitality literature currently lacks an in-depth understanding of the underlying mechanism through which CSE and PJ fit affect FLEs' SRP. This study incorporates EE as a mediator of the CSE's and PJ fit's impact on SRP, and to the authors' knowledge, this is the first attempt to evaluate whether OD moderates the direct influence of CSE and PJ fit on SRP and the indirect impact of CSE and PJ fit on the aforementioned outcome via EE.

Modeling the influence of management control system and ambidextrous behavior on B2B customer relationships: a job demand-resource perspective

PurposeService–sales ambidexterity (SSA) offers sales managers crucial information about dealing with customer service failures through an effective management control system. This study aims to scrutinize the relationships among SSA, salesforce control system, salesperson’s role stressors and service recovery performance (SRP) in the business-to-business (B2B) context.Design/methodology/approachAn analysis is conducted based on survey data collected from 586 B2B sales employees participating in an extensive survey. Structural equation modeling is used to analyze the proposed hypotheses.FindingsEmpirical findings suggest that behavior-based control harms SSA. On the other hand, outcome-based control has a positive impact on SSA. The research outcomes further disclose that SSA positively impacts salesperson role conflict and emotional fatigue, whereas emotional fatigue negatively impacts SRP. Salesperson resilience notably moderates the association between SSA and emotional fatigue.Originality/valueThe study addresses there is a dearth of research on SSA applying the sales management control system. When studying about ambidexterity in sales context, many supervisory styles have been explored; however, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first systematic attempt to understand how sales management control systems play a role in SSA.

Linking employee voice to service recovery performance in the hotel sector: The mediating role of tacit knowledge sharing and employee innovation

PURPOSE: In reality, service failures are inevitable. However, poor service recovery can decrease customer trust and exacerbate customer dissatisfaction. Previous studies have focused on service failure types, reasons for failure, and successful recovery actions from the customers’ perspective. Accordingly, this study aims to present adifferent view by investigating the factors that could improve hotel recovery performance from the employees’ perspective. Therefore, amodel was developed to study the influence of employees’ voice, tacit knowledge sharing, and employee innovation on service recovery performance. METHODOLOGY: This quantitative study used an online survey to gather data from employees in the hotel industry in Jordan. Atotal of 214 valid responses were obtained. Participants were targeted randomly, mainly through Facebook groups for hotel employees. PLS-SEM (Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling) was employed in this research to analyze the data using Smart PLS 3 software. FINDINGS: The results indicated that employee voice is positively associated with tacit knowledge sharing. Furthermore, it was found that tacit knowledge sharing is positively related to employee innovation. The findings demonstrated that tacit knowledge plays apartial mediating role in the association between employee voice and employee innovation. Additionally, it was discovered that employee innovation has apositive association with service recovery performance. Finally, the results indicate that employee innovation partially mediates the relationship between tacit knowledge and service recovery performance. IMPLICATIONS: Hoteliers are suggested to create asupportive work climate where employees can express their thoughts, ideas, and concerns without fear of retribution. Furthermore, hotel managers are advised to establish clear expectations for employees regarding the significance of their opinions and insights, and recognize and reward innovative ideas that can hopefully enhance hotels’ performance. ORIGINALITY AND VALUE: This research provides new insights and contributes to the understanding of the role of employee voice, tacit knowledge sharing, and employee innovation in enhancing service recovery performance, particularly in acontext that has received little attention from researchers, which is the hotel sector, and in adeveloping country, Jordan. Compared to past studies, this study offers amodel that demonstrates how to leverage service recovery efforts in hotels by illustrating structured relationships between employee voice and service recovery performance through the mediation of tacit knowledge sharing and employee innovation.

Emotional Alchemy in Hospitality: Transforming Discontent to Delight through Servant Leadership and Strategic Emotional Labor in Hotel Service Recovery Performance

Hotel service dissatisfaction necessitates recovery for sustainable operations. Frontline employees, crucial for customer interactions, ensure quality service delivery and bear responsibility for rectifying service failures. Swift service complaint resolution is customer’s priority, with leader support impacting emotional labor and performance outcomes. This study explores servant leadership's vital role in fostering an environment where employees feel valued, contributing to successful service recovery. Employing SPSS, AMOS, and SEM, this study empirically extends existing leadership literature by exploring the uncharted relationship between servant leadership and service recovery performance within an underdeveloped nation's hotel industry, significantly contributing to the conservation of resource theory. Using a comprehensive survey of 625 frontline employees, findings of the study reveal servant leadership's positive impact on deep acting and negative effect on surface acting. The study confirms servant leadership fosters deep acting, positively influencing service recovery. Grounded in the conservation of resources theory, it proves hotels with servant leadership exhibit effective service recovery. This research contributes theoretically by linking emotional labor to the servant leadership and service recovery performance relationship, demonstrating its impact on genuine customer interaction restoration.

Employees’ service recovery performance: the role of functional manager’s emotional intelligence in the hospitality industry

Emotional intelligence has taken a firm hold in organizations. The emotional intelligence of managers is essential for building a motivated workforce. This study investigates the relationship between functional managers’ emotional intelligence and employees’ service recovery performance in the context of the hospitality industry. In this study, functional managers’ emotional intelligence includes four dimensions: self-emotion appraisal, other-emotion appraisal, use of emotion, and regulation of emotion. A mixed method was employed to explore the influence of functional managers’ emotional intelligence on employees’ service recovery performance. The data were collected from 238 functional managers at 33 four- and five-star hotels in five provinces and cities in Vietnam. Factor analysis, correlation analysis, and regression analysis were used to analyze the data. The results show that functional hotel managers’ emotional intelligence has a positive and significant impact on employees’ service recovery performance, with others’ emotion appraisal having the strongest impact, followed by emotion regulation, use of emotion, and self-emotion appraisal. These findings contribute to the literature and deepen the understanding of service recovery. This study also provides managers with useful advice on managing customer service as a competitive advantage.

Job Embeddedness in the Hospitality Industry: Developing a Model of Psychological Antecedents and Behavioral Consequences

ABSTRACT This study examines interpersonal psychological factors as antecedents and crisis/supportive behavior factors as consequences of organizational job embeddedness (OJE) in the hospitality industry. Workplace fun (WF) and humor (WH) as psychological factors, quitting intention (QI) as a crisis factor, and service recovery performance (SRP) and proactive customer service performance (PCSP) as supportive behavior factors were studied. Data from 333 hotel employees and 40 supervisors were collected through a questionnaire, analyzed using SEM-PLS3. WF and WH serve as a valuable framework for understanding OJE. WH influences WF, which positively impacts OJE. Increased OJE results in SRP and PCSP, reducing QI.

Linkages between service recovery system and customer justice perceptions: A multi-level model of employee service recovery performance

Past research aimed at service recovery has focused on actions that are taken to retain customers, and the possibility of overcoming the mistakes of service delivery, though the multidimensional nature of the service recovery process has begun to move beyond the complaint handling process. In this paper, we identify the most important issues addressed in service recovery and present a framework for addressing them We used an extensive integrative review methodology. Between 1988 and 2017 the number of articles in these journals was kept between 26 and 30. The majority took a business perspective to study services recovery, while a minority took an inter-disciplinarity perspective. This research aims to investigate the relationship between the constructs in the JD-R Model and employee service recovery performance, and to adopt a multi-actor research design for more accurate measurement. The findings of this study are expected to provide valuable insights into the antecedents and consequences of service recovery performance in the context of the service recovery system This research contributes to the discourse on service recovery on several fronts. First, this research answers the call for building a multi-level model of relevant constructs to explain the service recovery performance of frontline employees in the hospitality sector. Thus, this research is expected to contribute to robust conclusions on the antecedents and consequences of employee service recovery performance nested within the unit-level construct, i.e., the service recovery system.

The interactive effects of extrinsic and intrinsic motivations on service recovery performance: the mediating role of self-efficacy

In recent decades, interest has grown in understanding the mechanisms of service recovery performance (SRP) in the hospitality industry. This study introduces an interactive perspective incorporating both extrinsic and intrinsic factors, investigating the roles of inclusive leadership and job autonomy on employee self-efficacy, with self-efficacy mediating their relationships with SRP. Surface acting is proposed as a negative moderator. A sample of 83 supervisors and 350 frontline employees from 8 Chinese hotels completed questionnaires. Data analysis was conducted using PLS-SEM in Smart PLS 4 and regression analysis in SPSS 25. Results show that inclusive leadership and job autonomy contribute to strong self-efficacy and enhanced SRP. Surface acting moderates the relationship between inclusive leadership and self-efficacy but not between job autonomy and self-efficacy. This cross-sectional survey offers practical implications for hospitality managers, providing guidance on fostering environments that promote self-efficacy and enhance SRP. Limitations include reliance on self-reported measures and a cross-sectional design. Future research could explore other moderators and mediators, different industries, and use longitudinal or experimental designs to establish causality.

Keeping warm: racial disparities of warmth judgments in the service industry

PurposePeople develop general stereotypes and beliefs about how people look and behave, and discrepancies in perceptions of warmth and competence can lead to incongruence in expected behaviors during service interactions. These perceptions can contribute to negative outcomes for employees; therefore, this study aims to examine how perceptions of warmth affect both customer reactions to employees who are Asian and the work stress, strain and attitudes of employees who are Asian toward their jobs.Design/methodology/approachTo investigate the phenomenon, the authors conducted three studies. The first study examined whether occupational-racial stereotypes influence customers’ evaluation of employees’ service recovery performance. The second study temporally examined whether employees who are Asian engage in more emotional labor strategies to counter these occupational-racial stereotypes and as a result experience more negative outcomes. And a third study investigated the cumulative effects of negative perceptions on employee outcomes.FindingsThe results suggest employees in the hospitality industry who are Asian are perceived as less warm during service failure interactions and, thus, must work harder to regulate their emotions. As a result, employees who are Asian reported experiencing more negative outcomes, supporting the notion that occupational-racial stereotypes contribute to racial disparity and act as challenges and barriers for employees in the service industry.Research limitations/implicationsThese findings emphasize the need to understand and address occupational-racial stereotypes for employees who are Asian to mitigate racial disparities in the service industry. Organizations can promote diverse work climates, provide emotional support and foster high-quality relationships to support employee well-being and satisfaction.Originality/valueThe results provide insight into how stereotypical warmth perceptions of employees who are Asian may affect the demands they face when engaging in service recovery, and how these increased demands may reduce the quality of their work experiences.