The Role of Customer Orientation as a Moderator of the Job Demand–Burnout–Performance Relationship: A Surface-Level Trait Perspective

This study expands upon previous research on the antecedents (job demands and job resources) and outcomes of frontline employee burnout, and examines the role of customer orientation (CO) in the burnout process. Using data from frontline bank employees in New Zealand, we investigate both the direct relationships of CO to burnout and job outcomes (job performance and turnover intentions) and the buffering role of CO concerning the relationships between job demands, burnout, and job outcomes. The study results show that burnout mediates the effects of job demands and job resources on job performance and turnover intentions. Besides being directly related to burnout and job performance, CO also buffers the dysfunctional effects of job demands on burnout and job outcomes. Implications of the results are discussed and future research avenues are offered.     

How does workplace harassment influence the employees’ response in a deluxe hotel?

Recently, workplace harassment in the form of superiors abusing their power over subordinates has emerged as a social problem. In the deluxe hotel work environment, dealing with this issue starts by asking whether harassment by a superior has taken place – and if so, how it has influenced subordinates’ responses. The purpose of this study was to measure the perception of workplace harassment among employees and to explain the relationships between workplace harassment and employee engagement, satisfaction, burnout, and turnover intent in deluxe hotels in South Korea. The results showed that verbal aggression had a significant negative effect on employee engagement, while isolation, disrespectful behavior, and physical aggression exacerbated employee burnout. In addition, employee engagement significantly enhanced job satisfaction, while burnout increased employees’ turnover intent. Limitations and future research directions are also discussed.     

Error management culture: impact on cohesion,stress, and turnover intentions

An error management culture involves organizational practices related to communicating about errors, sharing error knowledge, quickly detecting and handling errors, and helping in error situations. Building on error management research, this study examined the influence of organizational error management culture on the turnover intentions of frontline service employees. The study also investigated the underlying mechanism that links this culture with turnover intentions. Data were collected from 345 frontline employees of hotels in Turkey. Structural Equation Modeling results revealed that employee perceptions of organizational error management culture have a direct and significantly negative impact on their turnover intentions. Furthermore, results showed that this relationship is mediated through perceived group cohesion and work stress. Using the job demands-resources model as a theoretical framework, this study revealed that organizational error management culture leads to increased group cohesion; increased group cohesion lowers work stress; and lower work stress lowers turnover intentions. This study contributes to the services management literature by demonstrating how organizational error management culture impacts employee turnover intentions.     

Employee emotional response toward healthcare organization’s service recovery efforts and its influences on service recovery performance

Previous studies on service recovery performance of frontline employees have focused primarily on the direct relationship with the organizational efforts for service recovery. However, based on the reformulation of attitude theory (appraisal-emotional response-behaviour), we believe that the emotional responses (work engagement and burnout) toward organizational efforts for service recovery of frontline employees mediate the relationship. Thus, the purpose of this study is to examine how healthcare frontline employees show their emotional response toward the organizational efforts for service recovery and it influence on actual recovery performance. This study uses two conflicting emotional responses, burnout and work engagement, to examine how employees react toward organizational efforts, helping better understand employees?? evaluations of the efforts. Research model and hypothesis were tested using a sample of frontline employees who perform none-clinical activities in hospitals. The results showed that teamwork and empowerment have positive effects on work engagement. In addition, customer complaint management, empowerment, and teamwork influenced negatively on burnout. Lastly, work engagement and burnout showed statistically significant impact of service recovery performance of frontline employees. Among the organizational efforts for service recovery, teamwork was the most important factor in improving frontline employees?? work engagement and lessened their burnout, respectively. Interestingly, customer service training had a negative effect on burnout. Besides, by comparing our research model to two alternative models, we confirmed the validity of the research model.     

Users' intentions to employ a Point-Of-Sale system

This study proposes that task, technology, and individual characteristics affect the Point-Of-Sale (POS) utilization of employees in service industry, specifically in restaurants. The integrated technology acceptance model and task–technology fit (TTF) model is appropriate for explaining service employees' behavioral intentions to use POS. Data were obtained from 167 service employees. The hypothesized model resulted in a good fit, supporting all eight proposed hypotheses. The TTF construct was confirmed to be a mediator of task, technology, and individual characteristics affecting intention to use. Our integrated model is expected to help researchers and practitioners better understand why service employees choose POS for their tasks and, further, how the technology characteristics of POS and its fit-with-task characteristics in a service sector lead to service employee choices.     

A meta-analysis of the relationship between perceived organizational support and job outcomes: 20 years of research

Anecdotal comments from practitioners and extant empirical research suggests a tenuous link between perceived organizational support and desired employee outcomes. Accordingly, in this study the authors conduct a meta-analysis examining the effects of perceived organizational support on four employee outcomes: organizational commitment, job satisfaction, performance, and intention to leave. The authors also examine the extent to which these effects are moderated by job type (frontline vs. non-frontline employee). Findings from the study indicate that perceived organizational support has a strong, positive effect on job satisfaction and organizational commitment; a moderate, positive effect on employee performance; and a strong, negative effect on intention to leave. Study findings also indicate that the effects of perceived organizational support are more pronounced for non-frontline employees.     

Does an (in)congruent corporate social responsibility strategy affect employees' turnover intention? A configurational analysis in an emerging country

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives toward internal and external stakeholders can independently contribute to employee attitudes and behaviors. However, little is known about the joint effects of (in)congruent internal-external CSR strategies on employee outcomes. Drawing from social exchange theory, we argue that when employees perceive that their organizations excessively favor CSR efforts to external rather than internal stakeholders, it can trigger a psychological contract breach, resulting in increased employees' turnover intention. We utilized a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis method and the data of 511 employee from various industries in the Philippines to investigate the interaction effects. The results revealed that a congruent CSR strategy with high internal and external CSR perceptions is critical in fulfilling employees' psychological contracts and retaining employees. However, for employees with low perceived internal CSR, a high incongruent CSR perception led to a psychological contract breach and ultimately to high turnover intention. Psychological contract breach weakened the negative joint effect of high perceived internal and external CSR on turnover intention and strengthened the positive effect of high perceived incongruent CSR on turnover intention. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

“80后”员工组织支持感对离职倾向的影响研究

采用问卷调查法以及验证性因素分析、偏相关分析和分层多元回归分析等统计方法,探讨"80后"员工的组织支持感对其离职倾向的影响作用进行分析,并在影响作用方面与工作满意度方面进行了比较。结果表明,"80后"员工的组织支持感呈多维结构,可分为工具性支持感、情感性支持感、利益性支持感、价值性支持感和发展性支持感五个维度。"80后"员工的组织支持感总体对其离职倾向有显著的负向影响作用,并且单独地、利益性和发展性支持感对离职倾向具有显著的负向影响作用。"80后"员工的组织支持感比工作满意度对其离职倾向有更强的影响作用。     

Travel agency employees' career commitment and turnover intention during the recent global economic crisis

One hundred and eighty-four travel agency employees in South Korea participated in this study to examine (1) the effect of career commitment (CC) on employee turnover and (2) the moderating effect of job insecurity on the relationship between CC and turnover intention. This study was conducted during the recent global economic crisis and found that the participants of this study had a tendency to stay in their organization even though they felt insecure at work while having high CC. Managerial implications on career development and commitment of travel agency employees were discussed on the basis of the results of this study.     

心理契约违背、劳资冲突与员工离职意向关系的实证研究：整合型组织文化的调节作用

基于社会交换和社会情境理论，文章构建了心理契约违背、劳资冲突和离职意向之间的关系模型。通过跨层次分析方法，探讨心理契约违背对员工离职意向可能产生的影响及其影响机制。分别收集了189份企业高管与1366份员工问卷数据。研究结果显示：心理契约违背是影响员工离职意向的重要的前因变量；劳资冲突的三个维度在心理契约违背和离职意向之间都起到中介作用，并且中介效应存在显著差异；组织文化对权利冲突、情感冲突与离职意向之间的关系都起到调节作用，但对利益冲突与离职意向之间的调节作用不显著。对转型经济条件下，员工的心理契约、劳资冲突管理以及企业文化建设具有借鉴意义。     

Frontline employees׳ attitudes towards self-service technologies: Threats or opportunity for job performance?

Increasing diffusion of self-service technologies (SSTs) on the points of sale impacts on traditional retailing from several perspectives. For instance, SSTs have direct effect on front-line employees. Indeed, they may cause a potential reduction in personal contacts with clients, reduction of workers, modifying the job conditions and so on. To date, the effect of SSTs on the points of sale has been mainly investigated from a consumers׳ perspective, by mainly focusing on consumers׳ acceptance and usage of these systems. The aim of this paper is to make employees׳ point of view clearly emerge, through a qualitative approach focusing on the investigation of employees׳ perception of the consequences of these technologies on job performance. The content analysis based on exploratory in-depth interviews involves 250 frontline employees. Authors examine the success of technology from employee׳s standpoint by evaluating their attitude and considering the impact on their job performance perception. In this way, the analysis allows defining new variables which are not previously investigated, such as the perception of speed for task completion, which emerged as the most important factor for employees׳ self-evaluation. Hence, this study offers support for evaluating job performance considering the specific case of SSTs in the frontline employees as initial insights rather than definitive understandings.     

How does employee development affect turnover intention? Exploring alternative relationships

This study explores alternative relationships between perceived investment in employee development (PIED) and turnover intention by including affective commitment, perceived internal employability, and perceived external employability as potential mediators. Data were collected through a structured survey from 337 employees working in two large companies in Italy. The factorial validity and dimensionality of the latent constructs studied were evaluated in a confirmatory factor analysis framework, and the mediation hypotheses were tested in a full structural equation model. Results show that the overall effect of PIED on turnover intention is negative and almost fully mediated by external employability and affective commitment, whereas the path through internal employability is not supported. More specifically, PIED increases commitment, which in turn limits the likelihood of turnover. In addition, although perceived external employability is positively associated with turnover intention, PIED seems to reduce this effect by negatively affecting employee perceptions of their marketability in the labour market. The study supports the assumptions of social exchange theory in explaining turnover behaviour as a consequence of employee development support. Contextually, it questions the existence of the employability paradox because it does not reveal either a retention path via perceived internal employability or a turnover risk via perceived external employability.     

Building the bottom line by developing the frontline: Career development for service employees

Service firms must remember that the way they treat their employees is exactly how those employees will, in turn, treat customers. As such, taking good care of frontline personnel should be a top management concern. One way that service employees can be shown they are valued members of the organization entails the implementation of thoughtful and organized career development programs, initiatives which help increase employees’ job satisfaction and feelings of empowerment in their customer-facing roles. Before they can become enthusiastic about meeting the needs of their customers, employees have to feel that their own needs are being met within the organization. In this regard, firm investment in frontline employee career development programs will be money well spent: they are capable of reducing employee turnover and increasing customer satisfaction, loyalty, and profitability. This article provides a conceptual model of career development which should prove useful to service managers in evaluating their own career development efforts. Also presented herein is a framework for tying together many disparate areas of career development that have heretofore been handled separately in the services literature.     

Customer participation and citizenship behavioral influences on employee performance, satisfaction, commitment, and turnover intention

Despite increasing awareness of the importance of customer behaviors in service delivery, understanding consequences relating to employees receives little attention. Therefore, using data from a large electronic firm relating to customers, employees, and managers, this study examines the effects of customer participation and citizenship behavior on employee performance, satisfaction and commitment, as well as indirect effects on turnover intention. Furthermore, the study examines how similarity and likeability moderate the effects of customer participation and citizenship behavior on employee satisfaction. The study also includes a laboratory experiment and provides further support for causal direction. The article discusses marketing implications of the results.     

Job Satisfaction: Linking Perceived Organizational Support,Organizational Justice with Work Outcomes in China

This study develops and tests a full mediation model that examines the mediating role of job satisfaction in the Chinese context, based on a survey of 424 employees in three small and medium sized enterprises. Data analysis shows a good fit with the full mediation and all four classes of antecedents (i.e., perceived organizational support, procedural, distributive, and interactional justice). Particularly, procedural justice contributes to the prediction of satisfaction. Job satisfaction is also shown to mediate most antecedentconsequence relationships, except the two between perceived organizational support (POS)—turnover and procedural justice—consequences. Furthermore, there are only four direct links, including POS to citizenship behaviors directed at individuals, distributive justice to turnover intention, interactional justice to citizenship behaviors directed at organizations and turnover. These direct links suggest that job satisfaction does not fully mediate the relationships.     

When can interaction orientation create more service value? The moderating role of frontline employees' trust in managers and employee deep acting

Despite the well-recognized importance of interaction orientation, limited studies have investigated its boundary conditions from the frontline employees' perspective. To address this issue, this study investigates the effect of interaction orientation in service value creation and identifies hierarchical trust and deep acting of frontline employees as two moderators. This study conducts a moderated regression analysis for hypotheses testing using a triadic data set of 2090 responses from managers, frontline employees, and customers of 209 firms. The findings show that interaction orientation has no effect on service value. Rather, interaction orientation contributes to perceived service value only when frontline employees have higher trust in their managers or when employee deep acting is high. The value of this study is in revealing the contingencies of interaction orientation on service value. It offers managerial implications that firms should build high trust in managers and encourage deep acting among frontline employees when implementing an interaction orientation strategy.     

Organizational intellectual capital and its relation to frontline service employee innovative behavior: consumer value co-creation behavior as a moderator

Frontline service employee innovative behavior is “the moment of truth” that significantly affects organizational performance. Yet, little research has investigated the effect of organizational intellectual capital on frontline service employee innovative behavior. This study used SPSS 24.0 and AMOS 20.0 to examine the structural model and the hypothetical effects of (1) different dimensions of organizational intellectual capital on frontline service employee innovative behavior and (2) consumer value co-creation on frontline service employee innovative behavior along the dimensions of organizational intellectual capital. A total of 282 valid questionnaires were collected from frontline service employees working at a travel agency located in Taipei, Taiwan. Human capital and customer capital were found to positively affect frontline service employee innovative behavior. The interactions between consumer value co-creation and human and customer capital had a significant moderating effect on frontline service employee innovative behavior.     

Why employees stay: the roles of psychological ownership,territoriality and work relationship closeness in affecting employee turnover intention

Drawing on a tripartite perspective on attitudes, this study examines the influence of psychological ownership and territoriality on turnover intention, as well as the moderating role of work relationship closeness on the relationship between territoriality and turnover intention. Analyses of longitudinal data collected from 341 employees in three Chinese automobile manufacturing companies demonstrate that employees’ psychological ownership is negatively related to their turnover intention. As well, territoriality is negatively related to turnover intention and mediates the relationship between psychological ownership and turnover intention. Additionally, work relationship closeness moderates the relationship between territoriality and turnover intention such that the negative relationship is stronger when employees experience a higher level of work relationship closeness. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Exploiting consumer–employee–retailer interactions in technology-enriched retail environments through a relational lens

The aim of this paper is to explore the relationships between consumer, frontline employees and retailer (organization) subjected to the disruptive force prompted by the adoption of innovative technologies in retail settings. Starting from qualitative data involving 43 frontline employees with different experiences, our analysis revealed that the way for building and maintaining organizational relationships changes differently considering consumer–employee and employee–retailer perspective. In particular, the emergent computer-mediated relationships seem to produce beneficial effects, while combining employees׳ existing capabilities with new competencies, thus resulting in an improvement of the entire retail process. Similarly, they are more satisfied and appreciated organization effort in supporting their jobs through the innovative technologies. Hence, the study provides an empirical contribution to the emerging literature on consumer–employee–retailer (organization) relationships in the innovative scenario through the in-depth investigation of these relationships of four case firms.     

The crisis cloud's silver linings: The effects of hope and gratitude on employee burnout and engagement

A crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic has a tremendous impact on organisations and their employees. Building on the job demands–resources model, conservation of resources theory and the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions, we examined the influence of job stressors on employee burnout, as well as how positive emotions can help employees thrive in tough times. We collected data from 503 Australian employees during the transition period of the COVID-19 crisis, when the country had reached a high vaccination rate and was starting to prepare to return to pre-crisis normal. Our findings show that financial insecurity has a direct impact on employee burnout, whereas a health threat has only an indirect effect. Further, our findings highlight the importance of positive emotions. Hope for the post-crisis future was found to buffer the negative impact of financial insecurity and reduce employee burnout, and feeling gratitude at work was found to mitigate the effects of burnout and enhance employee engagement even when employees are emotionally exhausted.