Part-time restaurant employee perceptions of management practices: An empirical investigation

The UK hospitality industry increasingly relies on part-time rather than full-time employees to provide more flexible and cost-effective operations with potential trade-offs for service quality. Part-time employees can be divided into two distinct groups – permanent and temporary – each with very different employment rationales. This study compares full-time and part-time employee perceptions of management practices across twelve Cardiff-based restaurants using a self-administered questionnaire. There were significant differences between full-time and part-time employees but no difference between temporary and permanent part-time employees who were equally dissatisfied with management practices, job attitudes and job behaviours. The qualitative data showed the two part-time employees' sub-groups had different needs. Despite this they were treated as a homogenous group by managers. Lack of management understanding of part-time staff impacts on how they are treated and ultimately on service quality and customer satisfaction.     

The Impact of Chinese Culture on Service Predisposition

376 service employees at 27 Hong Kong food service outlets were surveyed using Lee-Ross's Service Predisposition Index instrument together with the cultural values questionnaire of the Chinese Culture Connection. The objective was to examine the influence of Chinese culture upon employees’ willingness to deliver service. Results suggested that cultural values influence service predisposition through specific job attitudes. Respondents perceived humbleness, loyalty to superiors and tolerance of others to have the greatest positive effect on their job attitudes. This influence was most pronounced for the service dimensions disposition and communication and the moderator deference. The cultural values that had the most negative influence on service predisposition were protecting face, conservatism and repayment of good/evil. Respondents interpreted delivering service in terms of personal deference, to the customer or their employer, rather than as a relationship with the customer. There seemed also to be a cultural reluctance to accord (unknown) customers status and hence to perceive them as worthy recipients of service.     

Price and Quality Strategies for Services:

Developing effective price and service quality strategies requires an understanding of the effect of price and service quality on buyers' attitudes, intentions and purchase decisions. Consumer Involvement is an important variable that may interact with price and service quality, and is the focus of this research. This paper examines the influence of involvement, price and service quality on attitudes and intention to purchase automobile insurance and long-distance telephone services.     

Susceptibility to Advertising and Perceived Friend Norms: A Meta-Analysis of Materialism in Youths “Meta-Analysis of Materialism in Youths”

This study presents a meta-analysis assessing the antecedents that are associated with the influence that advertising and friends' behaviours have on the formation of materialistic behaviours in youth. We carried out a systematic review in which we identified an initial 217 studies. Of these, 32 were ultimately included in the analysis. Our results revealed significant relationships for the constructs associated directly with susceptibility to advertising (advertising viewing attitudes, attention to advertising, celebrity endorsements in advertising, advertising exposure and TV viewing frequency) and for perceived friends' norms (friends' attitudes, social comparisons with friends and communication with friends) with materialism in youth.     

The moderating effects of gender roles on service emotional contagion

This study attempts to examine how service personnel's appearances, attitudes, and behaviours affect customers' emotions and thus their satisfaction and loyalty; it also considers gender roles an important moderator, in that customers with different gender roles may detect and feel differently when they are exposed to personnel's appearances, attitudes, and behaviours. Empirical data were collected from customers in clothing shops in Taiwan. The results suggest that customers with androgynous role more sensitive to the emotional contagion process. Managerial implications and future research directions are also discussed.     

Explaining consumer complaining behaviour in double deviation scenarios: the banking services

Research has shown that more than half of attempted recovery efforts only reinforce dissatisfaction, producing a ‘double deviation’ effect. Surprisingly, these double deviation effects have received little attention in marketing literature. The crucial question is what happens after these critical encounters, which behaviour or set of behaviours the customers are prone to follow and how customers' perceptions of the firm's recovery efforts influence these behaviours. For the analysis of choice of the type of response (no action, complaining, exit, and complaining and exit), we estimate ordered probit models. The results of our study show that the magnitude of service failure, recovery strategies, distributive and procedural justice, recovery-related emotions and satisfaction with service recovery have a significant effect on customers' choice of the type of response, the latter showing the highest impact. Implications from the findings are offered.     

Customer deviance in retailing: Managers’ emotional support and employees’ affective wellbeing

Retail employees are increasingly under pressure as they are confronted with the dark side of customer behaviour: Customer deviance (NCD). Consequently, retailers face difficulties retaining employees in the job leading to workforce shortage in the industry as more and more retail workers leave their jobs. While some academic research displays the impact of NCD in retail, it leaves its effects on employees, their intentions to leave the job, including the mitigating factor of managerial support structures unexplored. Applying the job demands-resources model, this research fills this gap by investigating NCD in store-based retail, by identifying a series of employees' responses in correspondence with such behaviours and by revealing various support factors as moderators of NCD's effects on employees. Structural equation modelling of data obtained from surveying 108 retail employees in stores confirms the mediation of emotional exhaustion, affective ill-being and job (dis-)satisfaction, in the context of employees facing NCD and their leaving intention. The research raises awareness for emotional care in the form of managerial strategies targeting emotions, the supervisor's role and trust-enhancing mechanisms in retail care management, in order to attenuate NCD's negative effects on retail employees.     

Factors motivating and influencing clothing disposal behaviours

This study of 232 college students was framed by Ajzen and Fishbein's theory of reasoned action and examined factors that motivate and influence college students' clothing disposal behaviours. Using survey questionnaires, we investigated four different clothing disposal options (resale, donation, reusing and discarding) and examined five motivational factors (environmental, economic, charity and convenience concerns and information unavailability). The influences of attitudes towards the environment and subjective norms of family and friends on clothing disposal behaviours also were examined. Results indicated that resale and donation behaviours were explained by environmental concerns and that reuse and resale behaviours were explained by economic concerns. Charity concerns motivated donation behaviours and convenience motivated discarding behaviours. Further, findings indicated that family subjective norms influenced environmentally motivated resale and donation behaviours.     

Using job satisfaction and pride as internal-marketing tools

Employees' attitudes and opinions about their colleagues and the work environment may make all the difference between workers' merely doing a good job and delivering exceptional guest service.     

Antecedents of organizational citizenship behaviours among part-time employees of service organizations in Korea

This study investigates the antecedents of organizational citizenship behaviours by using data consisting of 196 part-time instructors drawn from six sport centres in the Republic of Korea. The results of a structural equation analysis suggest that job satisfaction has a positive effect on organizational and occupational commitment, occupational satisfaction has a positive effect on organizational and occupational commitment, organizational commitment has a positive effect on organizational citizenship behaviours (OCBs) and a negative effect on turnover intentions, and turnover intentions has a negative effect on OCBs. The effect of occupational commitment on both turnover intentions and OCBs was not significant. This research addresses a number of important issues in the management of human resources (i.e. part-time workers) in service organizations; that is, this study examines how part-time employees' satisfaction and commitment with respect to their jobs, occupations or organizations are related to their OCBs; this relationship is arguably one the most important issues facing service organizations today.     

Alleviating job stress to improve service employee work affect: the influence of rewarding

Firms strive to identify interventions that promote customer contact employee (CCE) well-being by mitigating job stress to encourage better service experiences for customers. Drawing on equity theory, this research examines the influences of alternative rewarding approaches on CCE job stress and work-related attitudes, by assessing the effects of intrinsic (social recognition) and extrinsic (monetary) rewarding on CCE job stress, commitment to the organization, and customer orientation. Results of a survey of 220 CCEs from multiple service organizations indicate that social recognition reduces CCE job stress but that, contrary to expectations, monetary rewarding increases it. Moreover, satisfaction with pay has a greater influence on CCE customer orientation than social recognition.     

Motivation for emergency and retirement saving: an examination of Regulatory Focus Theory

Can Regulatory Focus Theory be used to better understand consumers' saving attitudes and behaviours? The theory posits that prevention‐ and promotion‐oriented personality traits may influence financial decision making. Using secondary and experimental survey data, two research questions were examined: (1) Are promotion‐ and prevention‐related saving goals, in combination with promotion‐ and prevention‐oriented personality traits, related to attitudes towards saving behaviour? (2) To what extent does the match between these goals and traits affect actual saving behaviour? Findings confirmed that promotion‐oriented consumers were less likely to save for prevention goals, while the opposite was true for prevention‐oriented individuals. Further, consumers' saving goal and personality trait‐based regulatory focus were found to influence cognitive attitudes towards saving. The discussion focuses on how these findings and theoretical perspectives may predict and influence consumers' financial decision making.     

The influence of culture,emotions, intangibility,and atmospheric cues on online behavior

This paper examines how emotions and website atmospheric cues influence service tangibility and consumer attitudes. The proposed model was compared across three cultures: North America (Canada and U.S.), China, and the Middle East. The findings support the overall model and demonstrate several non-invariant paths across the groups. Particularly, the results suggest how the influences of two emotional dimensions (pleasure and dominance) on consumer perceptions of site atmospherics vary across cultures. Moreover, the effects of service tangibility dimensions (physical tangibility, specificity, and mental tangibility) on consumers' attitudes toward the website and service vary significantly across the three cultures. Mental tangibility has the greatest influence on North American customers' attitudes, while physical tangibility and specificity have the greatest impact on Chinese and Middle Eastern customers' attitudes, respectively.     

How work design characteristics affect service employees’ work–family conflicts

Despite scholars acknowledging that the five core job characteristics (i.e. skill variety, task significance, task identity, autonomy, and feedback) significantly positively influence employees’ psychological states (i.e. job meaningfulness, job responsibility, and results knowledge), few researchers have empirically studied how these job characteristics and psychological states are related to job involvement and work–family conflict (WFC). Research data were collected by conducting a survey of service employees through a market survey website. A total of 714 valid questionnaires were eventually collected, and structural equation modeling analysis was applied to the data. The results confirmed that skill variety and job involvement have a positive direct influence on WFC, whereas task feedback significantly decreases WFC. Additional analysis suggested that the five core job characteristics indirectly influence WFC through perceived job meaningfulness, responsibility, knowledge of results, and job involvement. The managerial implications for service managers developing employee work design strategies are provided.     

What makes a good citizen in service settings?

As service firms face intense pressure to improve service quality, contact employees have been asked to do more with less. It is important that managers understand the concept of organisational citizenship behaviours and attempt to motivate employees to exhibit such behaviours. This study developed and tested a model of how employees' perception of organisational support affects affective commitment (AC), which contributes to their citizenship behaviours in service settings. Questionnaire data from matched pairs of 318 contact employees and their supervisors demonstrated that both perceived organisational support (POS) and AC play strong, central roles in determining contact employees' exhibition of citizenship behaviours. In addition, AC was found to be an effective mediator linking contact employees' perception of organisational support to their citizenship behaviours.     

Predicting market orientation through internal market orientation as culture and behaviour: an empirical application in Spanish hotels

The aim of this study is to analyse how the internal market orientation, considered from a dual perspective, cultural and behavioural, affects the development of external market-oriented behaviours by improving the attitudinal results (affective commitment and job satisfaction) of the internal customers. An empirical study was carried out, based on the perceptions of 68 managers and 296 supervisors at four- and five-star hotels in Gran Canaria (Canary Islands, Spain). The findings show that (1) the internal market orientation (IMO) has a positive influence on the effective development of market orientation behaviours in managers and supervisors; (2) the IMO has a positive influence on the affective commitment and job satisfaction of hotel managers, but not supervisors; and (3) greater affective commitment and job satisfaction have no significant effect on market orientation behaviours in hotel managers or in supervisors. Based on the study results, the paper concludes with a discussion and implications for practitioners.     

The Concept and Application of Managerial Competence in Developed and Developing Economies: A Two Country Analysis

Abstract

This paper reviews the concept of managerial competence as applied in transportation management in developing and developed economies, using Boyatzis' (1982) model of effective job performance. Boyatzis postulated that effective performance of a job is the attainment of specific results or outcomes required by the job through specific actions while maintaining or being consistent with policies, procedures, and conditions of the organizational environment. Literature search and interviews with managers with extensive experience in Nigeria and the United Kingdom reveal that Boyatzis' constructs are valid within the developed economies. However, within the developing economies, it is found that modifications are required to accommodate cultural and socio-political realities and to match the skills of individuals with their current and future roles in an organization. The study also found that there are similarities in competency requirements between the two countries. It is concluded with a recommendation that management methods be adapted rather than adopted, via such strategies as the community concept approach which emphasizes, for example, on the job training with formal theoretical reinforcement at later stages, and that practical universality of management strategies may be a myth.     

Managerial approaches towards service quality: the case of three service organisations

Using a multiple case study, this paper is concerned with assessing the impact of senior management's approach and attitudes on service quality and its implications for middle and firstline managers. Date from 52 semi-structured interviews representing a variety of managerial levels suggests that there exist many conflicts and differences in senior management's orientation and approach towards quality management (QM) with that of middle and firstline managers. The results further indicate that getting such consistency appropriate to the needs of top, middle, and firstline management, and of the QM itself, is one of the key problems of current management of service quality. However, the findings highlight that where there is consistency between senior managers' underlying approaches towards service quality goal with that of middle and firstline managers, service quality programmes will highly likely produce expected results. Finally, the implications of these findings as well as future research are put forward.     

Artificial intelligence as a boundary-crossing object for employee engagement and performance

The study proposes AI-powered tools and applications as boundary-crossing objects to examine how AI performance can affect employees' job engagement, service and job performance. Job security is modelled as a moderator in the boundary-crossing process. Several theories including boundary crossing, goal setting and self-regulation are drawn on to posit these relationships. The study was undertaken with Australia-based full-time employees who had experience with AI-powered tools at work. The results show that AI performance had a significant effect on job engagement, and employee service performance, which were significantly related to job performance appraisal. Job engagement and service performance exhibited significant mediation effects between AI and job performance. The moderation effect exerted by job security was significant in enhancing employees’ job engagement and service performance. The study contributes to service research and human resource management literature. The findings have implications for service marketers and human resource practitioners.     

Value Congruence Awareness: Part 2. DNA Testing Sheds Light on Functionalism

Part 1 of this exploratory study demonstrated that for terminal, instrumental, and work values, supervisors could only accurately assess the extent to which their terminal values are congruent with their employees, whereas, employees could only accurately describe degrees of alignment with their supervisors' work values. Thus, supervisors appear to possess conscious awareness of the terminal values held by their employees and employees similarly possess conscious awareness of their supervisors' work values. Part 2 of the study examined what each of these two parties might do with their conscious knowledge concerning value congruence with the other member. Supervisor ratings and employee self-ratings concerning employee job performance, citizenship, climate fit, working relationship (LMX), and other issues, were correlated with supervisor terminal value congruence estimates and employee work value congruence estimates respectively. For supervisors, only one significant finding was noted, indicating a positive relationship between the supervisors' awareness of terminal value congruence with the employee and the supervisors' estimate of the employee's potential for future promotion. For employees, seven hypotheses received support demonstrating relationships between the employees' 0awareness of supervisor/employee work value congruence and self-ratings of work behaviours, citizenship behaviours, volunteerism behaviours, work climate behaviours, work climate attitudes, work climate organizational-wide attitudes, and the supervisor/employee working relationship. Implications for management and future research are discussed.