Service employees’ personality, customer orientation and customer incivility

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 281-296
Author(s):  
Sandra A. Kiffin-Petersen ◽  
Geoffrey N. Soutar
Keyword(s):  
Structural Equation ◽  
Customer Orientation ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Service Employees ◽  
Self Evaluation ◽  
Mediating Role ◽  
Perceived Experiences ◽  
Core Self

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine the mediating role customer orientation plays in the relationship between service employees’ personality and their perceived experiences of customer incivility. Design/methodology/approach Service workers from a variety of industries were recruited from an online panel service and asked to complete a self-report on-line questionnaire (n = 253). PLS structural equation modeling was used to test the research hypotheses. Findings Service employees who are high in agreeableness and core self-evaluations are more customer-oriented and, as a result, report fewer customer incivility experiences. Disagreeable and neurotic service employees are more likely to be selling-orientated, but this was unrelated to customer incivility. Research limitations/implications The results are limited because all data are self-report. However, the findings suggest that personality and customer orientation influence employees’ customer incivility experiences. Originality/value Service jobs can be stressful, in part, because employees have to deal with rude and abusive customers. However, little is known about the antecedents to customer incivility from the perspective of the service provider. The present study bridges this gap and provides an understanding of the mechanisms by which targeted employees’ personality characteristics and customer-oriented behaviors influence their experiences of customer incivility. The results suggest two possible pathways to reduce employees’ customer incivility experiences including selection and training activities to develop a high core self-evaluation and more customer-oriented behaviors.

Understanding and mitigating cynicism in the workplace

2016 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 552-569 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristyn A. Scott ◽  
David Zweig
Keyword(s):  
Structural Equation ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Supervisory Support ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Self Evaluation ◽  
Organizational Cynicism ◽  
Two Samples ◽  
Core Self ◽  
Workplace Outcomes

Purpose – Organizational cynicism is on the increase. The purpose of this paper is to explore how dispositions promote cynical attitudes and how to mitigate the negative impact of organizational cynicism for employees. Design/methodology/approach – The data consisted of two samples (n=312 and n=529) of employed adults. All participants completed online surveys containing the variables of interest. The hypothesized model was tested using structural equation modeling. Findings – Low levels of core self-evaluation (CSE) predict organizational cynicism which, in turn, mediates the relations between CSE and job attitudes. Importantly, the authors find that supervisory support moderates both the relations between CSE and organizational cynicism and organizational cynicism and job satisfaction. Originality/value – Little research has directly assessed the role of dispositions in the development of organizational cynicism. The authors suggest that CSE contributes to the development of cynical attitudes. Further, the authors demonstrate that a supportive supervisor can serve as a buffer to mitigate the expression and effects of organizational cynicism on workplace outcomes.

Customer relationship investment and relationship strength: evidence from insurance industry in China

2016 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-211 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guicheng Shi ◽  
Huimei Bu ◽  
Yuan Ping ◽  
Matthew Tingchi Liu ◽  
Yonggui Wang
Keyword(s):  
Structural Equation ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Service Employees ◽  
Relationship Strength ◽  
Relationship Investment ◽  
The Impact

Purpose This study aims to elucidate how different relationship investment efforts by a service firm affect its customers’ perceived relationship investment; to determine how perceived relationship investment influences various dimensions of relationship strength; and to explore the moderating effects of customer innovativeness and complaint propensity on the relationship between the perceived relationship investment and relationship strength. Design/methodology/approach To minimize common method variance, data were collected from pairs of life insurance agents in China and their clients using self-report questionnaires. Hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling. Findings The results indicate that customers value financial effort most followed by social effort and structural effort. Perceived relationship investment influences the affective strength most strongly, followed by cognitive strength and conative strength. Customer innovativeness and complaint propensity both moderate the effectiveness of perceived relationship investment in influencing two of the three dimensions of relationship strength. Originality/value This study is among the first to specify how service employees can guide consumer perceptions of relationship investment by applying three types of relationship investment effort. The impact of perceived relationship investment on different dimensions of relationship strength was assessed to demonstrate how service providers can benefit from investing in building consumer relationships. The moderating impact of consumer innovativeness and of complaint propensity was quantified. The research findings have important implications for managing different relationship investment as well as recruiting and training service employees.

The effect of customer incivility on service employees’ customer orientation through double-mediation of surface acting and emotional exhaustion

2015 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 394-413 ◽  
Author(s):  
Won-Moo Hur ◽  
Tae Won Moon ◽  
Su-Jin Han
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Exhaustion ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Customer Orientation ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Negative Relationship ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Surface Acting ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Service Employees

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine how customer incivility affects service employees’ emotional labor (i.e. surface acting) and the way surface acting augments their emotional exhaustion at work, and in turn, damages customer orientations of service employees. Design/methodology/approach – Using a sample of 309 department store sales employees in South Korea, a two-stage mediation model is used in terms of structural equation modeling. Findings – The results indicate that customer incivility is positively related to service employees’ use of surface acting; this, in turn, results in feelings of emotional exhaustion, which are negatively related to their customer orientation. That is, the findings of this study shows that the negative relationship between customer incivility and service employees’ customer orientation was fully and sequentially mediated by service employees’ surface acting and emotional exhaustion. Research limitations/implications – The main limitation is the nature of the cross-sectional data the authors used in the analysis. It gives us reason to be very cautious in reaching conclusions concerning causal relationships among variables, since the authors did not capture longitudinal variation. Practical implications – The research shows that customer incivility has a negative effect on service employees’ customer-oriented behaviors since experiences of customer incivility among emotionally exhausted employees via surface acting generates inadequate and unfair sense-making related to the treatment offered by customers, which increases the tendency of decreasing their effort and loyalty for customers to prevent further loss of emotional resources. Therefore, service organizations should devise appropriate strategies and implement systematic programs for reducing employee exposure to customer incivility, or preventing it altogether. Originality/value – The current study broadens the conceptual work and empirical studies in customer incivility literature by representing a fundamental mechanism of why customer incivility negatively affects service employees’ customer orientation. The primary contribution of the study is to gain a deeper understanding of how customer incivility leads to lower employee customer-oriented behaviors through double mediating effects of surface acting and emotional exhaustion.

The influence of service employees’ nonverbal communication on customer-employee rapport in the service encounter

2017 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-132 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheng-Yu Lin ◽  
Jiun-Sheng Chris Lin
Keyword(s):  
Nonverbal Communication ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Positive Emotions ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Service Encounters ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Service Employees ◽  
Mediating Role ◽  
Moderating Role

Purpose Rapport between service employees and customers has been suggested to be an important determinant of customer relationship management, yet existing marketing literature still lacks a sufficient understanding of how service employees’ nonverbal communication affects customer-employee rapport development in service encounters. The purpose of this paper is to fill this research gap by proposing and testing a model that explores how service employees’ nonverbal communication (employee affective delivery and behavioral mimicry) influences customer positive emotions and customer-employee rapport. The mediating role of customer positive emotions and the moderating role of store atmosphere in the process of customer-employee rapport development were also assessed. Design/methodology/approach Using an observational methodology in conjunction with a customer survey, multi-source survey data collected from 303 customer-employee pairs in the apparel retailing industry was examined through structural equation modeling and regression analysis. Findings Results showed that employee nonverbal communication positively influenced customer positive emotions and customer-employee rapport. The partial mediating role of customer positive emotions and the moderating role of store atmosphere in the process of rapport development were also confirmed. Practical implications Service firms should train and motivate employees to use nonverbal communication to develop and strengthen customer-employee rapport. The importance of customer positive emotions in the service process should be addressed in the customer-employee rapport development process. Moreover, service managers should also allocate firm resources to create a well-designed store atmosphere for target customers. Originality/value This research represents one of the earliest studies to explore and empirically test the influence of employee nonverbal communication on customer-employee rapport development in service encounters. The partial mediating role of customer positive emotions and the moderating role of store atmosphere on the relationship between employee nonverbal communication and customer-employee rapport were also proposed and confirmed.

Relation between Chinese consumers’ ethical perceptions and purchase intentions

2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 670-690 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammad Kashif Javed ◽  
Ma Degong ◽  
Talat Qadeer
Keyword(s):  
Structural Equation ◽  
Developing Economies ◽  
Purchase Intentions ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Brand Trust ◽  
Ethical Perceptions ◽  
Chinese Consumers ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Highly Educated ◽  
Mediating Role

Purpose Most business-related studies on ethics focus on consumers in developed western economies but ignore developing economies. Therefore, to fill this void in the literature and address the concerns of prior studies, the purpose of this paper is to examine the ethical perceptions of Chinese consumers as an example of effective and efficient management of company/brand strategies in an economy experiencing rapid socioeconomic growth. Design/methodology/approach This study examines 328 Chinese consumers’ purchase intentions based on their ethical perceptions toward Apple and P&G through mediating (i.e. consumer–corporate identification (CCI) and brand trust) and moderating (i.e. consumer gender, age, education and residence) effects. Structural equation modeling is used to analyze the constructs and overall model. Findings The ethical perceptions of consumers translate into purchase intentions, both at the corporate and product brand levels. Similarly, a significant direct relationship between CCI and brand trust reveals that corporate-level ethical identification is a trivial matter to customers, although these perceptions do apply to product brands under a corporate umbrella. Furthermore, to identify target groups of Chinese consumers who are receptive to ethical appeals, moderating variables were found to be useful. Originality/value The results confirm that the mediating role of CCI is more influential in the context of Chinese consumers’ ethical perceptions, followed by brand trust. In relation to demographics, ethical perceptions affect CCI and brand trust more positively in females and highly educated consumers in China. Similarly, the relationship between consumers’ ethical perception and their trust in brand is revealed more influential in urban residents than they do in rural. This broadens the applications and contexts of this research model. The results provide managerial guidance on enhancing potential ethical perceptions.

Does employee willingness to take risks affect customer loyalty? A moderated mediation examination of innovative behaviors and decentralization

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohd Ahmad Al-Hawari ◽  
Shaker Bani-Melhem ◽  
Faridahwati Mohd. Shamsudin
Keyword(s):  
Personality Traits ◽  
Customer Loyalty ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Frontline Employees ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Mediating Role ◽  
Hotel Managers ◽  
Innovative Behaviors

Purpose This study aims to build on the trait activation and interactionist perspective theories to investigate the effect of frontline employees’ (FLEs) willingness to take risks on hotel guest loyalty by assessing the mediating role of their innovative behaviors. It also examines whether decentralization strengthens the positive impact of willingness to take risks on innovative behavior and, subsequently, customer loyalty. Design/methodology/approach The authors collected multilevel data from various sources – hotel FLEs (n = 183), hotel operation managers (n = 46) and hotel guests/customers (n = 266) – from five-star hotels operating in Dubai. Structural equation modeling and PROCESS macro (version 3.5) were used to analyze the data. Findings The findings showed that willingness to take risks indirectly (via innovative behaviors) affects guest/customer loyalty positively. This effect is strengthened when the hotel is decentralized. Practical implications This study provides insight into how hotel managers can foster customer loyalty. More specifically, they can do so by establishing employees’ innovative behaviors triggered by employees’ positive personality traits and by giving employees more autonomy. Originality/value The present study addresses recent calls to investigate the positive impact of FLEs’ personality traits, attitudes and behaviors on customer loyalty.

Shared leadership and team creativity: a team level mixed-methods study

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lei Xie ◽  
Soo Jeoung Han ◽  
Michael Beyerlein ◽  
Jiacheng Lu ◽  
Lillian Vukin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mixed Methods ◽  
Shared Leadership ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Team Creativity ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Video Recordings ◽  
Multi Level

Purpose This paper aims to conduct two studies to investigate shared leadership and team creativity (TC) in leaderless short-term project teams (STPTs). Design/methodology/approach To answer the research question, this paper used a multi-level mixed-methods design. This paper analyzed video recordings, transcripts of STPTs’ collaboration and self-report surveys from an international engineering competition. In Study 1, this paper attempted to connect relation-oriented shared leadership (ROSL) and task-oriented shared leadership (TOSL) with TC by coding video recordings. In Study 2, this paper further investigated the proposed positive relationship between shared leadership and TC by surveying a sample of 166 students in 51 teams. Findings In Study 1, this paper found that shared leadership covaries with TC following a similar behavioral pattern. In Study 2, multi-level structural equation modeling results suggested that both TOSL and ROSL are positively correlated with TC. Originality/value In this mixed-methods multi-level research, this paper found that when the team’s shared leadership increases, their TC activity becomes frequent. This paper confirmed the qualitative finding by quantitatively investigated the relationship between shared leadership and creativity at the team level.

A strategy tripod perspective on merger effectiveness in the higher education industry: the mediating role of future foresight

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zahraa Sameer Sajwani ◽  
Joe Hazzam ◽  
Abdelmounaim Lahrech ◽  
Muna Alnuaimi
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Government Support ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Survey Method ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Mediating Role ◽  
Education Industry ◽  
Higher Education Industry

PurposeThe purpose of the study is to investigate the role of the strategy tripod premises, mediated by future foresight and its effect on merger effectiveness in the higher education industry.Design/methodology/approachA quantitative survey method was implemented, with the data provided by senior managers of 14 universities that went through a merger from the years 2013–2016. The proposed model was tested using partial least squares (PLS) of structural equation modeling (SEM).FindingsThe results indicate that government support, competitive intensity and knowledge creation capability relate positivity to merger effectiveness, and these relationships are mediated by future foresight competence.Originality/valueThe study provides a better understanding of merger effectiveness in the higher education industry by identifying the role of future foresight competence in the application of strategy tripod and its contribution on merger effectiveness. Results indicate that future foresight competence contributes to the merger effectiveness and enables the effective implementation of the strategy tripod dimensions in higher education mergers.

Information technologies and seaport operational efficiency

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra Adabere ◽  
Kwame Owusu Kwateng ◽  
Esther Dzidzah ◽  
Francis Tetteh Kamewor
Keyword(s):  
Structural Equation ◽  
Information Technologies ◽  
Operational Efficiency ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Mediating Role ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Positive Direct

PurposeThe introduction of information technology (IT) in port operations has been a tremendous contributor to transformation in world trade. This study was carried out to examine the influence of IT on the efficiency of seaport operations.Design/methodology/approachThe study is quantitative in nature, and it relied on a closed-ended self-administered questionnaire to collect primary data. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test the theoretical model and hypothesis.FindingsThe results indicate that IT has a positive direct effect on port operational efficiency (OE) and an indirect effect on port OE through organizational culture (OC). The mediating role of OC is statistically insignificant.Originality/valueThis is among the first few attempts in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) that provides researchers with a contemporary view of IT and seaport operations.

Linking ethical leadership to administrative innovation in Ethiopian banks: the mediating role of knowledge process capabilities

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gedif Tessema Sinshaw ◽  
Atul Shiva ◽  
Manjit Singh
Keyword(s):  
Ethical Leadership ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Banking Sector ◽  
Organizational Capabilities ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Mediation Model ◽  
Knowledge Process ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Mediating Role

PurposeThis paper aims to examine the mediating role of knowledge process capability (KPC) between ethical leadership (EL) and administrative innovation (AI) in the banking sector of Ethiopia.Design/methodology/approachThe study was conducted by a standardized questionnaire survey to collect the data from 266 employees of Commercial Bank of Ethiopia in 93 branches. The study employed structural equation modeling approach with Analyzing Moment of Structures 23.0 to test the hypothesized mediation model.FindingsThe results of this investigation disclose that EL has a significant and direct effect on AI and KPC. KPC also influences AI significantly.Originality/valueThe study revealed that KPC plays a partial mediating role in linking EL to AI, which is a new contribution to the existing literature of EL. This dimension can provide new dimensions to design organizational leadership which is based on sustainability paradigm. This can strengthen the organizational capabilities aiming to increasing innovative behaviors in order to have a deep-seated strategy.

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