scholarly journals Bringing Service Interactions Into Focus: Prevention- Versus Promotion-Focused Customers’ Sensitivity to Employee Display Authenticity

2020 ◽  
pp. 109467052090441 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreas T. Lechner ◽  
Frank Mathmann
Keyword(s):  
Regulatory Focus ◽  
Service Performance ◽  
Heterogeneous Reactions ◽  
Employee Behavior ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Frontline Employee ◽  
Conditional Effect ◽  
Emotion Displays ◽  
Dyadic Field

Despite growing managerial interest in frontline employee behavior, and in display authenticity specifically, customers’ heterogeneous reactions to authentic displays have received little scholarly attention. Drawing on emotion as social information theory, we investigate the role of motivational orientations (i.e., regulatory focus) in customer reactions to authentic displays. The findings show that inauthentic displays have stronger negative effects on service performance for prevention-focused than for promotion-focused customers. A dyadic field study details these effects in terms of tipping, and three experiments provide further evidence by experimentally manipulating authenticity and regulatory focus. The conditional effect of authenticity on service performance also is mediated by inferred deception. Specifically, prevention-focused customers interpret inauthentic emotion displays as more deceptive than promotion-focused customers do. Managers should prime customers’ promotion focus using marketing communications before the service delivery when inauthentic displays are likely as well as consider customers’ regulatory focus when designing authenticity training for employees.

Frontline Employees’ Display of Fake Smiles and Angry Faces: When and Why They Influence Service Performance

2020 ◽  
pp. 109467052097514
Author(s):  
Andreas T. Lechner ◽  
Frank Mathmann ◽  
Michael Paul
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Dissonance ◽  
Positive Emotion ◽  
Service Performance ◽  
Service Firms ◽  
Frontline Employees ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Conditional Effect ◽  
Emotion Displays ◽  
Market Shocks ◽  
The Moment

Service firms invest much to ensure authentic and positive emotion displays from frontline employees. And yet, inauthentic positive displays (fake smiles) remain common, and at times, employees even show authentic negative displays (e.g., anger), thereby compromising service performance. Customer reactions to such unwanted emotion displays are heterogeneous, so managers need to know when possible negative effects on service performance are more or less strong. The literature on customer reactions to inauthentic displays is inconclusive and focuses on the moment of service delivery. We shine light on how predelivery choice confidence shapes customer reactions to inauthentic positive displays and demonstrate that customers’ high confidence in their service provider choice mitigates the negative effects of display inauthenticity. We present evidence in terms of tipping in a field study and replicate this interaction effect in three experiments. A serial mediation by cognitive dissonance and decision regret explains the conditional effect of inauthenticity. We also contrast inauthentic positive displays with authentic negative displays. The latter yield the worst service performance, unmitigated by choice confidence. We provide recommendations on how to ensure authentic positive displays (e.g., recruitment, resources, and rewards), taking into account circumstances that affect choice confidence and market shocks (e.g., the COVID-19 pandemic).

Workplace resources and employee resilience: the role of regulatory profiles

2017 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 419-435 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joana Kuntz ◽  
Philippa Connell ◽  
Katharina Näswall
Keyword(s):  
Regulatory Focus ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Prevention Focus ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Joint Effects ◽  
Main Effects ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the independent and joint effects of regulatory focus (promotion and prevention) on the relationship between workplace resources (support and feedback) and employee resilience. It proposed that, at high levels of resource availability, a high promotion-high prevention profile would elicit the highest levels of employee resilience. Design/methodology/approach An online survey was completed by 162 white collar employees from four organisations. In addition to the main effects, two- and three-way interactions were examined to test hypotheses. Findings Promotion focus was positively associated with employee resilience, and though the relationship between prevention focus and resilience was non-significant, both regulatory foci buffered against the negative effects of low resources. Employees with high promotion-high prevention focus displayed the highest levels of resilience, especially at high levels of feedback. Conversely, the resilience of low promotion-low prevention individuals was susceptible to feedback availability. Practical implications Employee resilience development and demonstration are contingent not only on resources, but also on psychological processes, particularly regulatory focus. Organisations will develop resilience to the extent that they provide workplace resources, and, importantly, stimulate both promotion and prevention perspectives on resource management. Originality/value This study extends the research on regulatory focus theory by testing the joint effects of promotion and prevention foci on workplace resources, and the relationship between regulatory foci and employee resilience.

scholarly journals Emotional Labor Strategies And Service Performance: The Mediating Role Of Employee Creativity

2013 ◽  
Vol 29 (5) ◽  
pp. 1583 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chao Liu ◽  
Xinmei Liu ◽  
Zizhen Geng
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Labor ◽  
Service Industry ◽  
Service Performance ◽  
Role Performance ◽  
Surface Acting ◽  
Employee Creativity ◽  
Deep Acting ◽  
Frontline Employee ◽  
Mediating Role

This paper theoretically and empirically investigates the effects of different emotional labor strategies on frontline employee creativity in the context of service industry, and it also studies the mediating role of frontline employee creativity in the relationships between frontline employees emotional labor strategies and the two aspects of customer service performance. Based on the data of 424 employeesupervisor dyads in China, the empirical results indicate that surface acting decreases employee creativity and extra role performance, while deep acting increases employee creativity, role-prescribed performance and extra role performance; employee creativity mediates both the negative influence of surface acting on extra role performance and the positive influences of deep acting on role-prescribed and extra role performances. The results have some theoretical and practical implications on service creativity and emotion management in service industry.

Can trust become a factor of economic growth? Dynamic changes in the level of trust of Russian youth

2020 ◽  
pp. 92-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. I. Bakhtigaraeva ◽  
A. A. Stavinskaya
Keyword(s):  
Institutional Environment ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Dynamic Changes ◽  
Generalized Trust ◽  
Level Of Education ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
The Future ◽  
Analysis Of Dynamics

The article considers the role of trust in the economy, the mechanisms of its accumulation and the possibility of using it as one of the growth factors in the future. The advantages and disadvantages of measuring the level of generalized trust using two alternative questions — about trusting people in general and trusting strangers — are analyzed. The results of the analysis of dynamics of the level of generalized trust among Russian youth, obtained within the study of the Institute for National Projects in 10 regions of Russia, are presented. It is shown that there are no significant changes in trust in people in general during the study at university. At the same time, the level of trust in strangers falls, which can negatively affect the level of trust in the country as a whole, and as a result have negative effects on the development of the economy in the future. Possible causes of the observed trends and the role of universities are discussed. Also the question about the connection between the level of education and generalized trust in countries with different quality of the institutional environment is raised.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document