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).

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.

scholarly journals Deterioration Causes Evaluation of Third Generation Cellular LTE Services for Moving Unmanned Terrestrial and Aerial Systems

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 141-148
Author(s):  
Deniss Brodņevs ◽  
Aleksandrs Kutins
Keyword(s):  
Data Transfer ◽  
Angular Position ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Service Performance ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Lte Networks ◽  
Wireless Signal ◽  
Aerial Systems ◽  
Degradation Problem

AbstractWell-deployed cellular networks offer a cheap wireless solution for the control channel deployment of Remote-Control Vehicles (RCV) and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV). However, a cellular data transfer service performance is affected by a different kind of User Equipment (UE) mobility. Operating conditions of UAV imply working at different altitudes, variable velocities with accelerations/decelerations and rapidly changed antennas angular position, which lead the wireless signal to be prone to negative effects. Available field measurement studies are not sufficient to provide excessive information on degradation problem causes for UEs moving along a complex trajectory. This paper presents an evaluation of the service quality of live operational 3G and LTE networks for both ground moving and flying UE. It has been found that antennas angular position variations in 3D (for example, during UAV manoeuvers) increase data transfer latency and jitter. Moreover, this effect in conjunction with higher interference at high altitudes may partially or fully block the data transfer service. This paper has been prepared to draw attention to the problem that makes the cellular data transfer service unusable for highly-manoeuvrable UAVs.

Bridging employee curiosity and service creativity: a new lens

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kuen-Hung Tsai ◽  
Li-li Zheng
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Sharing ◽  
Service Firms ◽  
Frontline Employees ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Main Research ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Task Autonomy ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Underlying Mechanisms ◽  
And Task

PurposeThis study develops a framework to examine how, why and when different traits of employee curiosity affect service creativity by considering the roles of knowledge sharing and task autonomy.Design/methodology/approachTo reduce common method bias, this work separated the variables investigated into three parts, each of which was randomly used to collect data at three different periods. A total of 822 matched questionnaires obtained from frontline employees of service firms provided useable data for hypothesis tests. A moderated mediation approach was employed to analyse the data.FindingsResults are as follows: (1) Deprivation sensitivity, joyous exploration and social curiosity have positive effects on knowledge collecting (KC) and knowledge donating (KD). (2) KD mediates the relationships between the three curiosity traits and service creativity. (3) Task autonomy enhances and suppresses the mediating effects of KC and KD, respectively, on the curiosity–service creativity relationship.Research limitations/implicationsThis study has two main research implications: First, as different types (traits) of employee curiosity have different effects on service creativity, a single-dimensional view of employee curiosity may mask the differences of individual dimension and lead to a oversimplified conclusion. Second, lifting the vein from employee curiosity to service creativity has to consider the roles of knowledge sharing and task autonomy.Originality/valueThis research is the first to contribute to the service innovation literature by revealing the underlying mechanisms through which different types of employee curiosity affect service creativity and uncovering the moderating roles of task autonomy in the process mechanisms.

Servant Leadership and Service Performance: A Multilevel Mediation Model

2020 ◽  
pp. 003329412095030
Author(s):  
Jui-Chen Peng ◽  
Shou-Wei Chen
Keyword(s):  
Servant Leadership ◽  
Work Engagement ◽  
Analysis Data ◽  
Service Performance ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Frontline Employees ◽  
Multilevel Mediation ◽  
Two Factors ◽  
A Chain ◽  
The Relationship

This study proposes and tests a multilevel mediation framework to explicate the processes that link servant leadership to frontline employees’ service performance at both the employee and the branch levels of analysis. Data were obtained from 58 branch managers and 324 branch frontline employees of a chain restaurant in Taiwan. The results of hierarchical linear modelling indicate that two factors, concern climate and work engagement, mediate the relationship between branch managers’ servant leadership and frontline employees’ service performance; and that work engagement mediates the relationship between concern climate and such service performance. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are considered, along with future research directions and the study’s limitations.

Service firm performance and foreign ownership

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jieun Choi
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Direct Investment ◽  
Firm Performance ◽  
Direct Investment ◽  
Service Sector ◽  
Service Performance ◽  
Service Firms ◽  
Entry Barriers ◽  
Factor Productivity ◽  
Service Firm ◽  
Service Sectors

Abstract Little is known about the performance of service firms and its relations with foreign direct investment (FDI), in part due to methodological and conceptual challenges in measuring service performance. This article suggests two possible measures of service firm performance: total factor productivity (TFP) and markups, with modification needed to improve those measures for the service sector. Using these measures, it examines service firm performance from 1997 to 2007 in Tunisia, where the service sector accounts for 60% of GDP but faces high protection and complex entry barriers. Then, it investigates whether variations in performance can be explained by FDI. It finds that FDI firms have higher TFP but lower markups than local firms, with significant variations across sub-service sectors.

Dimorphous Expressions of Positive Emotion: Displays of Both Care and Aggression in Response to Cute Stimuli

2015 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 259-273 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oriana R. Aragón ◽  
Margaret S. Clark ◽  
Rebecca L. Dyer ◽  
John A. Bargh
Keyword(s):  
Positive Emotion ◽  
Emotion Displays

Next One Up! Exploring How Coaches Manage Team Dynamics Following Injury

2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 198-208
Author(s):  
Rachel A. Van Woezik ◽  
Alex J. Benson ◽  
Mark W. Bruner
Keyword(s):  
Group Dynamics ◽  
High Performance ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Time Period ◽  
Semistructured Interviews ◽  
Group Environment ◽  
Sport Teams ◽  
Injury Event ◽  
The Moment

Injuries are commonplace in high-intensity sport, and research has explored how athletes are psychologically affected by such events. As injuries carry implications for the group environment in sport teams, the authors explored what occurs within a team during a time period of injury from a coach perspective and how high-performance coaches manage a group at this time. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 10 Canadian university basketball head coaches. Thematic analysis revealed four high-order themes in relation to how coaches managed group dynamics from the moment of the injury event to an athlete’s reintegration into the lineup. Strategies to mitigate the negative effects of injury on the group environment while prioritizing athlete well-being involved remaining stoic at the time of an injury event, maintaining the injured athlete’s sense of connection to the team, and coordinating with support staff throughout the recovery and reintegration process.

scholarly journals Does ISO 9000 Certification Benefit Service Firms?

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (21) ◽  
pp. 5886 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yan-ying Chen ◽  
Long Wu ◽  
Qing-guo Zhai
Keyword(s):  
Propensity Score ◽  
Selection Bias ◽  
Productivity Loss ◽  
Iso 9000 ◽  
Service Industries ◽  
Service Firms ◽  
Exact Matching ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Matching Method ◽  
Sustainable Improvement

This paper examines whether ISO 9000 certification benefits service firms in terms of their financial performance and promotes sustainable improvement. We argue that in a developing country setting such as China, the massive benefits brought by the signalling effect of the certification can discourage firms’ motivation to fully implement the standard of certification and lead to the decline of investment on productivity-improving activities. In other words, the certification may have negative effects on the productivity of certified firms. We investigate 89,024 firms in Chinese service industries to assess the impacts of the certification on sales, productivity and profitability of these firms. To address the potential selection bias of ISO 9000 certification, the Propensity Score Matching method and Coarsened Exact Matching method were used. Our key findings are that the ISO 9000 certification does help to increase the total amount of sales, but it decreases the productivity and profitability of these certified service firms. We also find that earlier certifiers seem to gain larger advantage in sales but more reduction in productivity, and firms with higher level of technology intensity seem to obtain a larger increase in sales and less productivity loss after receiving their ISO 9000 certification.

scholarly journals Dealing with a Latent Danger: Parents Communicating with Their Children about Smoking

2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra P. Small ◽  
Kaysi Eastlick Kushner ◽  
Anne Neufeld
Keyword(s):  
Grounded Theory ◽  
Health Effects ◽  
Smoking Prevention ◽  
Second Hand Smoke ◽  
School Age ◽  
Youth Smoking ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
External Cues ◽  
The Moment ◽  
Depth Interviews

The purpose of this study was to understand parental approach to the topic of smoking with school-age preadolescent children. In-depth interviews were conducted with 38 parents and yielded a grounded theory that explains how parents communicated with their children about smoking. Parents perceived smoking to be a latent danger for their children. To deter smoking from occurring they verbally interacted with their children on the topic and took action by having a no-smoking rule. There were three interaction approaches, which differed by style and method of interaction. Most parents interacted by discussing smoking with their children. They intentionally took advantage of opportunities. Some interacted by telling their children about the health effects of smoking and their opposition to it. They responded on the spur-of-the-moment if their attention was drawn to the issue by external cues. A few interacted by acknowledging to their children the negative effects of smoking. They responded only when their children brought it up. The parents’ intent for the no-smoking rule, which pertained mainly to their homes and vehicles, was to protect their children from second-hand smoke and limit exposure to smoking. The theory can be used by nurses to guide interventions with parents about youth smoking prevention.

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