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A Meta-Analysis of Relationships Linking Employee Satisfaction to Customer Responses
Abstract
The authors report a meta-analysis of relationships linking employee job satisfaction to customer satisfaction and perceived service quality in studies that correlate employee data with customer data. Overall, both relationships are positive and statistically and substantively significant. Moderator analyses show that service industry characteristics (relationship versus encounter, personal versus non-personal) and methodological characteristics (aggregated versus individual level of analysis, concurrent versus predictive survey) moderate these relationships. Estimation of a path analytic model using the aggregated data shows that customer-perceived service quality completely mediates the relationship between employee job satisfaction and customer satisfaction. Implications for research and practice are discussed.
... Being able to utilise the application, be a good provider representative, provide reliable and personalised services, and maintain customer satisfaction encourages drivers to pursue environmental mastery, a positive affect schedule, and personal growth (Diener et al., 2009;Dodge et al., 2012;Lent, 2004;Michaelson et al., 2009;Noor et al., 2014;Ryan & Deci, 2001;Watson et al., 1988). This improves drivers' productivity and job satisfaction, leading to good quality of life and improved psychological well-being (Alola et al., 2019;Brown & Lam, 2008;Chan et al., 2010;Kim et al., 2014;Pap et al., 2021;Van Jaarsveld et al., 2010). This led to the following hypotheses. ...
... Drivers' capabilities to utilise resources as essential assets to maintain their reputation and trustworthiness allow them to provide more reliable services and increase customer satisfaction (Adam et al., 2020;Cook, 2015;Justitia et al., 2019;Lai & Chen, 2011;Suhami et al., 2018). Having essential resources, a good reputation, trustworthiness, and satisfied customers leads to autonomy, self-acceptance, and life satisfaction (Dodge et al., 2012;Lent, 2004;Michaelson et al., 2009;Ryan & Deci, 2001), which can improve job satisfaction and create a workelife balance that leads to driver fulfilment and improved psychological well-being (Alola et al., 2019;Brown & Lam, 2008;Chan et al., 2010;Kim et al., 2014;Pap et al., 2021;Van Jaarsveld et al., 2010). Therefore, the following hypotheses were proposed. ...
... Many studies have discussed how employees' job satisfaction positively affects service quality and customer satisfaction (Altinay, Song, Madanoglu, & Wang, 2019;Bulgarella, 2005;Dong, Al Natour, Omeziri, & Turetken, 2023;Kurdi, Alshurideh, & Alnaser, 2020;Rudijav Andalas, 2022;Schmit & Allscheid, 1995;Taris & Schreurs, 2009), but few have analysed the effect of customer satisfaction on employees' job satisfaction or psychological well-being (Alola et al., 2019;Brown & Lam, 2008;Chan et al., 2010;Kim et al., 2014;Pap et al., 2021;Van Jaarsveld et al., 2010). ...
... Several studies have found where the employee satisfaction affects. When employees become satisfied with their jobs and their working environment, they are more likely to be attached to their organizations and less likely to leave there; and more likely to render quality services (in service industry) for their organizations, which these high quality services will bring more customers' satisfaction (Bettencourt & Brown, 1997;Christina & Gursoy, 2009;Steven & Lam, 2008;Yee, et al., 2008;Yee, et al., 2010). A lower level of intention to turn over by employees is rooted on the fact that satisfied employees recognize better benefits when they stay in their respective organizations, and consequently show higher level of loyalty to their organizations (Barrow, 1990;Guimaraes, 1997;Jun, Cai, & Shin, 2006;C. ...
... Based on the above mentioned explanation and on the findings that service quality has been found positively related to customers' satisfaction (Christina & Gursoy, 2009;Heskett, et al., 1994;Heskett, et al., 1997;Steven & Lam, 2008;Yee, et al., 2010); the second proposition of this study is hypothesized as follow: ...
... Several other studies have found the positive and significant relationship between employee satisfaction, customer satisfaction, and firms' profitability (Bernhardt, Donthu, & Kennett, 2000;Bettencourt & Brown, 1997;Christina & Gursoy, 2009;Harter, Schmidt, & Hayes, 2002;Koys, 2003;Steven & Lam, 2008;Tornow & Wiley, 1991;Wangenheim, Evanschitzky, & Wunderlich, 2007a;Yee, et al., 2008). ...
How human resources can effect on the organization's operation have not been fully addressed so far. In operation management (OM) literature the significance of employees' attitudes in organizations such as satisfaction, loyalty, and commitment and how these attitudes could affect the organizations' performance, has not been explored in-depth
... According to Brown & Lam (2008), employee-customer connections are strongly and positively correlated with job satisfaction. Pugh (2001) and Tsai & Huang (2001) reported that satisfied employees can also affect customer's satisfaction. ...
... They also advised studying the conditions necessary to create this employee-customer positive effect and the vice versa effect of the customer on employees. Brown & Lam (2008) suggested that self-determination theory must be investigated with different types of control. They advised that as SDT is the theory that is focused on the motivation of individuals (Ryan & Deci, 2000), it will be helpful to examine the motivational tools, which can guide employee' attitudes and work performance when used with different types of control. ...
... Studies, based on this motivational theory claim that fulfilling these needs promote positive workplace attitudes among organizational employees. Brown & Lam (2008), proposed that self-determination theory (SDT) must be studied with different forms of control. How and when customer control affects employee attitudes is still an open subject. ...
The aim of this research is to define, explain and study the influence of customer control that is the result of technological development. Technological evolution has transformed the past business practices and changed the role of customer from passive to active. This role change has the direct influence on employees. Customer being part of a business is studied in various forms such as a co-creator, co-producer, participator, enabler, coordinator, innovator and differentiator. This study is extending the role of customer to the controller. Customer control can improve social needs among employees but can also cause powerlessness, and role ambiguity. To keep employees aligned with organizational objectives, Management Control Systems (MCS) are adapted. In past, MCSs were mostly focused on the internal environment, yet the external environment such as market and customer has proved its importance. This study defined customer control as the authority given to the customer to evaluate employees. It will help to recognize the impact of customer control on employees’ behaviours such as affective commitment, job involvement and alienation. Another purpose of this research is to observe moderating effect of organizational and supervisory support. Furthermore, to investigate the impact of self-determination theory by studying its mediating role between customer control and employee behaviours. This study is conducted in two countries, Pakistan and France. The data for both studies is collected through questionnaires and analysed by using SPSS and AMOS.
... The social aspect of shopping is an important part of determining how satisfied consumers are with their experiences in the store (Twing-Kwong, Gerald Albaum, and Fullgrabe 2013). Specifically, the personalized interactions with front-line sales staff and store personnel create feelings within the consumer about the retail establishment (Lloyd and Luk 2011;Machleit and Powell Mantel 2001) and drive perceptions about the image of the store (Brown and Lam 2008;Butcher, Sparks, and O'callaghan 2001;Reynolds and Beatty 1999). Turley and Ronald (2000) found that stores with extra personal, high quality, customer interactions were more likely be perceived as having a better service and a more 'prestige-image. ...
... The importance of human-based store attributes seems particularly important in creating and maintaining positive perceptions of the retailer (Twing-Kwong, Gerald Albaum, and Fullgrabe 2013). There has been a number of studies linking general salesperson behaviors with perceptions of retail establishments (Brown and Lam 2008). Tripathi (2009) in his study of medical store customers, found that behaviors of the shopkeeper (i.e. ...
Online sellers continue to grow at the expense of traditional brick and mortar retailers. For traditional retailers to remain competitive in this modern consumer age, it is essential to identify the dynamics of effective customer interaction, to foster positive perceptions of the store. Specifically, in this cross-category study of almost one thousand retail consumers in Japan, the findings show that the behavior of sales personnel affects perceptions of altruism, trust, and expertise. Both directly and indirectly, these customer perceptions significantly impact store image. The existence of a traditional business philosophy of Omotenashi, makes Japan a good place to observe and study altruism in retail customer-sales personnel relationships.
... Roy, Gruner, and Guo (2022) note that positive customer experiences with service employees are important in developing strong relationships. Specifically, the exchanges that occur between sales personnel and customers help to establish overall perceptions of the retail establishment (Brown andLam 2008, Butcher, Sparks, andCallaghan 2001;Lloyd and Luk 2011;Machleit and Mantel 2001;Reynolds and Beatty 1999). One study found that stores with high quality customer interactions were more likely be viewed as prestigious (Turley and Milliman 2000). ...
... Furthermore, new causal processes can emerge as one moves from individual to aggregate levels of analysis. Thus, relationships between variables can and often do differ across different levels of analysis (Ostroff, 1993) and marketing is no exception to this rule (c.f., Brown and Lam, 2008). The drivers and predictors of individual differences in brand preference and choice can have different effects and relationships when those independent and dependent variables are aggregated to the brand level of analysis. ...
Marketing involves a competition between brands, yet very little hospitality marketing research uses brands as the unit-of-analysis. The current paper fills this need by examining the relationships among hotel brands' quality/price tier, number of hotels, building size (average number of rooms per hotel), average customer satisfaction ratings, popularity, fame, penetration, average purchase frequency, and annual room revenue. The results indicated that hotel brand popularity and total sales volume were greater among brands in the middle quality-price tier and those with more and larger hotels. After controlling for quality/price tier, greater customer-satisfaction ratings were positively related to brands' sales per room, but not to brand popularity or total sales volume. These findings suggest that marketing success is primarily a function of brands' mental and physical availabilities and that unusually high or low experience quality given a brand's quality/price tier is attributed to, and benefits, the property rather than the brand.
... For example, Evanschitzky et al. (2011) reported that increased staff satisfaction positively affects customer satisfaction. This correlation between employee and customer satisfaction is further supported by Brown and Lam (2008), who demonstrated that there is a strong and direct relationship between these two factors. When employees are content in their roles, they are more likely to engage with customers in a positive and helpful manner, thereby enhancing the overall customer experience. ...
This study examines the relationships between customer service quality, employee job satisfaction, job performance, and user satisfaction in the banking industry, with a focus on Maybank. The objective is to determine how employee satisfaction and performance impact user satisfaction and customer service experience. A survey was conducted among 200 Malaysian banking customers, and responses were analyzed using regression analysis to test six hypotheses. The results confirm that customer service experience, employee job satisfaction, and job performance all significantly influence user satisfaction. Specifically, customer service experience (β = 0.291, p < 0.01) and employee job satisfaction (β = 0.322, p < 0.001) show strong positive effects on user satisfaction, while employee job performance (β = 0.200, p < 0.05) also contributes positively. Additionally, employee job satisfaction significantly enhances both job performance (β = 0.732, p < 0.01) and customer service experience (β = 0.340, p < 0.01). Employee performance is a key factor in delivering superior customer experiences (β = 0.534, p < 0.001). The study concludes that improving employee satisfaction is crucial for boosting job performance and customer service, which in turn elevates user satisfaction
... As a novel motivational concept, FLE inspiration contributes to service research by providing an additional underlying psychological mechanism that explains how FLEs respond to new and captivating stimuli in their surroundings (Mitchell, 1982;Neumüller, 2022). This finding is important, as previous studies have primarily concentrated on the emotional and motivational experiences of FLEs at work, such as their positive feelings and emotions (Hennig-Thurau et al., 2006), engagement (Menguc et al., 2013), behavior (Coelho & Augusto, 2010), and satisfaction (Brown & Lam, 2008), without clarifying FLEs' perceptions of new environmental cues, their openness to new opportunities, and the ways they draw inspiration from them (Neumüller, 2022). ...
Delivering excellent service offerings is critical to physical retailers’ long-term success. In this context, frontline employees (FLEs) have become the key players in creating value for customers and represent a key opportunity, particularly for service-focused retailers, to strengthen the future of physical retail. Facing changing consumer behaviors due to the aftermath of COVID-19 and increasingly fierce competition from established offline and new online competitors, physical retailers struggle to stay competitive without cutting payroll expenses for FLEs. In response to this dilemma, scholars recognized the importance of FLEs customizing their services to customer needs to enhance service interactions at the physical point of sale (POS) in so-called adaptive service offerings. Understanding the factors that affect adaptive service offerings, specifically in retail, is important because physical retail is heavily disrupted by the progressive shift from product to customer experience. As a result, retailers must educate FLEs on why and how to adapt service offerings and provide the right work settings. Consequently, physical retailers need to reengage with their customers by positioning themselves as providers of inspiring shopping experiences to increase their share of wallets, cross-selling, and profitability. FLEs are one important source of such inspiring shopping experiences. This dissertation contributes to a better understanding of how retailers can promote FLE inspiration by extending Wilder et al.’s (2014) study and testing a more comprehensive framework of adaptive service offerings that considers psychological mechanisms, namely FLE inspiration. My findings can help physical retailers train their FLEs more effectively. Building on the qualitative data from 293 FLEs in the DACH region (Study 1), two online survey studies were conducted, in the UK (Study 2) with 248 FLEs, and with 525 FLEs from the German-speaking DACH area (Study 3) to test this new model. The findings showed that FLE inspiration significantly mediates the effect of retailers’ perceived service climate and FLEs’ structural empowerment on three FLE variables, namely empathy, anticipation, and creativity. These three FLE-level variables precede adaptive service offerings. Most importantly, the combined findings of the three studies provide strong support for FLE inspiration mediating the relationship between FLEs’ immediate work environment and their attitudinal and behavioral outcomes. These findings offer managers practical insights into how they can inspire their FLEs and improve service offering adaptation.
... It manifests rather as a product of a transient, positive interaction between employees and customers. In such interactions, customers may exhibit favorable emotions toward the employee, but these emotions are not necessarily rooted in a long-term relationship [19][20][21]. ...
Smooth and effective interactions between customers and customer-contact employees are important for building seamless service delivery. The present study examined the influence of customer courtesy on customer-contact employees’ prosocial service behavior. Additionally, the mediating role of organization-based self-esteem and the moderating role of focus of attention at work are investigated. Data were collected from 401 customer-contact employees from the South Korean hospitality industry. The results demonstrated that customer courtesy positively influenced prosocial service behavior, and organization-based self-esteem mediated this relationship. Furthermore, employees’ focus of attention at work moderated the relationship between customer courtesy and organization-based self-esteem, such that the relationship was stronger for employees with a high focus of attention. Similarly, the focus of attention also moderated the relationship between organization-based self-esteem and prosocial service behavior. The findings have important theoretical and practical implications by demonstrating the role of external resources to promote prosocial service behavior.
... Various studies indicate that the organizations' services based on TQM positively affect job satisfaction and customer satisfaction. Studies by Brown and Lam (2008) and Akdere (2009) have shown that customers are satisfied with the service provided by an organization when service quality is prioritized. Additionally, studies linked to human resource management, which gradually improve the quality of management, are excellent (Schroeder et al., 2005). ...
Purpose-Due to the dynamic nature of schools, the Department of Education currently faces significant issues including low teaching quality, teacher shortages, absenteeism, poor school climate, lack of well-trained and motivated instructors, and instability. Total Quality Management (TQM) is often linked to the school environment, teacher satisfaction, and performance, playing a crucial role in improving the quality of education. This paper aims to identify how teacher job satisfaction and school climate influence the relationship between TQM and school performance. Methodology-A total of 346 teachers from Pakistan's high-performance schools and low-performance schools, with diverse positions and wage scales, were chosen as participants in this study using stratified random sampling. Data was collected quantitatively using a survey inquiry and SPSS version 24 was utilized to analyze the data and answers the study questions. The mediation procedure was evaluated using the Sobel test. Findings-Findings showed that the TQM variable has the highest mean value (mean=4.87) compared to the other variables tested, namely job satisfaction, school performance and school climate. According to the study's findings, TQM, job satisfaction, and school climate all have a favourable and significant direct influence on school performance. Additionally, school climate and job satisfaction variables were found to be partial mediators linking TQM and school performance. Significance-This study significantly enhances school quality management through a positive environment and capable human resources. The findings are also anticipated to encourage the Pakistan government to establish organizational management and educational leadership training courses to emphasise the significance of TQM and its most efficient use in the education sector.
... Our results indicate that gratitude interventions can improve employee well-being, job satisfaction, engagement and, to a lesser degree, psychological capital. Previous research has found links between employee well-being and service quality [68] and customer satisfaction [69], job satisfaction and customer satisfaction [70][71][72], engagement and customer loyalty [73] and customer satisfaction [74], positive psychological capital and customer orientation [75], and service quality and customer satisfaction [76]. Consequently, we have good reason to believe that gratitude interventions have a positive impact on customer satisfaction, but a direct link remains to be shown. ...
Background:
In a demanding working life, it is important to determine how individuals can thrive at work. In a previous study we investigated whether a program of gratitude interventions can increase psychological wellbeing, engagement, job satisfaction, and psychological capital showing promising results.
The objective:
of the present study was to present the development of a manager coached group intervention program related to gratitude at workplaces and to investigate the effects of such a program on the same variables.
Methods:
The intervention included five group sessions of gratitude dialogue between employees, supervised by their first line managers. Participants were assigned to an intervention or control group. Assessments were made before and after the intervention program and followed-up at 6 months post-intervention. Both quantitative and qualitative analyses were performed. Both groups completed instruments measuring positive psychological capital (PCQ), work engagement (UWES), psychological wellbeing (PGWB-S), and job satisfaction (aJDI). All managers were interviewed after the intervention.
Result:
Compared with the control group the gratitude dialogue intervention was found to significantly enhance psychological wellbeing, engagement, and job satisfaction. The results were supported by the interviews with managers.
In conclusion:
our results suggest that gratitude dialogues at work may be an effective way of improving employee wellbeing. Suggestions on how to improve the results from this kind of gratitude intervention further are presented.
... A rewards and recognition system enable leaders to be aware of the quality-improvement efforts of employees and provide rewards accordingly. Thus, in line with Brown and Lam (2008), who maintain that a benefits system that is aligned to quality and customer satisfaction facilitates organizational quality initiatives, developing a rewards system may facilitate the application of quality-improvement tools. Specifically, a rewards system should be connected to quality performance because of its effective role in motivating and enhancing employee commitment to quality-improvement tools (Das et al., 2000). ...
This study aims to present a conceptual framework that brings together reward and recognition, and customer focus (organizational factors), which can help organizations achieve a competitive advantage (CA) through applying Lean Six Sigma (LSS) in healthcare. A critical review of the models of reward and recognition, and customer focus, LSS, and CA measures was performed to create the conceptual framework. A synthesis of the existing literature provides the basis for the development of the conceptual framework of the LSS measures. The independent variables are reward and recognition, and customer focus. The mediator variable in this framework is LSS, and CA is employed as the dependent variable. The framework offers a systematic method of evaluating the determinants of LSS in healthcare. Accordingly, the newly developed conceptual framework identifies and describes the direct associations between organizational factors and CA in the healthcare (HC) sector and the indirect associations through LSS. This study is important for professionals working in HC seeking to achieve CA in hospitals. Additionally, this study is valuable to researchers and academics working in the LSS field as it explores the importance of LSS implementation in hospitals. In addition, limited studies have been conducted to explore the status of LSS implementation in HC and this study is expected to provide theoretical contributions to the LSS approach in healthcare.
... Studies have demonstrated the application of FER to detect student engagement and emotional states during learning activities [16]. The article [7] utilized FER to identify patterns of confusion and concentration in learners, suggesting that such data can predict academic performance. Further, the cross-cultural applicability of these systems has been explored, considering the variance in facial expression interpretation across different ethnic backgrounds [18]. ...
In the advent of e-learning, understanding student engagement and reaction is crucial for improving the quality of education and enhancing the learning rate. With the advancement of computer vision technologies, there is a significant opportunity to analyze and interpret student reactions in a non-intrusive manner. This study proposes a novel framework employing Faster R-CNN integrated with DenseNet architecture for real-time detection of student facial reactions during e-learning sessions. The proposed method leverages the strengths of Faster R-CNN in generating high-quality region proposals for object detection tasks, coupled with the DenseNet’s efficiency in feature propagation and reduction in the number of parameters, which is well-suited for processing the intricate patterns in facial expressions. Our approach begins with the application of Faster R-CNN to extract potential facial regions with high accuracy and reduced computational cost. The integration of DenseNet as a backbone for feature extraction within Faster R-CNN capitalizes on its densely connected convolutional networks, ensuring maximum information flow between layers in the network. By doing so, the system becomes exceptionally adept at recognizing subtle changes in facial features that indicate various student reactions, such as confusion, engagement, or boredom. We conducted a series of experiments using a diverse dataset of e-learning interactions, collected under various lighting conditions and involving multiple ethnicities to ensure robustness and generalizability. The model was trained and validated on this dataset, and the results demonstrate a significant improvement in detection rates of student reactions compared to existing methods.
... Several academics concur that organizations that are cognizant of diversity provide results that are more valuable. Organizations that prioritize diversity will benefit from cost savings in attrition and increased sales far more than organizations that do not (Brown & Lam, 2018) [7] . Organizations that see diversity as a fundamental component of their strategy rather than a cost of doing business will reap significantly greater rewards than those who do not. ...
This paper sought to examine the connection between workforce diversity and worker performance in Abuja's healthcare institutions. The workforce is diverse in terms of gender, age, education, and ethnicity. A series of standardized questionnaire were employed in order to conduct the study. 82.5% of the returned questionnaire from four Abuja healthcare facilities were utilized for the study. There was usage of a multi-regression model. The study's findings revealed a strong correlation between gender diversity and employee effectiveness. It suggests that the majority of employees agreed that the company should not discriminate when employing people of different gender. The findings, however, indicated that both education and racial diversity have no effect on employees' performance. Therefore, businesses need to focus more on diversity management in order to improve employee performance, which finally aids in the accomplishment of organizational objectives.
... There are many indications that happiness at collective level within a work unit is related to the positive and negative unit level outcomes. A systematic review proved that unit level satisfaction anticipates customer satisfaction and impression of service quality (Brown and Lam 2008). A systematic analysis finding correlation between business unit involvement and unit outcomes revealed that employee engagement at unit level on an average was substantially associated with higher returns, productivity, and customer satisfaction (Harter et al.2002). ...
... A reoccurring theme among many of these studies has been the precursors of job satisfaction and the implications of satisfaction/dissatisfaction on performance outcomes, both at the individual and at the organizational levels (Millán, Hessels, Thurik & Aguado, 2013). More specifically, past studies have shown a positive association between job satisfaction and employee performance, commitment and retention (Sousa-Poza & Sousa-Poza, 2000;Deery & Jago, 2015), productivity and effectiveness (Koys, 2001;Latif et al., 2013), profitability (Latif et al., 2013), competitiveness (Millán et al., 2013;Mahmood et al., 2019), service quality (Malhotra & Mukherjee, 2004), and customer satisfaction (Yoon, Beatty & Suh, 2001;Gazzoli, Hancer &Park, 2010, Brown andLam, 2008). Meanwhile, absenteeism and increased turnover, amid other problems, may emerge where job satisfaction is low (Clark, 2001;Mahdi et al., 2012). ...
Job satisfaction among paid employees has been found to correlate positively with employee commitment and retention and, subsequently, organizational productivity and effectiveness. From a human development perspective, work satisfaction is also crucial to happiness and overall wellbeing. Within a broader overarching study of Quality of Life (QoL), the authors did an evaluation of work satisfaction as experienced by both entrepreneurs and paid employees in Trinidad and Tobago. By contrasting the experiences of individuals engaged in these types of employment, we uncovered some insightful workplace trends and gained a deeper understanding of the needs of paid employees. Several scales were developed, using an inductive approach, to capture determinants of current QoL, factors which influenced choice of work, current work challenges, and future concerns for the individuals sampled. Information from some of these scales was incorporated, via a series of statistically validated steps, into a multivariate index which could be used to measure QoL, not just among the general population of Trinidad and Tobago but, arguably, worldwide. One of the key scales used to develop the index is a 22-item 'Job/Activity Satisfaction' measure, which captured information from 415 respondents engaged in the different types of employment, along four (4) key dimensions: 'Respect and Recognition,' 'Job/Market Stability,' 'Workload and Stress,' and 'Self-Efficacy.' This paper summarizes some of the salient results from the scale and from its corresponding index. Our findings revealed that both entrepreneurs and wage earners in Trinidad and Tobago were far more satisfied with those aspects of work over which they had sovereignty than with those controlled by their employers (for paid workers) or by market conditions (for entrepreneurs). Those areas of low satisfaction in the work environment could be targeted for improvement by employers seeking to improve labour conditions. Differences in satisfaction levels between entrepreneurs and paid employees were observed in several areas. Entrepreneurs reported greater levels of work satisfaction overall than did paid employees. Further, while only 30% of entrepreneurs signalled their intent to transition from entrepreneurship to alternative employment (full-time or part-time paid employment), a disproportionately large percentage of paid employees (76%) aspired to full-time or part-time entrepreneurship. Some of this may be due to a willingness to trade the stability of a guaranteed pay check for autonomy and versatility, two qualities which, although almost synonymous with self-employment, could be introduced by creative employers into the work environment. Sex, age and ethnicity were also found to be significant main predictors of work satisfaction. The combined (interactive) effects of sex, ethnicity, and employment type on satisfaction also proved interesting, highlighting where there are gaps between self-and wage-employed workers for men and for women of different ethnicities. These outcomes suggest a need for more robust, evidence-based industrial relations policies and possible areas for focussed attention by employers in Trinidad and Tobago which can help to improve employee satisfaction and, ultimately, organizational performance.
... Businesses that put diversity first will get considerably greater cost savings from reduced attrition and higher sales than those that do not (Brown & Lam, 2008). Businesses that view diversity as an essential part of their strategy, as opposed to an expense of doing business, will benefit from it considerably more than those that do not. ...
Background: In today’s highly competitive governance, diversity has become one of the most critical executive issues, as the local governments have increasingly become diverse concerning their workforce. Diversity emerges in a local government when its members differ from one another. The concept of diversity includes recognizing, accepting, and respecting each difference and understanding that each is unique. Objectives: The main objective of this paper is to investigate the association between employee performance and workforce diversity in the local government of Kanchanpur district. Methods: The study adopted a descriptive research design. Purposive and cluster sampling techniques were used, and a structured questionnaire was used to collect the data from 400 employees of different municipalities of Kanchanpur district. To analyze data correlation matrices, ANOVA tables, and coefficient tables as outputs of regression. Results: The employees in the local governments are becoming more diverse because of the political reforms, the global practice of local government, competitiveness and change in customer preferences, and inclusive participation in the constitution. With the drastic change in politics, the formation of the progressive constitution of Nepal increasing reforms in the last two decades and changing demographics of the labour market local government has become a place for diversity inclusion. Conclusion: The result revealed that ethnicity diversity, educational diversity, and work performance diversity have positive impacts on employees’ performance. Further, physical disability has a negative impact on employees’ performance. This study highlights how workforce diversity affects employees’ performance in the local governments of Kanchanpur district. These results can be used to build strategies to improve the implementation of employee diversity in existing local governments.
... Service design comprises the physical environment, service delivery process and interaction with staff and other customers (Zomerdijk and Voss, 2010). Academicians have redirected their attention to how service personnel interact with customers and shape in-store purchases (Brown and Lam, 2008). Customers experience higher levels of satisfaction with their in-store shopping when they assist each other during the shopping journey. ...
Purpose
This research aims to conceptualize and validate the mall service design as a multidimensional construct and then test a conceptual framework by investigating the impact of mall service design on customer mall experience and its subsequent outcomes, that is, intention to revisit and desire to stay in mega shopping malls.
Design/methodology/approach
The survey data of 455 shopping visitors in Pakistan were collected using a mall intercept technique and tested through structural equation modeling in AMOS.
Findings
The study reveals that service design significantly impacts customer experience and subsequent outcomes. Customer mall experience mediates the relationships between mall service design and the intention to revisit and desire to stay at malls.
Research limitations/implications
Data from a collectivist culture country (Pakistan) were collected. To explore the impact of service design on customer mall experience, researchers should conduct similar studies in individualistic societies like Europe and North America. Additionally, the authors recommend assessing the effect of each dimension of service design on customer experience separately.
Practical implications
The research provides policy guidelines for the owners and operators of mega shopping malls in developing experience-oriented retailing strategies based on service design.
Originality/value
The research conceptualizes and validates the mall service design as a multidimensional construct using the service theater model and empirically tests its relationship with the customer mall experience.
... According to Berman and Evan (2007), Brown, and Lam, (2008) an interior display provides all information to the customers that can give an additional value for the store atmosphere and it also provides a very important promotion role in a store. The interior displays consist of assortment displays, theme-setting displays, ensemble displays, rack and cases, cut cases, poster signs and cards. ...
... We also validated the initial moderator results by regressing the effect sizes on RA types and including control variables, for only those RA types that were significant in subgroup analysis. Similar to other meta-analyses, we included moderators if at least two observations per side of the moderator have been reported ( Brown and Lam 2008 ;Maity, Dass and Malhotra 2014 ;Roschk, Loureiro and Breitsohl 2017 ). Several RAs enhance the effect of perceived recommendation quality on outcomes and the effects of the two mediators on future use intentions. ...
... Several meta-studies demonstrate the correlation between job satisfaction and job performance, including outputs and outcomes (Judge et al. 2001;Katebi et al. 2021). Also, studies show a positive relationship between job satisfaction on one hand and productivity and profits on the other (Brown and Lam 2008;Harter et al. 2002). As such, the design of individual and group tasks and work processes ought to reflect the importance of meaningful work for employees, teams, and the organization. ...
The concepts of love and business do not seem to match very well, despite attempts to operationalize love as agape or neighborly love. In line with the emerging literature, this contribution uses a profane and analytical approach to agape as an ‘Agenda for Growth and Affirmation of People and the Environment’. Within this agenda we define agape as ‘the commitment to the well-being and flourishing of others’ and operationalized it to measure the concept in a substantial sample of 420 medium-sized and large companies in The Netherlands. At the core of the research lies the question whether and to what extent companies, represented by senior managers and members of the works council, are committed to the well-being of their employees. This article analyses the concept of agape and its application in a business context and presents the results of a survey. The results show that, on average, respondents report that their organization is committed to employees’ well-being in line with the organization’s values. Though not the aim of agape, since organizations that apply the concept reap tangible business benefits from it, the concept becomes suitable to a wider range of businesses.
... Investigações realizadas por um processo de meta-análise estabeleceram uma relação entre a satisfação dos trabalhadores no trabalho e a qualidade dos serviços prestados aos clientes (Brown & Lam 2008;Whitman et al., 2010). Landy e Conte (2013: 157) também enfatizam o conceito de desempenho sobre comportamentos relevantes para os objetivos do trabalho "desempenho no trabalho são ações ou comportamentos relevantes para os objetivos da organização medidos em termos de proficiência de cada indivíduo". ...
O Clima Organizacional representa a perceção que os trabalhadores têm da forma como uma empresa oferece as condições adequadas para que eles desenvolvam o seu trabalho da melhor maneira. Um clima organizacional positivo conduz e sustenta a motivação e o desempenho elevado dos trabalhadores. Quando os trabalhadores se sentem motivados, colocam todas as suas capacidades para trabalhar. Esta investigação, sustentada num questionário, apresenta um estudo de caso aos trabalhadores de uma Instituição de Ensino Superior, Instituto Politécnico da Guarda (IPG), com o objetivo de compreender o seu clima organizacional e propor medidas de melhoria. Os resultados apontam para a existência de um clima organizacional ligeiramente positivo no IPG, com forte ênfase na Escola Superior de Turismo e Hotelaria (ESTH), embora os trabalhadores não docentes estejam menos satisfeitos, em geral, do que os trabalhadores docentes. A maioria dos trabalhadores, em todas as unidades orgânicas do IPG, considerou o Sistema de Avaliação de Desempenho não justo e não útil, a remuneração não adequada com as funções desempenhadas, gostariam de ter mais oportunidades de socialização e menos burocracia. Manifestaram ainda o desejo de participar no planeamento dos objetivos de IPG e consideram que têm poucas expectativas de virem a ser promovidos.
... According to Kotel et al. (2015), a salesperson refers to "An individual whorepresents a company to customers by performing one or more of the following activities: prospecting, communicating, selling, servicing, information gathering, and relationship building" (P-481). They play a pivotal role in sometimes establishing rapport with consumers.Research indicates that the interaction between salespersons and customer help create value(Brown and Lam, 2008), leading to a loyal and satisfied customer base(Streukens and Andreassen, 2013;Yi and Gong, 2008). This interaction is so ...
... Empirical evidence, however, is mixed. In a meta-analysis using dyadic data, Brown and Lam (2008) find that this correlation is quite low, only 0.20. Recent theorization puts forth a social identification-based chain as an alternative to the traditional satisfaction-based chain. ...
... In the retail sector, in particular the supermarkets, often one of the ways to stand out from the competition is through customer service and services. In other words, as well as developing an own good relationship between the retailer and its consumer this aspect is fundamental to differentiate an organization from its competitors (Zeithaml, Parasuraman, & Berry, 1990, Brown & Lam, 2008, Dunne, Lusch, & Carver, 2011. ...
This scientific investigation studied the precedents of organizational performance, researching the relation between Innovative Capabilities and its relationship with Performance, and this relation with the mediation of Services Differentiation. For the qualitative methodology, aiming to identify the control items of the Service Differentiation measurement scale in the supermarket context. For the quantitative stage, the techniques of multivariate data analysis were used, such as Exploratory Factor Analysis, Confirmatory Factor Analysis, and Structural Equation Modeling, to assess the proposed model. The results found regarding the hypothesis tests demonstrated that the 1º hypothesis - Innovative capabilities have a positive relation with Services Differentiation was supported. 2º Hypothesis - Differentiation has a positive and significant relationship with performance, and it is therefore supported. 3º Hypothesis - Service Differentiation mediates the relationship between Innovative Capability and Performance - was supported.
The study focuses on exploring the role of information communication technology (ICT) in enhancing student
learning within Nepal’s higher education system. It reviews several studies on factors influencing the global adoption of ICT and highlights its significance for academic growth and development. The study concludes that ICT
can significantly boost academic achievement among university students. However, the successful deployment of
this technology depends on user acceptance. The research found that factors such as social influence, accessibility, computer self-efficacy, infrastructure, and enjoyment significantly impact the perceived ease of use of ICT
systems. Effective use of ICT in the teaching-learning process requires support and knowledge from experts and
peers. Students utilize ICT to enhance their education in both virtual and physical classrooms. The findings highlight the potential of ICT to transform the teaching-learning process, promoting a more interactive and engaging
educational experience.
This study explores the relationship between job satisfaction level and customer retention among the employees of IT company. We conducted a cross-sectional study through a questionnaire-based online survey to collect data from the IT company employees of Bangladesh. Purposive sampling was adopted for office selection (N = 6), and simple random sampling were adopted for participants selection. A total of 550 complete responses were identified for analysis. Descriptive and inferential analyses were conducted utilizing excel and SPSS(v26). The mean age of the participant was 25 (SD = 4.12) with an assigned sex distribution of 39% female and 61% male. Results indicate that the overall job satisfaction score averaged 15 ± 3.9 on a 25-point scale. Employees who met their customer-related targets in the past month (79%) reported significantly higher job satisfaction (M = 17.41, SD = 2.54) compared to those who did not (M = 9.74, SD = 2.56), as shown by an independent samples t-test (p < 0.001). The most influential factors driving job satisfaction reported are health insurance benefits (66%), work-life balance (62%), good leadership (57%), and company culture (57%). Additionally, career advancement opportunities (54%) and recognition (54%) were also reported to be contributed significantly to job satisfaction. Participants frequently noted that AI tools streamlined repetitive tasks, allowing more time for meaningful work, although concerns about dependency and potential job displacement were also expressed. These findings suggest that job satisfaction in the IT sector is strongly influenced by AI integration, benefits and organizational culture, and that achieving customer-related targets is associated with significantly higher satisfaction. Enhancing these factors could improve organizational performance.
Human resource management now plays an active strategic partner role instead of being a passive observer. Today, the HR department of an organization is expected to drive organization performance through the biggest strength of the firm; its people. It is expected that all HR functions will contribute to the company's strategic goals and foster an inclusive and productive work environment. The current study is based on data gathered from the hotel industry and aims to comprehend how HR functions impact various aspects of organisational culture. The findings point to important connections between specific HR procedures and cultural elements. The results offer insight into how HR specialists can use their roles to establish the ideal atmosphere within the company.
This paper examines cause-and-effect relationships within the balanced scorecard (BSC), focusing on the case of commercial banks operating within the territory of Serbia. Despite the widespread application of the BSC as a strategic management tool, the literature presents diverse conclusions regarding the efficacy of its cause-and-effect relationships. The research aims to investigate the interrelationships between perspectives, with a specific focus on the financial perspective and its causal factors. A study was conducted on five banks operating in the territory of Serbia using the method of documentation analysis, and data were collected for the period from 2010 to 2023. The conclusions are based on the results of simple panel data regression and multiple panel data regression. The results obtained provide empirical support for previously established cause-and-effect relationships within the BSC framework and also highlight new implications of causality among perspectives.
This study aims to comprehend the preferences of young retail investors regarding stock selection attributes and to investigate the relative importance of the stock market attributes that these investors take into consideration. This research study has used five attributes of the stock market viz., company type, fundamental, holding period, annual return, and risk. The researchers have strived to understand which of these attributes are the most and least preferred by the potential participants. 270 young retail investors were surveyed to collect the required primary data. The data was gathered by using availability and purposive sampling techniques. Twenty-five conjoint cards were made and given to the participants along with a well-structured questionnaire. further assessed each choice’s relative value in relation to a variety of attributes. The conjoint analysis results indicate that the attributes of the stock market related to investment are significantly different from each other (p<.05, F=4.503).
Extant research suggests that higher levels of customer and employee satisfaction signal a firm’s competitive advantage, resulting in greater firm value. This article advances the understanding of how firms can manage customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction to increase shareholder wealth in a new environment due to the emergence of social media and a new class of retail investors. Drawing from stakeholder theory and signaling theory, we argue that inconsistency in customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction can be informative to investors and lead to greater shareholder wealth in such a new environment. Our findings demonstrate that there is a negative joint effect of the two on shareholder wealth, such that unanticipated increases in employee satisfaction reduces shareholder wealth when customer satisfaction has also increased. Social media visibility and industry concentration are two key moderators that strengthen the negative joint effect. Our study provides important theoretical implications and valuable suggestions to managers to determine what their satisfaction indicators communicate in a new era where social media and the retail investor class have gained outsized importance.
Purpose
Personnel, particularly frontline employees, represent the face of retailers and help promote the brand, enhancing customer loyalty and satisfaction through positive interactions. This research examines retailing versus non-retailing marketing positions to uncover factors that can increase job satisfaction in retail: work environment factors, job characteristics and psychological factors. These factors allow for a holistic view of today’s competitive market that addresses human motivation theory and reveals important insights for attracting and retaining retail talent who can provide compelling, positive experiences for customers.
Design/methodology/approach
Survey research provided the means to collect data and compare retailing versus non-retailing marketing positions. A paid online panel of 2,334 marketing and retail professionals yielded 659 completed surveys. To capture workplace experience of retailers and other marketing professionals, the study measured work environment factors (compensation, customers, recognition received, supervisor support and co-workers), job characteristics (performance feedback, power and control, work variety, autonomy and altruistic opportunity) and psychological factors (job stress, work overload, role conflict and job burnout).
Findings
The findings suggest that job characteristics, psychological outcomes, organizational factors, family support and altruistic opportunity affect retail employee satisfaction. These findings offer actionable responses for retailers in their quest to attract and retain retail employees in today’s competitive job market and, in turn, enrich the customer experience journey.
Research limitations/implications
Competition for the best marketing people to work in retail and avoiding negative interactions between retail employees and customers can be expected to increase brand competitiveness. This research was based on survey responses of individuals in marketing positions suggesting individuals that care about their marketing careers. This research has implications for marketing leadership with regard to critical issues of today’s retail personnel. There is an opportunity to make a difference. Without highly satisfied employees, retail will continue to face challenges in finding and keeping individuals who enhance the customer journey and promote desirable brand experiences. Research consistently shows that when job characteristics, satisfiers and stress are negative aspects of the job, people shift to other jobs that provide more personal career fulfillment (Leider et al ., 2016; Stamolampros et al ., 2019). Even carefully executed digital marketing, strategic data analytics, aesthetics and promotions cannot drive customers to become raving fans of a retail brand without satisfied employees. Retail personnel are critical as they represent the brand and have a significant impact on the customer experience. With limited resources available to retail management, a priority could be in recruiting and training managers to attract and retain the best retail workers and improve the customer experience. Creating positive customer connections is critical in retail.
Practical implications
Practically, this research provides insight into specific areas that need strategic management action to make retail more appealing.
Originality/value
The study provides an overview and comparison of the key aspects of job satisfaction in retail marketing positions compared with non-retail marketing positions.
Employees in the tourism and hospitality industry are in close contact with customers, and they can observe the operation of the firm. Thus, employee recommendation may be able to reveal the firms’ financial performance, but firms do not disclose or even do not have this information. This study examines whether employee recommendation is informative about the financial performance of tourism and hospitality firms using employees’ online reviews. The results show that the employee recommendation rate is positively associated with the firm’s fundamental financial performance and negatively associated with the firm’s financial uncertainty. Meanwhile, the length of employees’ online reviews mediates the association between employee recommendations and firm’s financial performance. In addition, there is heterogeneity in the association between recommendations made by employees with different amounts of information about the firm and the firm’s financial performance. This study not only contributes to the research on relationships between human capital and firm performance but also provides important implications for the stakeholders of tourism and hospitality firms.
The study compares staff retention strategies used in the banking and insurance sectors. Employers use employee retention as a technique to keep talented and skilled individuals in their firm and lower the cost of employee turnover. Employee happiness is one of the crucial elements that aids any firm in keeping its top workers. HR analytics is used in decision-making processes to boost productivity and improve returns on capital investments for firms by using data collection, predictive models, and HR indicators. This article describes HR analytics and outlines its three main characteristics: necessity, method, and application, in order to help readers understand how HR has changed. According to this study, there is a direct link between employee motivation and retention among bank personnel. In order to help the banking industry retain workers for longer, banks are encouraged to adapt their employee development and training practices.
The overall goal of this research is to determine the influence of celebrity endorsement on two-wheeler consumer
purchase intent in the context of Nepalgunj consumers. A vast number of research have looked into the influence of
celebrity endorsement on consumer purchase Behaviors, however the majority have concentrated on industrialized
countries, with very few studies undertaken in rising countries, notably on the Asian continent. It can be seen in the
further study that the factors of the celebrity: Trustworthiness, Attractiveness and Expertise are here considered as the
independent variable resulting to the customer purchase Behaviour as the dependent variable. The endorser's
attractiveness factor has a weighted average mean of 2.2016, indicating that beauty characteristics have a strong influence
on res-ponders and on buy Behaviour. The endorser 's trustworthiness factor has a weighted average mean of 2.14,
indicating that trustworthiness variables have a strong influence on res-ponders and on purchase Behaviour. The
endorser's expertise factor has a weighted average mean of 2.35, indicating that expertise factors have a considerable
influence on respondents and their purchase Behaviors. Customers are neutral in the context of purchase Behavior through
celebrity endorsement, as indicated by the weighted average mean for the endorser's knowledge factor of 2.392.
Keywords: Celebrity Endorsement, purchase Behaviour, advertisement, two wheeler, trustworthiness
The banking sector in Sri Lanka exhibits a blend of public sector banks, privately owned commercial banks, and international banks, thereby reflecting a diverse market structure. Considerable portion of Sri Lankans depend on the services provided by the public banks due to the trustworthiness. The productivity of a bank depends on employee performance which is utmost important for customer satisfaction and sustainability. Performance of banking employees can be affected by work related stresses such as workload pressure and role ambiguity. On the other hand, various strategies that the bank implements to improve job satisfaction of the employees could make a notable effect on their performance. This study evaluated the mediating impact of job satisfaction on relationship between workload pressure, role ambiguity and employee performance in a public sector bank in Sri Lanka. The study was conducted in selected People’s Bank branches in Western and Southern provinces. The permanent employees who were voluntarily consented to participate in the study were recruited as the study sample (n=300). Data were gathered using an investigator developed, self-administered questionnaire. Data analysis was done using SPSS version 25.0 and MS Excel. P<0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Role ambiguity and workload pressure contributes to 34% change in employee performance (R2 =0.340, p<0.001). Further, addition of job satisfaction to role ambiguity and workload pressure contributed to 42% change in employee performance (R2 =0.421, p<0.001). This indicates job satisfaction has a mediator effect on the relationship between workload pressure, role ambiguity and employee performance. The direct effect of workload pressure (t=4.493, p<0.001), role ambiguity (t=8.287, p<0.001) on employee performance is significant. C' path shows t-value of workload pressure (t= 3.739, p<0.001) and role ambiguity (t=4.125, p<0.001) have decreased and it is significant. This emphasis partial mediation effect of job satisfaction (t=6.401, p<0.001) on the relationship between workload pressure, role ambiguity and employee performance. In conclusion, the job satisfaction partially mediates the link between workload pressure and role ambiguity on employee performance of the banking employees of Sri Lanka.
This research delves into the intricate dynamics of employee-customer familiarity and its profound influence on customer purchase intentions within the burgeoning domain of web-based data analytics. In an era characterized by an increasingly digital marketplace, understanding the nuanced interactions between employees and customers is paramount for businesses striving to enhance customer relationships and drive purchase decisions. Drawing on empirical investigations, this study unravels the multifaceted facets of employee-customer familiarity, seeking to shed light on its implications for customer purchase intentions in the context of web-based data analytics. In this paper, an empirical study investigates the influence of employee-customer familiarity on customers’ purchase intention for the home bedding industry, summarizes the current situation, puts forward research hypotheses and constructs a model of the effect of employee-customer familiarity on purchase intention was constructed. The familiarity of buyers and sellers was evaluated through a customer questionnaire, which provided subjective insights into the strength of interpersonal relationships. Meanwhile, confidence analysis, ANOVA (analysis of variance), correlation analysis and regression analysis were conducted on the survey data to explore the actual effects of these relationships on customers’ purchase intention, and the positive effects of the five hypotheses on purchase intention were investigated. The anticipated findings suggest that increasing employee-customer familiarity positively impacts customers’ purchase intentions, thereby illuminating the critical role of personalized interactions in driving business outcomes. Furthermore, the study sought to reveal the nuances of this relationship, recognizing the potential impact of different customer characteristics and industry contexts. Practical implications center on guiding companies in aligning their strategies to improve customer satisfaction and loyalty. From staff training programmes to targeted marketing campaigns, from brand influence to web e-commerce platform optimisation, businesses can use the insights gained from this research to build more meaningful connections with their customers. Building more meaningful connections with customers.
Although the literature on upselling has investigated different aspects of inducing upselling, there are limited discussions of the effect of past transactions on customers’ acceptance of upsells. Building on the expectation-confirmation and reference dependence theories, this study utilized mixed-effect regression analysis to explore the extent to which customers’ acceptance of upsells changes in response to their prior experience of unexpected gains via free upgrades. The results show that customers accept and spend more on upselling offers when they have experienced a free upgrade in a past transaction and that the effect of the free upgrade on upselling is positively moderated by the level of employee engagement.
The service profit chain model (SPC) underscores the well-established correlation between employee and customer attitudes. It posits that engaged and satisfied employees can provide superior customer service outputs, fostering increased customer satisfaction and eventually driving higher organization revenue and profitability. The authors propose an extension of the service-profit model in this chapter, which involves pinpointing neuro-leadership behaviors that promote favorable employee attitudes, engagement, and productivity. By briefly analyzing the SPC variables of past 26 years research, and as evidenced by the nearly 6,500 citations (as of 31 Dec. 2022, according to Google Scholar), the research findings from two interdisciplinary studies indicate that there are a number of important takeaways, such as the possibility that past research may have underestimated the connection between employee attitudes and performance due to the methodology employed. This expanded SPC framework provides organizations with a clearer picture of how to deliver superior quality service and achieve positive customer outcomes by recognizing the role of neuro-leadership leading to transformational leadership conduct fostering employee engagement in the realm of internal marketing. The realm of neuro-leadership delves into the neural foundations of leadership and management methodologies, aggregating insights from diverse sources, including social cognitive and affective neuroscience, cognitive neuroscience, integrative neuroscience, neurobiology, and various other neuroscience domains, can help understanding the key predictors of customer outcomes and the importance of employee attitudes and behaviors, organizations can make informed decisions about their human resource practices and leadership behaviors to create a positive work environment that promotes employee engagement and ultimately leading to improved perceived service quality and customer satisfaction. By presenting an extended rendition of the service-profit-chain framework, this chapter makes a valuable addition to the existing literature that includes transformational neuro-leadership as predictors of employee engagement, employee well-being, healthy work environment, work passion, and customer devotion leading to positive customer and organizational outcomes. The implications of this chapter are significant for organizations that aim to enhance their customer service and achieve better outcomes.
As competition in the health sector increases, the burden on employees also increases. Patients, who are the customers of the healthcare industry, gain power with the development of marketing and make their own choices more easily in a competitive environment. It becomes inevitable to consider the link between the perceptions and motivations of hospital employees and outcomes for the patient. This chapter proposes a model on how performance monitoring affects patient-orientation. Along with the model, relational propositions are provided. Looking at the relationship between monitoring and orientation, the moderator effects of service climate and interdependence are also considered. This model shows that practices that employees may perceive as bullying can have a negative impact on the customer, and it can negatively affect business performance in line with the effect of patient-orientation on patient satisfaction. The model will contribute to both the literature and managerial practices in the direction of a long-term research suitable for hospitals being complex workplaces.
El inicio de la economía como ciencia, tanto en su concepción del homo oeconomicus como en el germen de una teoría de la empresa se remonta a los filósofos de la tradición empirista, y en particular a John Locke. Un tema de revisión obligado es su propuesta sobre la naturalidad de la propiedad y el trabajo. El estudio más reciente de la obra de Locke muestra su cercanía a sus precedentes escolásticos y medievales, pero también su diferente modelo antropológico. La redefinición que hace la empresa hacia modelos más humanistas pone en valor emprender el estudio de propiedad, trabajo y empresa en la tradición escolástica ibérica del siglo XVI.
Purpose
In many contemporary service organizations, service teams or service units are the main engines used to deliver key services to customers, client or patients. However, it remains unclear how teamwork mechanisms (i.e. the ways team members work together) influence customer service outcomes, and whether these relationships vary across different service contexts. To advance knowledge on the nature of teamwork in service teams and to set an agenda for further work in this area, there is a need to integrate and synthesize findings across the diverse literature on service teamwork. This paper aims to discuss the aforementioned objectives.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a meta-analytic approach, the authors analyzed a substantial pool of relevant effect sizes (a total of 372 effect sizes from 82 studies, with 14,291 service teams/units) to examine the effects of affective, behavioral, cognitive, motivational as well as perceptual teamwork mechanisms on customer service outcomes. The authors also investigated two key service context variables (service climate and service type) as boundary conditions on these effects.
Findings
The authors found that cognitive teamwork mechanisms were more strongly positively associated with customer evaluative outcomes than other mechanisms, whereas motivational and perceptual teamwork mechanisms had stronger associations with financial outcomes. Further, four of the five teamwork mechanisms demonstrated stronger correlations under a high service climate. The strength of the correlations between the teamwork mechanisms and customer service outcomes also exhibited different patterns when considered for different service types.
Research limitations/implications
As with all meta-analysis, the quality of the primary studies influences the quality of the insights obtained from summarized effects. As most studies are cross-sectional design, the relationships examined in this paper cannot be interpreted causally. The authors cannot rule out the possibility of reverse causality, for example, reciprocal effects of customer service outcomes on teamwork dynamics due to the reciprocal feedback loop between customers and service providers.
Practical implications
The results hold important practical implications for enhancing customer evaluation and financial performance. First, the overall findings point to the need for employers to emphasize on certain types of teamwork training in order to encourage employee collaboration within service teams. For instance, service organizations could plan team building activities for service teams to promote trust, strengthen interpersonal bonds and improve problem-solving.
Originality/value
The results of this study provide an integration of previous research on service teamwork and fill two important gaps in the knowledge: (1) which aspect of teamwork is more important in determining customer service outcomes? And (2) does the effect of teamwork on customer service outcomes differ across different service contexts?
According to a 2019 Gallup poll (https://www.gallup.com/workplace/284180/factors-driving-record-high-employee-engagement.aspx), two-thirds of employees in the US were ‘disengaged’, whereas this number was only 40% in the 1970 and 1980s. In this paper, the authors present a framework that ties employee happiness to employee engagement and argues that organisations that enhance employee happiness automatically enhance not just engagement but several other desirable outcomes. The paper also presents a framework (called ‘BAMBA’) on the five key determinants of happiness in the workplace: (1) (fulfilment of) Basic needs, (2) Autonomy, (3) Mastery, (4) Belonging, and finally, (5) (culture of) Abundance. We conclude the paper by outlining some of the things that employees can do to enhance their own happiness, as well as some of their coworkers. Leaders interested in questions such as How is happiness defined? Can happiness be measured in a reliable and valid fashion? Why should leaders care about employee happiness? and What are the main determinants of happiness in the workplace?KeywordsEmployee happiness and fulfilmentEngagement satisfaction productivityBAMBASubjective well-being
This is an Open Access Journal / article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. All rights reserved. The aim of this paper is to find out the linkage between quality of work life, job satisfaction and employees performance in textile industries in 'COVID 19' at Tiruppur. The China market is closed due to the Corona pandemic, Tiruppur textile manufacturers' targets these international market. A sample of 389 employees identified using systematic sampling method. The result indicates that employee performance in this COVID 19 period was in the expected mark. i.e., revenue per employee, productivity (Output), and quality of the output are in high standard. Social support from supervisors, fair treatment, good working relationships, and respect from colleagues may also improve the QWL of employees.
Based on the Social exchange theory and Social characteristics theory this study employs discriminant function analysis (DFA) to identify the various factors that influence job satisfaction. Consequently, the study employs discriminant analysis in order to shed light on the variables that differentiate between employees with low and high job satisfaction. Employees from organisations in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Delhi, India, were surveyed for data. The results indicate that ethical climate, organisational commitment, organisational citizenship behaviour, and organisational justice have a significant impact on job satisfaction. The accuracy of the prognosis of job satisfaction bifurcation based on DFA is 86%.
The authors advance a conceptual model of channel member satisfaction that distinguishes between economic and noneconomic satisfaction. The resulting model then is tested using meta-analysis. Meta-analysis enables the empirical investigation of a model involving several constructs that never have been examined simultaneously within an individual study. More specifically, the authors unify the stream of research on power use—the focus of many satisfaction studies in the 1970s and 1980s—with more recent work on trust and commitment, which usually explores antecedents other than power use. The results indicate that economic satisfaction and noneconomic satisfaction are distinct constructs with differential relationships to various antecedents and consequences. Furthermore, this study demonstrates that satisfaction is both conceptually and empirically separable from the related constructs of trust and commitment.
Previous work on service performance has focused on either organization- or individual-level analysis. This multilevel study of 257 employees, 44 managers, and 1,993 customers from 25 restaurants demonstrated that both individual- and store-level factors were significantly associated with employee service performance: conscientiousness and extraversion explained within-store variance, and service climate and employee involvement explained between-store variance. Further, employee service performance aggregated to the store level explained between-store variance in customer satisfaction and loyalty.
We develop a framework of service-unit behavior that begins with a unit's leader's service-focused behavior and progresses through intermediate links (service climate and customer-focused organizational citizenship behavior) to customer satisfaction and then unit sales. Data from a sample of 56 supermarket departments provide at least moderate support for our mediational hypotheses. We discuss findings with a particular focus on the relationship between internal organization functioning and external effectiveness in service settings. In addition, several issues related to testing for mediation using quantitative analysis are identified and discussed.
Service quality and customer satisfaction are important concepts to academic researchers studying consumer evaluations and to practitioners as a means of creating competitive advantages and customer loyalty. This article presents two studies that rely on divergent methodologies to examine whether or not quality and satisfaction have distinct antecedent causes, consequential effects, or both (i.e., whether or not they should be considered a single construct, or distinct, separable constructs). We focus on consumers’ understanding and use of the words quality and satisfaction; in both studies, respondents report whether or not they think quality and satisfaction differ, and if so, on what dimensions or under what circumstances. In the first study, we use the qualitative “critical incident” technique to elicit service attributes that are salient to respondents when prompted to consider quality and satisfaction as distinct. We code the responses to these open-ended survey questions to examine whether quality can be teased apart from satisfaction, from the respondents’ (consumers’) perspective. In the second study, to triangulate on the qualitative data, we experimentally manipulated a number of service attributes drawn from both the first study and from the literature to see whether or not they have differential impacts on judgments of quality and satisfaction. We did not presuppose that quality and satisfaction differ—rather, we asked respondents to make a judgment either of quality or of satisfaction, defining the term as they saw fit. We inferred from their judgments
Because customer service employees often represent the sole contact a customer has with a firm, it is important to examine job-related factors that affect customer service employee performance and customer evaluations. In two diverse customer settings, the authors capture matched responses from service employees, supervisors, and customers. The authors use the data to examine the potential chain of effects from customer service employee work-family conflict and family-work conflict, to job stress and job performance, to customer purchase intent (CPI). The results show direct (and indirect) effects of work-family conflict and family-work conflict on service employee customer-directed extra-role performance (CDERP). The results also show direct effects of job stress on service employee in-role performance (IRP) and CDERP and on CPI. Furthermore, the findings show that job stress has a more pronounced effect on IRP than on CDERP and that CDERP has a greater effect on CPI than does IRP. The authors conclude with a discussion of managerial and theoretical implications.
Recent research has documented how exchanges between buyers and sellers are frequently embedded in social relationships. An unresolved question, however, is the extent to which such relationships protect incumbent suppliers from new competitors and their marketing programs. The authors develop a conceptual framework of how relationship and marketing variables influence choice of supplier and test the framework empirically in the context of business-to-business services. The results show that interpersonal relationships between buyers and suppliers serve as a switching barrier but are considerably less important than both firm-level switching costs and marketing variables. Moreover unlike switching costs, interpersonal relationships do not play the frequently mentioned role of a buffer against price and product competition. Finally, the authors show that buyers and suppliers hold systematically different views of the determinants of switching.
A model was developed to describe the roles of organizational obstacles (social and technical) in relation to three types of performance outcomes (customer satisfaction, financial performance, and employee job satisfaction), as well as to various moderators associated with different job types (e.g., customer contact, organizational commitment). In a test of this model, employee perceptions of organizational obstacles were measured in a retail banking environment. For employees in highest contact with customers (i.e., tellers), reports of co-worker obstacles, work environment obstacles, and workbreak scheduling obstacles were associated with lower levels of customer satisfaction. However, there was very little relationship between tellers' perceptions of obstacles and tellers' job satisfaction. For employees in positions associated with more experience and commitment (i.e., account representatives), information timeliness obstacles were linked with higher customer satisfaction, while materials, workspace sharing, and work environment obstacles were linked with lower customer satisfaction. Also for account representatives, the majority of obstacle types negatively affected their job satisfaction. These results are interpreted and discussed and managerial implications are examined.
This study examined whether the psychological climate for service friendliness correlated positively with employee displayed positive emotions, and whether such positive emotional displays influenced customer purchase decision and customer reactions concerning an organization. Data were collected from 290 sales clerks in 156 retail shoe stores in Taiwan, and from 284 customers who were served by one of the sales clerks. Results indicated a positive relationship between psychological climate for service friendliness and employees’ displayed positive emotions. The study also indicated that employees’ positive emotional displays would increase customer willingness to return to the store and pass positive comments to friends.
This article develops a conceptual framework of roles in marketing relationships. Drawing on emerging theory from economic sociology and March's (1994) notion of decision "logics," the authors discuss two prototypical relation- ship roles, namely (1) a "friend," who uses a "logic of appropriatene ss" and follows established rules, and (2) a "businessperson," whose decisions are guided by utility-maxim izing considerations under a "logic of conse- quences." Next, they use extant theories of intertirm governance to suggest that firms' relationship strategies can be used both to create different relationship roles in the first place and to activate them over time. The authors posit that activation can have several different outcomes, including reinforcement of an existing dominant role or actual switching to a new one. Theoretically, the conceptual framework allows for integration of different perspec- tives on interfirm relationships, some of which have provided seemingly inconsistent accounts of firm behavior. From a managerial perspective, the framework identifies specific matches between particular relationship roles on the one hand and firms' governance strategies on the other hand. In general, the framework suggests that an in-depth understanding of roles is a prerequisite for the deployment of relationship management initiatives toward resellers, customers, and suppliers.
The authors advance a conceptual model of channel member satisfaction that distinguishes between economic and noneconomic satisfaction. The resulting model then is tested using meta-analysis, Meta-analysis enables the empirical investigation of a model involving several constructs that never have been examined simultaneously within an individual study. More specifically, the authors unify the stream of research on power use-the focus of many satisfaction studies in the 1970s and 1980s-with more recent work on trust and commitment, which usually explores antecedents other than power use. The results indicate that economic satisfaction and noneconomic satisfaction are distinct constructs with differential relationships to various antecedents and consequences. Furthermore, this study demonstrates that satisfaction is both conceptually and empirically separable from the related constructs of trust and commitment.
Purpose
The purpose is to investigate, the difference between SERVQUAL and SERVPERF's predictive validity of service quality.
Design/methodology/approach
Data from 17 studies containing 42 effect sizes of the relationships between SERVQUAL or SERVPERF with overall service quality (OSQ) are meta‐analyzed.
Findings
Overall, SERVQUAL and SERVPERF are equally valid predictors of OSQ. Adapting the SERVQUAL scale to the measurement context improves its predictive validity; conversely, the predictive validity of SERVPERF is not improved by context adjustments. In addition, measures of services quality gain predictive validity when used in: less individualistic cultures, non‐English speaking countries, and industries with an intermediate level of customization (hotels, rental cars, or banks).
Research limitations/implications
No study, that were using non‐adapted scales were conducted outside of the USA making it impossible to disentangle the impact of scale adaptation vs contextual differences on the moderating effect of language and culture. More comparative studies on the usage of adapted vs non‐adapted scales outside the USA are needed before settling this issue meta‐analytically.
Practical implications
SERVQUAL scales require to be adapted to the study context more so than SERVPERF. Owing to their equivalent predictive validity the choice between SERVQUAL or SERVPERF should be dictated by diagnostic purpose (SERVQUAL) vs a shorter instrument (SERVPERF).
Originality/value
Because of the high statistical power of meta‐analysis, these findings could be considered as a major step toward ending the debate whether SERVPERF is superior to SERVQUAL as an indicator of OSQ.
Research on the internal psychosocial environment of work organizations has largely been captured through the study of two constructs: organizational climate and organizational culture. Despite the inherent similarities between the two constructs, they have largely been studied in separate literatures, by different sets of researchers, and more often than not with different methodologies. For instance, research in organizational climate tends to have a relatively narrow focus on the shared perceptions of employees, and contemporary climate research in particular tends to have a focus on specific strategic goals (such as climates for service or safety) or internal processes (such as climates for fairness or ethics). Organizational culture is broader than organizational climate, starting with deep-level assumptions and values and becoming manifest in almost all aspects of organizational life. A review of both literatures and the suggested integration of them leads to a rich understanding of how employees experience their work organizations and the consequences of organizational behavior for what happens in organizations for people and organizational effectiveness.
A three-phase quantitative investigation of relationships involving salesperson job satisfaction was undertaken. First, the strength, valence, and consistency of pairwise relationships were assessed by means of a meta-analysis. Second, methodological characteristics coded as moderator variables were used to account for variability in study effects. Finally, weighted mean correlations resulting from the analysis of pairwise relationships were used to evaluate a causal model of antecedents and consequences of job satisfaction. In general, relationships involving job satisfaction were robust across study contexts. Systematic moderating effects of type of sales-force and operationalization of job satisfaction were found. Several summary conclusions about antecedents and consequences of salesperson job satisfaction are drawn from the analyses.
A central assumption of meta-analysis is that the sample of studies fairly represents all work done in the field, published and unpublished. However, if studies with “poor” results are less likely to be published, a potential publication bias is present. The authors propose a maximum likelihood approach to estimating publication bias for the situation in which censorship based on effect size may occur. An explicit hypothesis test is provided for testing whether or not censorship is present. The method also simultaneously estimates the proportion of studies censored, the threshold past which censorship is avoided, and the probability of censorship if a potential observation is under the censorship threshold. Two published meta-analyses are examined and some publication bias is found in each, but no publication bias is detected in a meta-analysis of proprietary research data.
The authors develop and test a model of service employee management that examines constructs simultaneously across three interfaces of the service delivery process: manager-employee, employee-role, and employee-customer. The authors examine the attitudinal and behavioral responses of customer-contact employees that can influence customers’ perceptions of service quality, the relationships among these responses, and three formal managerial control mechanisms (empowerment, behavior-based employee evaluation, and management commitment to service quality). The findings indicate that managers who are committed to service quality are more likely to empower their employees and use behavior-based evaluation. However, the use of empowerment has both positive and negative consequences in the management of contact employees. Some of the negative consequences are mitigated by the positive effects of behavior-based employee evaluation. To increase customers’ perceptions of service quality, managers must increase employees’ self-efficacy and job satisfaction, and reduce employees’ role conflict and ambiguity. Implications for the management of customer-contact service employees and directions for further research are discussed.
Relationship marketing (RM) has emerged as one of the dominant mantras in business strategy circles, though RM investigations often yield mixed results. To help managers and researchers improve the effectiveness of their efforts, the authors synthesize RM empirical research in a meta-analytic framework. Although the fundamental premise that RM positively affects performance is well supported, many of the authors’ findings have significant implications for research and practice. Relationship investment has a large, direct effect on seller objective performance, which implies that additional meditated pathways may explain the impact of RM on performance. Objective performance is influenced most by relationship quality (a composite measure of relationship strength) and least by commitment. The results also suggest that RM is more effective when relationships are more critical to customers (e.g., service offerings, channel exchanges, business markets) and when relationships are built with an individual person rather than a selling firm (which partially explains the mixed effects between RM and performance reported in previous studies).
It is no longer news that over the past five years, Sears, Roebuck and Company has radically changed the way it does business and dramatically improved its financial results. But the Sears transformation was more than a change in marketing strategy. It was also a change in the logic and culture of the business. Led by CEO Arthur Martinet, a group of more than 100 top-level Sears executives spent three years rebuilding the company around its customers. In rethinking what Sears was and what it wanted to become, these managers developed a business model of the company - the employee-customer-profit model - and an accompanying measurement system that tracks success from management behavior through employee attitudes to customer satisfaction and financial performance. The basic elements of the model are not difficult to grasp. In retailing, there is a chain of cause and effect running from employees' behavior to customers' behavior to profits, and it is not hard to see that behavior depends primarily on attitude. Still, implementing the model is not easy. One problem is measuring such soft data as customer and employee "satisfaction." Not surprisingly, many companies do not have a realistic grasp of what their customers and employees actually think and do. By means of an ongoing process of data collection, analysis, modeling, and experimentation, Sears does. Moreover, the work of creating the model and the measures has made such demands on managers that it has changed the way they think and behave. And now that cultural change is spreading throughout the company.
The diversity of the service sector makes it difficult to come up with managerially useful generalizations concerning marketing practice in service organizations. This article argues for a focus on specific categories of services and proposes five schemes for classifying services in ways that transcend narrow industry boundaries. In each instance insights are offered into how the nature of the service might affect the marketing task.
The growing number of academic studies on customer satisfaction and the mixed findings they report complicate efforts among managers and academics to identify the antecedents to, and outcomes of, businesses having more-versus less-satisfied customers. These mixed findings and the growing emphasis by managers on having satisfied customers point to the value of empirically synthesizing the evidence on customer satisfaction to assess current knowledge. To this end, the authors conduct a meta-analysis of the reported findings on customer satisfaction. They document that equity and disconfirmation are most strongly related to customer satisfaction on average. They also find that measurement and method factors that characterize the research often moderate relationship strength between satisfaction and its antecedents and outcomes. The authors discuss the implications surrounding these effects and offer several directions for future research.
A representative design for diagnosing effectiveness in retail service organizations is presented and operationalized in a study of the employees and customers from twenty-three bank branches. The design builds on some boundary-spanning theory and on some practical realities which suggest that data should be collected from both employees and customers when diagnosing and evaluating service organizations. Assumptions underlying the use of perception-based diagnoses are also explained. Results revealed some strong relationships between employee perceptions of branch practices and procedures in relation to service and customer perceptions of service practices and quality. Results are discussed with reference to organizational diagnosis and the potential integration of organizational and consumer behavior.
Many theories hypothesize interdependence of observations among individuals within organizations, yet researchers frequently assume complete independence of observations in statistical models applied to their data. The resultant interpretational errors frequently appear in the organizational sciences literature. This paper illustrates the magnitude and direction of bias because of inconsistency of assumptions of interdependence. Both theorists and researchers are encouraged to state their assumptions of interdependence with mathematical models.
The authors develop and test a model of service employee management that examines constructs simultaneously across three interfaces of the service delivery process: manager-employee, employee-role, and employee-customer. The authors examine the attitudinal and behavioral responses of customer-contact employees that can influence customers' perceptions of service quality, the relationships among these responses, and three formal managerial control mechanisms (empowerment, behavior-based employee evaluation, and management commitment to service quality). The findings indicate that managers who are committed to service quality are more likely to empower their employees and use behavior-based evaluation. However, the use of empowerment has both positive and negative consequences in the management of contact employees. Some of the negative consequences are mitigated by the positive effects of behavior-based employee evaluation. To increase customers' perceptions of service quality, managers must increase employees' self-efficacy and job satisfaction, and reduce employees' role conflict and ambiguity. Implications for the management of customer-contact service employees and directions for further research are discussed.
This article conceptualizes the emotional labor construct in terms of four dimensions: frequency of appropriate emotional display, attentiveness to required display rules, variety of emotions to be displayed, and emotional dissonance generated by having to express organizationally desired emotions not genuinely felt. Through this framework, the article then presents a series of propositions about the organizational-, job-, and individual-level characteristics that are antecedents of each of these four dimensions. Frequency of emotional display, attentiveness to display rules, variety of emotions to be displayed, and emotional dissonance are hypothesized to lead to greater emotional exhaustion, but only emotional dissonance is hypothesized to lead to lower job satisfaction. Implications for future theory development and empirical research on emotional labor are discussed as well.
A central assumption of meta-analysis is that the sample of studies fairly represents all work done in the field, published and unpublished. However, if studies with "poor" results are less likely to be published, a potential publication bias is present. The authors propose a maximum likelihood approach to estimating publication bias for the situation in which censorship based on effect size may occur. An explicit hypothesis test is provided for testing whether or not censorship is present. The method also simultaneously estimates the proportion of studies censored, the threshold past which censorship is avoided, and the probability of censorship if a potential observation is under the censorship threshold. Two published meta-analyses are examined and some publication bias is found in each, but no publication bias is detected in a meta-analysis of proprietary research data.
A three-phase quantitative investigation of relationships involving salesperson job satisfaction was undertaken. First, the strength, valence, and consistency of pairwise relationships were assessed by means of a meta-analysis. Second, methodological characteristics coded as moderator variables were used to account for variability in study effects. Finally, weighted mean correlations resulting from the analysis of pairwise relationships were used to evaluate a causal model of antecedents and consequences of job satisfaction. In general, relationships involving job satisfaction were robust across study contexts. Systematic moderating effects of type of salesforce and operationalization of job satisfaction were found. Several summary conclusions about antecedents and consequences of salesperson job satisfaction are drawn from the analyses.
Emotions have ubiquitous effects in human affairs. Vivian Gornick, in Fierce Attachments,^ recounts a typ-ical exchange with her mother. Gor-nick always begins these encounters with high hopes. "Somehow," de-spite her best intentions, the conver-sations always spiral downward: Today is promising, tremendously prom-ising I go to meet my mother. I'm flying. Flying! I want to give her some of this shiningness bursting in me, siphon into her my immense happiness at being alive. Just because she is my oldest inti-mate and at this moment I love every-body, even her. "Oh, Ma! What a day I've had," I say. "Tell me," she says. "Do you have the rent this month?" "Ma, listen ..." I say. "That review you wrote for the Times," she says. "Ifs for sure they'll pay you?" "Ma, stop it. Let me tell you what I've been feeling," I say. "Why aren't you wearing something warmer?" she cries. "It's nearly winter." The space inside begins to shimmer. The walls collapse inward. I feel breath-less. Swallow slowly, I say to myself, slowly. To my mother I say, "You do know how to say the right thing at the right time. Ifs remarkable, this gift of yours. It quite takes my breath away." But she doesn't get it. She doesn't loiow I'm being ironic. Nor does she Elaine Hatfield is a Professor of Psychology and Richard L. Rapson is a Professor of History at the Uni-versity of Hawaii. John T. Ca-cioppo is a Professor of Psychology at the Ohio State University. Ad-dress correspondence to Elaine Hatfield, 2430 Campus Rd., Honolulu, HI 96822; BITNET: psych@uhunix; INTERNET: psych@uhunix.uhcc.hawaii.edu. know she's wiping me out. She doesn't know I take her anxiety personally, feel annihilated by her depression. How can she know this? She doesn't even know I'm there. Were I to tell her that it's death to me, her not knowing I'm there, she would stare at me out of her eyes crowd-ing up with puzzled desolation, this young girl of seventy-seven, and she would cry angrily, "You don't under-stand! You have never understood!" (pp. 103-104)
Although it has frequently been argued that the job satisfaction of a company’s employees is an important driver of customer satisfaction, systematic research exploring this link is scarce. The present study investigates this relationship for salespeople in a business-to-business context. The theoretical justification for a positive impact of salespeople’s job satisfaction on customer satisfaction is based on the concept of emotional contagion. The analysis is based on a dyadic data set that involves judgments provided by salespeople and their customers collected across multiple manufacturing and services industries. Results indicate the presence of a positive relationship between salespeople’s job satisfaction and customer satisfaction. Furthermore, the relationship between salespeople’s job satisfaction and customer satisfaction is found to be particularly strong in the case of high frequency of customer interaction, high intensity of customer integration into the value-creating process, and high product/service innovativeness.
Although research on customer service representatives (CSRs) in call centers has increased in recent years, little attention has been paid to the growing use of contingent (temporary) CSRs in this setting. This study investigated the role that human capital plays in explaining the job satisfaction and performance of contingent and regular CSRs. Consistent with our expectations, contingent CSRs had less human capital but higher job satisfaction than regular workers. In addition, we found that human capital mediated the relationship between work status and job satisfaction. Contrary to expectations, no performance differences were found between contingent and regular CSRs. Implications for research and practice are discussed.
Contrasts are statistical procedures for asking focused questions of data. Researchers, teachers of research methods and graduate students will be familiar with the principles and procedures of contrast analysis included here. But they, for the first time, will also be presented with a series of newly developed concepts, measures, and indices that permit a wider and more useful application of contrast analysis. This volume takes on this new approach by introducing a family of correlational effect size estimates. By returning to these correlations throughout the book, the authors demonstrate special adaptations in a variety of contexts from two group comparison to one way analysis of variance contexts, to factorial designs, to repeated measures designs and to the case of multiple contrasts.
This study extends previous work reviewing the cohesion-performance relationship by using meta-analytic techniques to assess the effects of level of analysis and task interdependence on the cohesion-performance relationship. A total of 51 effect sizesfmrom 46 empirical studies were obtainedfor the meta-analytic integration. Results suggest that level of analysis and task interdependence moderate the cohesion-performance relationship. Implications of the findingsforfuture research on group cohesion and performance are discussed
Because of the importance of satisfaction to inter-firm relationship quality and thus inter-firm relationship continuity, this research investigates previously unstudied antecedents of satisfaction in a marketing channel. These antecedents include the attractiveness of alternative relationships, relationship investment, and switching cost. The research also tests reciprocal relationships between satisfaction and alternative attractiveness, and between satisfaction and voice. This helps suggest answers to questions such as, does satisfaction reduce alternative attractiveness as it is generally believed, or does alternative attractiveness reduce satisfaction? Many of the study variables were antecedents of satisfaction in the study context. Together they explained almost half of the variation in satisfaction. Nevertheless, alternative attractiveness, relationship investment, and voice were the most important antecedents of satisfaction in the study. The paper concludes with suggestions for the cultivation of customer satisfaction in the study context.