• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.73-83
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• 2019

Purpose - The purpose of this research is twofold; first, it attempts to categories customer demands into challenging and hindrance stressors, second, it investigates the effect of customer challenging stressors, hindrance stressors and customer resources on job satisfaction, emotional exhaustion and turnover intention of frontline employees. Research design, data, and methodology - A quantitative research method with an online survey was adopted to test the proposed hypotheses. Sample was collected from 186 frontline employees. And, structural equation model was conducted through AMOS 20.0 to verify the proposed hypotheses. Results - First, customer challenging stressors and customer resources positively affect job satisfaction. Second, customer hindrance stressors negatively affect job satisfaction and positively affect emotional exhaustion. Finally, job satisfaction negatively affects turnover intention whereas emotional exhaustion positively affects turnover intention of frontline employees. Contributions - In term of theoretical contributions, the current study categorized the customer demands into challenging and hindrance stressors and empirically tested the effect of challenging and hindrance stressors on emotional exhaustion, job satisfaction and turnover intention of frontline employees. Managerially, this study provides insights to the firm by highlighting the presence of challenging stressors and customer resources which have positive effect on the attitudes and behaviors of the frontline employees.

• Culinary science and hospitality research
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.110-117
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• 2017

This study intended to examine transitive relation among customer incivility perceived by deluxe hotel frontline employees, burnout, and deviant workplace behaviors and clarify the moderating effect of employees' stress. A total of 230 employees working in deluxe hotels in Seoul, the capital of Korea, in 2017 comprised the sample in this study. The hypothesized relationships in the model were tested simultaneously by using structural equation modelling (SEM). As results, customer incivility perceived by deluxe hotel frontline employees had significant (p<.001) positive influence on their burnout(${\beta}=.38$, t-value=4.93). Employees' burnout positively influenced their deviant workplace behaviors (${\beta}=.56$, t-value=7.22). In addition, customer incivility was found to positively affect employees' deviant workplace behaviors(${\beta}=.26$, t-value=3.90), and therefore, the moderating role of stress level was not verified. The findings of this study suggested that deluxe hotels are supposed to enhance their frontline service by providing orientation for customers through promotion materials. Limitations and future research directions of this study were also well established and discussed.

• Culinary science and hospitality research
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.78-86
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• 2016

This study is designed to investigate the impact of employee's awareness about corporate social responsibility on innovative behavior among frontline employees in the hotel industry. In addition, the present study seeks to demonstrate whether employees awareness about corporate social responsibility or innovative behavior varies according to gender, age, education level and employment type. In order to achieve the study goal, the data were obtained from frontline employees(Rooms division, F&B division) working in the 5-star hotels. And the data were analyzed by frequency analysis, factor analysis, reliability analysis, t-test, ANOVA and regression analysis were undertaken using SPSS(18.0). The results showed that gender, age and employment type were not significant factors to generate differences on awareness about corporate social responsibility. But the higher educated employee was likely to perceive the awareness about corporate social responsibility better. Employee's innovative behavior varied on all of gender, age, education level and employment type. In other words, employee who is male, in the older age group, in the higher educated level and the full-time position tends to do more innovative behavior. Implications based on the study results are also discussed.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.49-73
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• 2013

In this study, the author develops and tests a model that incorporates the mediating effects of two frontline employee psychological variables (emotional exhaustion and intrinsic motivation) based on job demand and resource model. As a form of environmental resource, person-organization fit was proposed as a leading factor of frontline employee boundary spanning behavior through emotional exhaustion and intrinsic motivation. All measures were adapted from or developed based on prior research. Data for the study were collected from a cross-sectional sample of retail bank employees in South Korea. Questionnaires were distributed to 500 frontline employees across several banks. Of these, 322 usable questionnaires were returned. To analyze the data, a structural equation model procedure using LISREL 8.5 was employed. Results show that an employee's perceived fit with his/her organization enhances intrinsic motivation and reduces emotional exhaustion. These mechanisms, in turn, increase the employee's boundary spanning behavior. These results support the notion that person-organization fit should be one of the factors affecting motivation, affect and attachment, and extends such an understanding to a purely service-based environment among customer contact employees. Results also confirms that P-O fit can be viewed as environmental resources, and the JD-R model provides a theoretical base in further studying the antecedent role of P-O fit on frontline employees's boundary spanning behavior through intrinsic motivation and emotional exhaustion. These results suggest that organizations have to do their best to manage P-O fit, be it through employee screening or training and workshops to try and align organization and employee values and objectives. If managers of organizations are positively evaluated by the employees, it will be easier for them to, give things of value to employees, such as sense of direction, values, and recognition, and receive other things in return such as esteem and responsiveness. Consequently, organizational leaders are not only able to manage employee experiences, but also their fit with the organization. Even if a manager cannot control employee P-O fit, this research suggests, that a focus on reducing emotional exhaustion rather than increasing intrinsic motivation seems optimal. This research also supports the idea that motivation has a direct association with a frontline employee's boundary spanning behavior. Even in situations where emotional exhaustion cannot be reduced, organizations may still influence frontline behaviors through motivation.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.17-38
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• 2018

Branded service encounters, in which various aspects of frontline employees are strategically aligned with the firm's brand positioning, can be achieved along several dimensions such as employee appearance, manner, and personality. While previous research has mainly focused on behavioral traits of employees, this research examines the employee's physical appearance in association with the brand personality trait across two studies. Study 1 shows that salesperson look-brand personality congruence enhances brand affect by inducing positive affect. Specifically, a brand-congruent look of a salesperson increases positive affect among customers by confirming their prior expectations about what a salesperson of a certain brand should look like as a brand representative. Study 2 reveals that the positive impact of salesperson look-brand personality congruence on brand affect is significant only for customers with high social anxiety whereas this effect disappears for those with low social anxiety. These findings extend previous research on branded service encounters by showing why and when frontline employees' physical appearance shapes customers' affective responses toward the brand.

• Culinary science and hospitality research
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.100-117
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• 2012

The purpose of this study is to investigate the structural relationships among frontline hotel employees' core-self evaluations (self-esteem, generalized self-evaluations, locus of control, and emotional stability) as personal resources, customer verbal aggression as a job stressor, and turnover intention as a job outcome. Data were gathered from a sample of frontline employees of 10 five-star hotels in Busan via self-administered questionnaires. A total number of 405 questionnaires were utilized. This study used structural equation modeling to verify the research model and hypotheses. As hypothesized, the results demonstrated that core-self evaluations reduced customer verbal aggression and turnover intention, and customer verbal aggression amplified turnover intention. Finally, practical implications were discussed in detail and limitations of the study and future research directions were also suggested.

• Journal of Distribution Research
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.79-108
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• 2007

In this study, we measured customers' perception of organization citizenship behaviors of employees which are known as the important factor for improving performance of companies, and examined the path relationship among related variables such as service quality, customer satisfaction, trust, and positive word of mouth. Although there have been many studies of OCB in the marketing field, the majority of these studies measured employee's OCB from the organization's perspective. This study has extended the prior studies by measuring employee's OCB from the customer's perspective. Customers of beauty salons and public houses were researched such that OCB may be applied to more various customer contact situations. The result is as follows. First, employees's OCB had a direct effect on perceived service quality and trust, and had an indirect effect on customer satisfaction. It means that customers evaluate the service quality of employees and trust frontline employees when they observed employees helping other organizational members, orientated customer facilitation beyond the regulated role and showed positive attitudes for their organization. As a result, customers feel more satisfied. Secondly, OCB had an indirect effect on positive word of mouth through mediation of service quality, satisfaction, and trust. Finally, consumer facilitation had the largest effect on consumer attitude among three dimensions of OCB-consumer facilitation, organization involvement, and sportsmanship. We understood the relationship between frontline employee's OCB and customer attitudes, and the necessity of multidimensional approach in measuring employee's OCB from the customer's perspective.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.227-232
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• 2015

Background: In comparison with other industries, the construction industry still has a higher rate of fatal injuries, and thus, there is a need to apply new and innovative approaches for preventing accidents and promoting safe conditions at construction sites. Methods: In this study, the effectiveness of a new incentive system-the surprising incentive system-was assessed. One year after the implementation of this new incentive system, behavioral changes of employees with respect to seven types of activities were observed. Results: The results of this study showed that there is a significant relationship between the new incentive system and the safety performance of frontline employees. The new incentive system had a greater positive impact in the first 6 months since its implementation. In the long term, however, safety performance experienced a gradual reduction. Based on previous studies, all activities selected in this study are important indicators of the safety conditions at workplaces. However, there is a need for a comprehensive and simple-to-apply tool for assessing frontline employees' safety performance. Shortening the intervals between incentives is more effective in promoting safety performance. Conclusion: The results of this study proved that the surprising incentive would improve the employees' safety performance just in the short term because the surprising value of the incentives dwindle over time. For this reason and to maintain the surprising value of the incentive system, the amount and types of incentives need to be evaluated and modified annually or biannually.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.17 no.8
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• pp.107-118
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• 2019

Purpose - The present study examines the effect of service employees' experienced customer incivility through their emotional exhaustion. We identified service employees' emotion regulation ability as a boundary condition (i.e., moderating variable) that decreased the positive relationship between service employees' experienced customer incivility and their emotional exhaustion. Furthermore, we also investigated the negative relationship between service employees' experienced customer incivility and their service performance via emotional exhaustion. Research design, data, and methodology - Drawing on AET (affective event theory) and COR (conservation of resources) theory, we developed three research hypotheses (i.e., mediation, moderation, and moderated mediation). Online panel survey data from 552 frontline employees at several service organizations (e.g., department stores, retail stores, hotels, restaurants, airlines, banking, insurance company, and etc) in South Korea were examined. To assess two types of validity (i.e., convergent and discriminant validity) and reliability of measurement model, we employed the CFA (confirmatory factor analysis) using M-plus 8.2 software. Internal consistency also was tested by Cronbach' α. In addition, we employed the SPSS PROCESS MACRO 2.16, which was recommended by Hayes (2013, 2015), to estimate mediation, moderation, and moderated mediation effects. Results - As predicted, the negative relationship between service employees' experienced customer incivility and their service performance was mediated by emotional exhaustion. Furthermore, service employees' emotion regulation ability also played a significant moderating role of the relationship between service employees' experienced customer incivility and emotional exhaustion, such that this relationship was less pronounced when service employees had a high level of their emotion regulation ability than when thir emotion regulation ability was low. Service employees' emotion regulation ability further moderated this mediation effect of service employees' experienced customer incivility on service performance through emotional exhaustion. These findings have theoretical implications for employees' experienced customer incivility and emotion regulation ability research and provide managerial implications for practitioners. Conclusions - This study empirically elaborated the previous model of service employees' experienced customer incivility and personal resource (e.g., emotion regulation ability) literature by presenting the findings that service employees' experienced customer incivility influences their service performance via emotional exhaustion and that emotion regulation ability effectively reduces this negative effect.

• Journal of Korea Society of Industrial Information Systems
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.99-117
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• 2022

This study examines the effect of customer experience management capability of a bank and job satisfaction and customer orientation of the frontline employee in bank. The proposed research model and developed hypotheses were tested using structural equations modeling based on data collected from 321 employees working in banks. The results of the study confirm the positive effects of employee training, employee empowerment, employee evaluation, cross functional work of customer experience management capability is job satisfaction and customer orientation. But channel integration is not supported job satisfaction and customer orientation. Performance management influenced customer orientation through job satisfaction. The study provides On a theoretical level valuable insights into the customer experience management competency at the organizational unit and but there is also a limitation that firms the is limited.