TY - JOUR
AU - Babakus, Emin
AB - PurposeUsing the basic framework of the service profit chain, this study aims to develop an integrated model that explains the relationships among role overload (RO), customer orientation (CO), service interaction quality (IQ), customer satisfaction (CS) and sales performance.Design/methodology/approachA large-scale survey of 872 customers and 530 frontline employees across 50 branches of a major retail bank in New Zealand serves as the study setting.FindingsThe results indicate that RO has a significant negative effect on IQ. Nevertheless, CO mitigates the negative outcome of RO on IQ. IQ fully mediates the relationship between RO and CS. Additionally, the effect of IQ on branch sales is fully mediated by CS.Research limitations/implicationsThe cross-sectional nature of the current survey does not permit causal inferences. Thus, future studies should adopt longitudinal designs. Also, future studies should explore the roles of other variables (e.g. job crafting, work-related self-efficacy) as possible moderators.Practical implicationsResults suggest that service managers should create a balance between the role requirements and organizational resources to mitigate the adverse effects of employee RO. To enhance IQ and CS, bank managers should coach employees about work overload and train them in CO while prioritizing the tasks.Originality/valueEmpirical research pertaining to employee–customer interaction through a nested framework accommodating data from customers, employees and firm performance is scarce. This study fills in the void.
TI - Effects of frontline employee role overload on customer responses and sales performance
JF - European Journal of Marketing
DO - 10.1108/EJM-01-2015-0009
DA - 2017-02-13
UR - https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/emerald-publishing/effects-of-frontline-employee-role-overload-on-customer-responses-and-j5XEEHES6z
SP - 282
EP - 303
VL - 51
IS - 2
DP - DeepDyve
ER -