TY - JOUR
T1 - Key drivers of frontline employee generation of ideas for customer service improvement
AU - Lages, Cristiana R.
AU - Piercy, Nigel F.
N1 - Funding Information:
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: Cristiana R. Lages is grateful to the Portuguese Science and Technology Foundation—FCT—(BD111502002) for financial support and the company's employees who provided invaluable assistance.
Copyright:
Copyright 2012 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2012/5
Y1 - 2012/5
N2 - Anchored in the service-dominant logic and service innovation literature, this study investigates the drivers of employee generation of ideas for service improvement (GISI). Employee GISI focuses on customer needs and providing the exact service wanted by customers. GISI should enhance competitive advantage and organizational success (cf. Berryet al.2006; Wang and Netemeyer 2004). Despite its importance, there is little research on the idea generation stage of the service development process (Chai, Zhang, and Tan 2005). This study contributes to the service field by providing the first empirical evaluation of the drivers of GISI. It also investigates a new explanatory determinant of reading of customer needs, namely, perceived organizational support (POS), and an outcome of POS, in the form of emotional exhaustion. Results show that the major driver of GISI is reading of customer needs by employees followed by affective organizational commitment and job satisfaction. This research provides several new and important insights for service management practice by suggesting that special care should be put into selecting and recruiting employees who have the ability to read customer needs. Additionally, organizations should invest in creating work environments that encourage and reward the flow of ideas for service improvement.
AB - Anchored in the service-dominant logic and service innovation literature, this study investigates the drivers of employee generation of ideas for service improvement (GISI). Employee GISI focuses on customer needs and providing the exact service wanted by customers. GISI should enhance competitive advantage and organizational success (cf. Berryet al.2006; Wang and Netemeyer 2004). Despite its importance, there is little research on the idea generation stage of the service development process (Chai, Zhang, and Tan 2005). This study contributes to the service field by providing the first empirical evaluation of the drivers of GISI. It also investigates a new explanatory determinant of reading of customer needs, namely, perceived organizational support (POS), and an outcome of POS, in the form of emotional exhaustion. Results show that the major driver of GISI is reading of customer needs by employees followed by affective organizational commitment and job satisfaction. This research provides several new and important insights for service management practice by suggesting that special care should be put into selecting and recruiting employees who have the ability to read customer needs. Additionally, organizations should invest in creating work environments that encourage and reward the flow of ideas for service improvement.
KW - Frontline employees
KW - Generation of ideas for service improvement
KW - Perceived organizational support
KW - Reading of customer needs
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84860646328&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/1094670511436005
DO - 10.1177/1094670511436005
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:84860646328
SN - 1094-6705
VL - 15
SP - 215
EP - 230
JO - Journal of Service Research
JF - Journal of Service Research
IS - 2
ER -