An examination of the role of perceived support and employee commitment in employee-customer encounters.

Abstract

The authors examined the relationships between perceived organizational support, organizational commitment, commitment to customers, and service quality in a fast-food firm. The research design matched customer responses with individual employees' attitudes, making this study a true test of the service provider-customer encounter. On the basis of a sample of matched employee-customer data (N = 133), hierarchical linear modeling analyses revealed that perceived organizational support had both a unit-level and an employee-level effect on 1 dimension of service quality: helping behavior. Contrary to affective organizational commitment, affective commitment to customers enhanced service quality. The 2 sub-dimensions of continuance commitment to the organization--perceived high sacrifice and perceived lack of alternatives--exerted effects opposite in sign: The former fostered service quality, whereas the latter reduced it. The implications of these findings are discussed within the context of research on employee-customer encounters.

Industrial Relations Climate and Union Commitment: An Evaluation of Workplace‐Level Effects

“…Our confidence in the conclusion that workplace IR climate is negatively associated with individual-level union commitment, explaining variance over and above that accounted for by individual-level predictors, is not threatened by sample size. In fact, our relatively small sample provides a conservative test of this hypothesis (Vandenberghe, et al 2007). As already mentioned, our finding of no significant cross-level effects is more problematic, and we emphasize that this conclusion must be treated with caution and awaits testing with a larger sample.…”

Firm‐specific knowledge resources and competitive advantage: the roles of economic‐ and relationship‐based employee governance mechanisms

“…When employees consistently receive favorable treatment from their firm, they are likely to develop a sense of trust that the firm will not take advantage of their vulnerability ex post and thus are more likely to reciprocate the favorable treatment by engaging in firm-specific human capital investments (Gouldner, 1960). Further, employees form perceptions of the extent to which they are valued and cared about; and they use such perceptions as a basis for evaluating the degree of commitment they will provide to the firm (Vandenberghe et al, 2007). Research has also generally shown that relational governance is associated with greater employee cooperation and trust, which in turn reduces employee concerns about holdup by the firm and increases employees' acceptance of the firm's goals as close to their goals.…”

Envergure du poste et engagement : le rôle modérateur du soutien et des relations avec le supérieur

“…En vue de cela, trois variables dépendantes ont été choisies : l'engagement affectif envers l'organisation, la profession et la clientèle. Même si ces variables ne sont pas nécessairement alignées sur les cibles visées par le SOP et le LMX (Lavelle, Rupp et Brockner, 2007), elles ont pour point commun de représenter, de manière complémentaire, l'importance de l'investissement professionnel de l'individu (Snape, Chan et Redman, 2006 ;Vandenberghe et al, 2007), en constituant, dès lors, des indicateurs qui devraient être sensibles à l'envergure du poste (Spector, 1985). Plusieurs travaux ont mis en évidence le caractère discriminant de ces trois dimensions de l'engagement (Meyer, Allen et Smith, 1993 ;Morin et al, 2011 ;Siders, George et Dharwadkar, 2001 ;Vandenberghe et al, 2007) et ont montré que celles-ci révèlent le degré auquel un employé s'investit affectivement envers les différentes cibles saillantes de son environnement.…”

“…L'engagement affectif envers la profession a aussi été mesuré grâce à une échelle de 6 items mise au point par Meyer, Allen et Smith (1993) (par exemple : « Je n'éprouve pas un fort sentiment d'appartenance envers ma profession » -item inverse; a = 0,87), alors que l'engagement affectif envers la clientèle a été mesuré par l'échelle à 6 items construite par Vandenberghe et al (2007) (par exemple : « Je me sens affectivement engagé envers mes clients » ; a = 0,88).…”