Managing engagement in an emerging economy service

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to offer a better understanding of managing engagement in an emerging economy service. It explores the role of organisational climates for initiative and psychological safety as the key drivers of employee engagement (EE). It also examines the effects of EE on customer engagement (CE) and, in turn, on relationship commitment and switching intention. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected through a structured survey of service employees and customers of 69 bank branches in Bangladesh using two survey instruments. Responses were collected from 156 employees and 316 customers. A dyadic data set was created by matching customer data with the corresponding employee data collected from each bank branch. Structural equation modelling using AMOS (version 22.0) was employed for data analysis. Findings Organisational climates for initiative and psychological safety positively influence EE. In turn, EE significantly influences CE which has a significant impact on customer relationship commitment and switching intention. Research limitations/implications Future research could consider actual customer behaviour, such as repeat purchase, as the key outcome variable. Practical implications The findings emphasise that investment by service managers in organisational resources to facilitate favourable climates for initiative and psychological safety would engage employees at work, which would ultimately help to attain CE and commitment, and reduce switching intention. Originality/value This research extends the existing engagement literature with empirical evidence supporting two new EE drivers and two new CE outcomes. It offers a better understanding of managing engagement in the financial services industry of an emerging economy, focussing on the relationship chain from organisational climate to EE, CE and customer-based outcomes.

Cultivating Employee Engagement in Organizations: Development of a Conceptual Framework

“…Employees are more likely to engage and produce positive outcomes in a supportive environment, as a positive organizational climate preserves employee motivation and maintains high performance (Miller, 2002). Rabbanee et al (2019) also present empirical evidence that supports a positive correlation between organizational climates for the initiative, psychological safety, and employee engagement. Moreover, they reveal that employee engagement has a positive and direct relationship to customer engagement, which has huge implications for business outcomes.…”

Effects of employee engagement on customer responses: Examining the mediating role of customer engagement

“…Managers should recruit employees with dispositional proactivity and capabilities (Schneider et al, 2000), providing training to improve employees' self-efficacy (Axtell and Parker, 2003) and enhancing their current level of proactivity (Fay and Sonnentag, 2010). These strategies are likely to result in a favourable climate for initiatives in the store, encouraging employees to extend beyond their routine jobs when dealing with customers and, thus, positively affecting customer engagement (Rabbanee et al, 2019) and behavioural responses. Moreover, our mediation finding underscores the need to allocate resources to both EE and CE for customer-based firm performance.…”

“…This means that the respective firm/store may have less influence on its employees' work-related decisions; hence, managers should focus more specifically on how to ensure employee dedication and absorption at work. To achieve this purpose, firms should invest resources and adopt specific strategies, such as ensuring an organisational climate supportive of initiative and psychological safety, to engage employees (Rabbanee et al, 2019) so they become dedicated to and absorbed in their work, thus helping them to be proactive in engaging customers. Past research has provided empirical evidence showing that organisational climate influences employees' thoughts, feelings and behaviours (Bock et al, 2005); employees' creativity and proactivity (Eldor and Harpaz, 2016); and employee-customer interactions (Clark, 2002).…”

Why switch? The role of customer variety-seeking and engagement in driving service switching intention

“…Correspondingly, we posit that more engaged customers tend to stay with a firm for longer, thus, lowering their service switching intention (Do et al , 2022; Kim, 2014), or their intent to shift to a new provider, implying the termination of their relationship with their existing same-category provider (Zhang et al , 2012). However, despite its elevated managerial importance, the interface of customers’ engagement on their service switching intention remains hazy (Rabbanee et al , 2019; Tiamiyu et al , 2020), exposing an important literature-based gap that we explore in this article. Further investigation of this association is important, because while engaged customers have been suggested to yield improved firm returns (e.g.…”