The effects of nonwork and personal resources on frontline bank employees’ work engagement and critical job outcomes

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to propose a research model that investigates work engagement as a mediator of the effect of family support on proclivity to leave work early, in-role performance (IRP), service recovery performance (SRP) and extra-role performance (ERP). The research model also examines work engagement as a mediator of the impact of self-efficacy on the aforesaid outcomes. In addition to these relationships, the study assesses self-efficacy as an underlying mechanism linking family support to work engagement. Design/methodology/approach The authors employed a time-lagged design. Specifically, data were obtained from frontline bank employees (FBEs) in Russia in three waves, within one week time intervals. FBEs’ performance outcomes were rated by their managers. Findings As hypothesized, self-efficacy and family support foster FBEs’ work engagement, which in turn reduces proclivity to leave work early and activates IRP, SRP and ERP. In line with the study predictions, the findings highlight the impact of self-efficacy in the intermediate linkage between family support and work engagement. Practical implications Management should organize workshops where FBEs’ family members are invited to participate. In such workshops, they can understand the nature of frontline service jobs in the competitive banking environment and are expected to provide support to FBEs. This is significant because family support influences work engagement directly and indirectly through self-efficacy and affects the above-mentioned performance outcomes only via work engagement. Training programs should not only focus on the development of knowledge, skills and abilities for service delivery and complaint handling but also center on the costs arising from nonattendance behaviors/intentions. As a result, these programs should make FBEs minimize such intentions. Originality/value Work engagement is still a timely topic and there have been calls for the identification of factors influencing work engagement and its consequences among frontline employees. Therefore, our study uses family support and self-efficacy as the two crucial resources that can influence employees’ positive psychological states and their work performance. Further, using solid theoretical underpinnings such as conservation of resources, social information processing, and job demands-resources theories, our study is the first to link family support and self-efficacy to multiple performance outcomes and nonattendance intentions via work engagement among FBEs.

Relational dynamics amongst personal resources: Consequences for employee engagement

“…Personal resources have been integrated into the JD-R theory as antecedents of variance in job demands and job resources, moderator variables, mediator variables and 'third variables', explaining the relationship between employees' perception of job demands and job resources and their level of engagement (Schaufeli & Taris, 2014). Irrespective of the role played, the relationship between personal resources and employee engagement has been well established (Karatepe, Ozturk, & Kim, 2019;Lorente, Salanova, Martínez, & Schaufeli, 2008;Mäkikangas, Feldt, Kinnunen, & Mauno, 2013) In addition to the fact that researchers have not been able to agree on where personal resources fit within the parameters of the JD-R theory, limited research has explored the relational dynamics amongst personal resources. Therefore, the current authors maintain that it is necessary to study the interrelatedness of the personal resources and its consequences for employee engagement.…”

Influence of customer participation from the employee perspective

“…Researchers have identified resources that customers can provide through their work participation, including information, tacit knowledge and customer competencies (Grönroos and Ravald, 2011; Karatepe et al , 2019). The information that customers supply can show their preferences for and capabilities with services or products and signify their sensitivities to risk-taking, which results in resource integration for FLEs (Gallan et al , 2013; Kelley et al , 1990; Wu, 2020).…”

The effect of managerial coaching on salesperson's relationship behaviors: new evidence from frontline bank employees in China

“…As customers are not captive of domestic banks anymore, research shows that Chinese banks still lag behind foreign counterparts in modern management techniques and management experience (Wang et al, 2003). If Chinese banks can increase service quality, they can potentially increase customers' positive word-of-mouth (Choudhury, 2014), customer retention (Clemes et al, 2010) and sales performance (Karatepe et al, 2019). One way of increasing service quality is by developing relationship behaviors of frontline employees who deliver the service (Gerrard and Cunningham, 2004).…”