Understanding nature of empathy through the lens of service encounter: a phenomenological study on FLE's

Abstract

Research suggests that every conceptual model of service organisations in the past 20 years has recognised that front line employees (FLEs) significantly influence the customer experience. In service front line employee and customer interaction, little is understood about the nature of empathy as a cognitive, an affective, or a multidimensional phenomenon. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the multidimensional nature of empathy. This phenomenological study focuses on how the theoretical discussion of the cognitive-affective nature of empathy finds expression in a service encounter. Conclusions in this study point to the ending that empathy has different meanings for different service frontline employees, when they are empathising with another customer. In probing the way service frontline employees experience empathy, it seems that both cognitive and affective aspects of this experience play a significant role and may appear either collectively or separately. The study provides some initial evidence on the conceptualisation of empathy and present findings add to the literature by focusing on the intrapersonal world of FLE's and examining how their empathetic behaviour relates to the customer.

Why do organizations discontinue Lean Six Sigma initiatives?

“…The transcription was e-mailed to the respondents and upon confirming its veracity, and it was taken on records. To triangulate the results (Elliott et al , 1999; Sony et al , 2018), secondary data were collected in terms of Xerox copies of all documents related to the projects. The researchers analyzed the interviews and documents to correlate and corroborate the interview data.…”

The Importance of an Emotionally Intelligent Supply Chain Leader in Determining the Success of an Organization: The Case of DS Motors Unique

“…Empathy is all about the consideration of the perspective or the viewpoint of others. Service ethics involves understanding and fulfilling the needs or expectations of customers (Sony et al, 2018). A good manager will be aware of these needs and understands them and tries to suit them with the product or service (Sony et al, 2018).…”

“…Service ethics involves understanding and fulfilling the needs or expectations of customers (Sony et al, 2018). A good manager will be aware of these needs and understands them and tries to suit them with the product or service (Sony et al, 2018). Lastly organizational awareness is the ability to recognize the dynamics of team and organization.…”

How do organizations implement an effective LSS initiative? A qualitative study

“…Besides, there are studies conducted using qualitative study using a small sample, for example, one, four, nine and fifteen. Though the large sample size is possible but is less common (Sandelowski, 1995;Pietkiewicz and Smith, 2014;Sony et al, 2018). In this study, we wanted an in-depth analysis, therefore we choose theoretical saturation.…”

“…All the interviews were performed by the authors in India. They have previous expertise in qualitative research methodology (Sony and Mekoth, 2014;Sony et al, 2018). The questions asked during the interview are given in Annexure 2.…”