Drawing on the social interaction model, we examine the mediating role that the customer's display of positive emotions plays on the relationship between the employee's display of positive emotions and the employee's positive mood. We also examine the moderating role that the customer's personality traits-agreeableness, extraversion, and emotional stability-play on the relationship between the employee's display of positive emotions and the customer's display of positive emotions. The results show that the customer's display of positive emotions mediates the relationship between the employee's display of positive emotions and the employee's positive mood. In addition, the customer's personality traits moderate the relationship between the employee's display of positive emotions and the customer's display of positive emotions. The customer's display of positive emotions depends less on the employee's display of positive emotions when the customer has high levels of agreeableness and emotional stability than when the customer has low levels of agreeableness and emotional stability.
The positive relationship between leader behavioral integrity and an employee’s in-role performance is well-established, but explanations for why this effect exists are still in a nascent stage. Drawing upon leader behavioral integrity theory and job-demands resources theory, the authors explain how leader behavioral integrity facilitates employee in-role performance and the boundary conditions influencing the relationship between leader behavioral integrity and employee in-role performance. Using multisource data from 209 employee-manager dyads in South Korea, this paper found support for the mediating effect of coworker support in the positive relationship between leader behavior integrity and employees’ in-role autonomy. Furthermore, compared to those who perceive low job autonomy, the positive indirect effect of leader behavioral integrity on in-role performance via coworker support was stronger for employees who perceive high job autonomy. The findings emphasize the importance of a leader’s individual difference (i.e., leader behavioral integrity) and job resources (i.e., job autonomy) facilitating the receipt of team members’ supporting behaviors which, in turn, energize employee in-role performance. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the mediating roles of self-efficacy and team commitment in linking service employees’ relative leader-member exchange (RLMX) with customer service behaviors and also the moderating roles of team-level differentiations in leader-member exchange (LMX) and team-member exchange (TMX) in influencing these mediation processes.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected from 467 customer-contact employees working in hotel restaurants. Hierarchical linear modeling analysis was used to test the mediation hypotheses, and moderated path was used to assess the moderated mediation.
Findings
Self-efficacy and team-commitment both mediated the relationship between RLMX and customer service behaviors. The differentiations in LMX and TMX significantly interacted with RLMX in predicting self-efficacy and team commitment and also moderated the indirect effects of RLMX on customer service behaviors.
Research limitations/implications
Future studies need to incorporate customers’ or immediate supervisors’ ratings of subordinates’ customer service behaviors and replicate the findings in different countries and work settings.
Practical implications
Hospitality managers should foster a work environment wherein they develop equal quality relationships with their subordinates in a workgroup and promote high-quality relationships among subordinates in the workgroup to improve subordinates’ self-efficacy, team commitment and, subsequently, their customer service behaviors.
Originality/value
This study incorporates both self-efficacy and team commitment as motivation-based and social exchange-based mediators, respectively, in predicting customer service behavior. It also extends the boundary condition for the mediations by considering the team-level differentiations in both vertical exchange (LMX) and horizontal exchange (TMX).
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