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The authors identify specific customer orientation behaviors (COBs) of call center employees and show that these behaviors relate to customer evaluations of service quality. Using qualitative, inductive analyses of 166 telephone service interactions in a retail bank call center, they identify five types of COBs associated with helping customers. The COBs are (a) anticipating customer requests, (b) offering explanations/justifications, (c) educating customers, (d) providing emotional support, and (e) offering personalized information. Using deductive analyses, the authors show that customers rate the quality of service interactions higher when service providers employ COBs. The qualitative findings contribute to the understanding of the specific employee behaviors associated with service quality, and the quantitative findings validate the importance of these behaviors.

SummaryAssessments of the appropriateness and inappropriateness of behaviors may influence conflict, cohesion, and goal attainment in multinational organizations (MNOs). We develop a model of appropriateness that illustrates how various arrangements in MNOs (e.g., geocentric staffing) may work to influence the likelihood of (in-) appropriateness assessments as well as the magnitude of the reactions (positive or negative) to such assessments via their influence on members' ingroup-outgroup categorizations.

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