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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the mediating roles of two variables of psychological empowerment and affective commitment of frontline service employees (FSEs) in the relationship between transformational leadership (TFL) and proactive customer service behavior (PCSB) of FSEs. Design/methodology/approach In a rigorous research design, the authors obtained data from 225 FSE-supervisor dyads working in a large Indian IT services organization. Analysis was done using structural equation modeling approach in LISREL 8.72. Findings As expected, affective commitment and psychological empowerment of FSEs fully mediated the positive relationship between TFL and PCSB of FSEs, even after controlling for age and tenure. The specified model explained 24 percent of the variance in PCSB of FSEs. Research limitations/implications As FSEs act as the face of a service organization, therefore their proactive behavior plays an important role in customer satisfaction. Enactment of TFL by supervisors fosters PCSB of FSEs. Therefore, organizations must develop TFL skills in their managers to psychologically empower FSEs and get them committed to a superior service delivery through PCSB. Originality/value The study is one amongst the few studies to explore the relationship between TFL and proactive behavior in the customer service domain. Additionally, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to examine the explanatory mechanisms through which transformational leaders foster PCSB of FSEs.

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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to integrate learnings from social exchange theory, organizational support theory and JD-R model to explore the relationship among support for development, work engagement (WE), job satisfaction (JS) and turnover intention (TI). It was hypothesized that the relationship between managerial support for development (MSD) and TI would be explained through organizational support for development (OSD), WE and overall job satisfaction (OJS). Design/methodology/approach A cross-sectional survey on a sample of 5,088 service industry employees undergoing organizational change and working in the business-to-business context was employed. Reponses were analyzed using IBM® SPSS® AMOSTM 20. Findings The findings were along the hypothesized lines. The study found support for mediation by OSD, WE and OJS, respectively of MSD and TI relationship. Similarly, the mediation of MSD-OJS relationship by OSD and WE, respectively were also supported. Furthermore, OSD mediated the relationship between MSD and WE; while the relationship between OSD and TI was mediated by WE and OJS, respectively and additionally, the OSD-OJS relationship was mediated by WE. Lastly, the mediation of WE-TI relationship by OJS was also supported. Therefore, the sequence of MSD-OSD-WE-OJS-TI partial mediation model was supported. Research limitations/implications While the sample size (n=5,088) is large, the respondents belong to one business unit of an organization, constraining generalizability. Additionally, the study is limited by cross-sectional design. Finally, the study was restricted by the choices of perceptual measures of study variables and non-quantitative evaluation of discretion/job demand. Originality/value Using learnings from multiple theories, the present study examined the roles of two sources of support for development (organizational and managerial) and two job-related states (WE and JS) in relating with TI. Interestingly, all the expected relationships were true in a context signifying the discretionary nature of organization. Further, testing of alternate models gives additional credence to the findings.