A Meta-Analysis of Frontline Employees’ Role Behavior and the Moderating Effects of National Culture

Abstract

<jats:p> Many empirical studies have focused on understanding the frontline role process, which reflects the chain of effects including the antecedents and outcomes of frontline employees’ in-role behavior and extra-role behavior. A close examination of past findings reveals discrepancies across cultures. This meta-analysis provides insights into the moderating effects of national culture on the frontline role process. We build on role theory to consolidate role behavior’s antecedents to reflect the expectations emanating from four stakeholders of the frontline role: the organization, manager, peers, and customers. We formulate hypotheses on the moderating effects of national culture dimensions (i.e., power distance, individualism, masculinity, and uncertainty avoidance) and meta-analyze 105 articles, including 100 independent samples with 32,364 participants from 35 different countries, to test our predictions. The results show that customer expectations are the strongest antecedent to both in-role and extra-role behavior and furthermore confirm that the frontline role process differs across cultures. We offer managers advice on how to adapt expectations for sales and service employees across countries to enhance frontline performance evaluations, customer satisfaction, and ultimately the firm’s competitiveness. We also link our results to new frontline trends (e.g., service robots, artificial intelligence, remote service technology) and provide a future research agenda. </jats:p>

What role conceptions do multi-healthcare professionals have of physicians and what role expectation do they have of physicians in a community?

“…Role theory suggests that role ambiguity increases an individual’s dissatisfaction with the role, hesitancy in decision making, anxiety, and confusion, and thereby leads to ineffective performance [ 39 ]. Therefore, as an implication for practice and to avoid the negative outcomes of role ambiguity, our present findings are expected to provide physicians with the opportunity to reflect on their own trustworthy behaviors in a community, not only in their relationships with patients and families but also with other healthcare professional [ 38 , 40 , 41 ]. Furthermore, authentic interprofessional collaboration through social interaction based on community values will prevent role ambiguity in the physician’s role in a community setting.…”

Service-oriented high-performance work systems and service role performance: Applying an integrated extended self and psychological ownership framework

“…Although frontline service role performance is typically classified as prescribed or discretionary, the increasingly diverse needs and expectations of customers suggest that frontline employees may have to engage in a variety of behaviors in order to enhance the customer experience (Bowen, 2016;Griffin et al, 2007;Schepers and van der Borgh, 2020).…”

The Emergence of Value-Based Leadership Behavior at the Frontline of Management: A Role Theory Perspective and Future Research Agenda

“…In synthesizing the review through role theory, we underlined areas that need more attention, in particular, the capacity of the individual to interpret and display VBL behaviors ( Liu et al, 2020 ). Emanating behaviors from the wider social environment require the frontline managers to associate their belief with the role value that is promoted/expected by the organization ( Schepers and Van der Borgh, 2020 ). Negotiating and defining their role also require clarity and consensus.…”

“…For example, the ethical leader has been shown to develop abusive tendency after crediting own moral behaviors from the previous day ( Lin et al, 2016 ). The ability to balance the myriad of afforded resources to behave in accord to the role expectation in an organization is thus a reflection of line-managers’ ability to meet (or challenge) the role demands ( Schepers and Van der Borgh, 2020 ). For example, an organization must fulfill its end of the contractual obligations to avoid discrepancies between the role holder and the role expectancy behaviors ( Thomas et al, 2003 ).…”