How does customer cooperation affect employees’ prosocial service behavior in upscale Chinese hotels? An affective social exchange perspective

Abstract

Purpose Guided by the affect theory of social exchange, this study aims to examine the affective process underlying the impact of customer cooperation on hotel frontline employees’ prosocial service behavior. Job autonomy was tested as a boundary condition. Design/methodology/approach A mix-mode quantitative survey collected data from 818 frontline employees in 14 upscale hotels across China. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling to test the research hypotheses. Findings Results suggest that customer cooperation influences employees’ prosocial service behavior directly and indirectly via employees’ positive affect. Contrary to expectations, job autonomy weakened the relationships among customer cooperation, positive affect and employees’ extra-role customer service but did not moderate the impacts of customer cooperation and positive affect on employees’ role-prescribed customer service. Originality/value As an initial attempt to investigate the effects of customer cooperation on two types of frontline employees’ prosocial behavior, this study broadens the application of the affect theory of social exchange and contributes to an understanding of the theory’s boundary conditions by testing a framework under the contextual condition of job autonomy.

Can customer participation promote hospitality frontline employees’ extra-role service behavior?

“…Second, our findings on the mediating role of thriving offer new insights into how to encourage hospitality frontline employees' extra-role service behavior. While prior studies have mainly adopted social exchange theory to explain employees' engagement in extra-role service behavior (Wang et al, 2022;Xu et al, 2022), our study based on the socially embedded model of thriving enriches the current literature on frontline employees' extra-role service behavior.…”

“…Furthermore, the interaction and collaboration with customers can make frontline employees feel supported and valued (Yoo et al, 2021), which energizes them. Finally, the relationships gradually developed with customers during their involvement in the service Extra-role service behavior delivery (Chan et al, 2010) can facilitate frontline employees' understanding of their work meaning, which in turn will fuel their affective and physiological energy (Li and Hsu, 2017;Wang et al, 2022). All these positive employee-customer interactions during customer participation are likely to enhance frontline employees' sense of learning and vitality.…”

“…Owing to rapidly changing customer needs and expectations, service-oriented organizations such as hospitality rely heavily on their frontline employees’ extra-role service behavior to be effective (Chan et al , 2017; Tremblay et al , 2018; Wang et al , 2022; Xu et al , 2022). Extra-role service behavior refers to frontline employees’ discretionary behavior that goes above and beyond job requirements to provide customers a memorable living experience (Bettencourt and Brown, 1997).…”

“…customer satisfaction, loyalty) and organizations (e.g. new product innovation, product purchase) (Kim and Tang, 2020; Ma et al , 2020; Siu et al , 2022; Wang et al , 2022; Wu et al , 2021; Zhang et al , 2021). Comparatively little attention, however, has been paid to its influence on the well-being and service behavior of frontline employees (for exceptions, see Choi and Lawry, 2020; Li and Hsu, 2017; Yoo et al , 2021).…”

“…This omission is concerning because frontline employees and customers are value co-creators in the service production or delivery process (Liu et al , 2022; Vargo and Lusch, 2004, 2016), and understanding their relationship can provide a more complete picture of the impact of customer participation. More important, ensuring positive experiences and extra-role service performance of frontline employees is particularly crucial to service organizations’ long-term success (Rescalvo-Martin et al , 2021; Wang et al , 2022; Xu et al , 2022).…”