Psychosocial safety climate and psychological capital for positive customer behavioral intentions in service organizations

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to articulate a synergic-mediated model of positive service behaviors enabled by what could be called a “psychosocial resource caravan” for improved customer behavioral intentions to help service organizations especially during coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) crisis.Design/methodology/approachThis paper adopts a multi-level approach and is based on positive organizational behavior and occupational health and safety literature. An empirical study of synergic-mediated model of positive service behaviors has been developed and tested using a quantitative approach.FindingsThis paper offers a theoretical framework proposing that a psychosocially safe work environment (psychosocial safety climate (PSC)) interacts with employees' positive psychological capital (PsyCap) to facilitate positive service behaviors that influence customers' behavioral intentions. As PsyCap and PSC have origin, respectively, in different organizational levels, those both can combine and create a context for positive service encounters. The proposed model has been operationalized and then the reliability and validity of the constructs have been examined. A series of CFAs has been conducted and the fitness of the prosed model was compared to other possible models. The model showed a better fitness compared to the other plausible models. All hypotheses of the model were also significant.Originality/valueThe proposed model integrates positive organizational behavior and occupational health and safety literature to consider the conditions for positive service behaviors. High levels of PsyCap among team members and a psychosocially safe working environment, i.e. PSC can impact customers through positive service behaviors. The articulation of the proposed model presented in this paper invites future empirical research on the synergic nature of psychosocial resources. The paper also suggests some key points to operationalize “psychosocial resource caravan.”

Influence of psychosocial safety climate on occupational health and safety: a scoping review

“…Workers were more likely to be workaholics [ 44 ], have high morale [ 83 ], and develop organisational citizenship behaviours [ 50 ] in a high PSC context. Moreover, adaptive and proactive work behaviours [ 88 ], creative problem solving [ 55 , 89 ], taking of personal initiatives [ 80 ], personal development [ 80 ], positive service behaviour [ 88 ], workaround [ 68 ], and service recovery performance [ 90 ] were more likely to be observed in high PSC work environment. Perhaps, managerial quality is one of the key benefits in a high organisational PSC context [ 64 , 91 ].…”

“…High-quality work with manageable job demands, and adequate job resources were more likely in a high PSC work environment, where managers value and safeguard workers’ psychological health for improved well-being, safety and performance outcomes [ 18 , 59 , 66 ]. Thus, a high PSC context foster satisfaction of psychological needs, job satisfaction, job commitment, and mental health maintenance, which translate into improved productivity [ 58 , 88 , 89 ]. Basically, in such a PSC context, workers perceive that their well-being is a priority to managers, hence, become intrinsically motivated, which may lead to improved mental health and well-being [ 98 , 99 ], and positive performance outcomes.…”

Psychological capital and multifaceted nature of job performance: mediation by intrinsic motivation and goal-commitment

“…Further, since PsyCap has been a concept of central interest of contemporary organizations owing to its positive work outcomes (Avey et al, 2011a, b;Newman et al, 2014a, b;Salanova and Ortega-Maldonado, 2019;Siami et al, 2023;Loghman et al, 2023), HR managers, scholars, practitioners and researchers must appreciate its vital role and encourage a conducive work environment that fosters PsyCap. To meet the dynamic needs of the customers IT/ITes IJPPM 73,6 employees need to enjoy their work, as the work in information pertains to innovation in the customer's organization.…”

“…Though intrinsic motivation is desirable, developing it is a Hercules task as it is not instrumental in nature and is Impact of PsyCap on multifaceted job performance inherent to individuals (Deci and Ryan, 2000;Delaney and Royal, 2017;Li et al, 2023). The strength-based approach toward work motivation can be one such way to foster intrinsic motivation as it is considered as a more organic approach (Martin, 2005;Mills et al, 2013;Donaldson et al, 2019;Siami et al, 2023). There is a paucity of work in this area, and scant studies have a deployed strength-based approach to engender intrinsic work motivation (Gupta and Shaheen, 2018).…”

The effect of perceived organizational justice on workplace deviant behavior of new nurses: the role of emotional labor and psychological capital

“…Kim [ 34 ] found that positive psychological capital and social support of special education teachers can regulate the impact of emotional labor on job burnout, and thus affect career happiness. Other studies have found that psychological capital and psychosocial safety atmosphere can improve the positive service behaviors of service workers towards work and customers [ 43 ], which promotes occupational health and safety. Therefore, the following hypothesis is proposed in this study:…”