The effects of relationship bonds on bank employees’ psychological responses and boundary-spanning behaviors

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of relationship bonds on the psychological response and behavior of bank employees based on the job demands–resources theory. Specifically, it examines the effects of relationship bonds in terms of person–job (P–J) fit, emotional exhaustion, job satisfaction and boundary-spanning behaviors, all of which comprise the behavioral dimensions of bank employees. In addition, the study examines how the resiliency of bank employees influences their emotional exhaustion and determines whether a moderating effect related to emotional exhaustion exists. Design/methodology/approach To achieve this aim, data were collected from 365 customer-facing banking employees in South Korea. Reliability, validity and the hypotheses were verified through structural equation modeling; any moderating effects were identified using the bootstrap method and the process model. Findings Study results showed that financial, structural, internal social and external social bonds – the bonds pertaining to relationship elements – have positive effects on P–J fit. P–J fit influenced emotional exhaustion negatively and job satisfaction positively. Furthermore, emotional exhaustion negatively influenced job satisfaction. Job satisfaction had positive effects on service delivery, external representation and internal influence, the elements comprising boundary-spanning behavior. Finally, resiliency was shown to lower emotional exhaustion but revealed no moderating effect. Originality/value First, this study examined relationship bonds, which reference relationship marketing when introducing organizational resources that influence the psychological and behavioral responses of bank employees. Second, this study introduced resiliency as a personal resource and clarified the way it applies to an individual’s psychological response. Third, existing literature has been limited to conducting fragmented research of the psychological factors that intervene in predisposing factors and job outcomes. This study makes a unique contribution by establishing a psychological response process.

The Effects of Service Employee Resilience on Emotional Labor: Double-Mediation of Person–Job Fit and Work Engagement

“…Previous studies on cognitive accounts have proved that cognitive processes are preceded in the emotional attitude aspects [ 81 ]. Considering that person–job fit is the cognitive aspect and work engagement is the job’s emotional attitude aspect [ 64 ], this study shows that resilience influences deep acting by mediating cognitive processes and emotional attitude sequentially. In conclusion, this study expands scholarly understanding of emotional labor by focusing on the mechanism of resilience—an individual trait that serves as a personal resource—and its influence on deep acting through cognitive processes and emotional attitude.…”

“…More specifically, resilience, which is an individual trait of service employees, becomes a personal resource [ 63 ] and person–job fit acts as a cognitive resource resulting from person- and job-related cognitive processes. The person–job fit of a service employee is determined by the recognition of job resources [ 64 ], and person–job fit affects the service employee’s emotion toward the job [ 65 ]. Moreover, a previous study has suggested that person–job fit plays a mediating role between individual trait factors and personal emotions [ 65 ].…”

Revisiting the corporate image through service quality and relationship marketing: an empirical evidence from Malaysian and Saudi Arabian Takaful customers

“…The value delivered by service providers attached to the structural bond's perception, especially those developed through promotional strategies, concurrently contributes to corporate image. Thus, structural bonds can be developed by suggesting their respective solutions (Shammout, 2018;Lee and Han, 2019). Thus, it can be proven that structural bonds can generate a sense of belongingness towards the corporate image.…”

The effects of frontline bank employees' social capital on adaptive selling behavior: serial multiple mediation model

“…Because of the importance of frontline bank employees' roles, scholars have been researching various specific ways to manage frontline personnel in the banking sector (e.g. Lee and Han, 2020; Mehmood et al. , 2020; Sengupta et al.…”

“…However, previous literature has not focused on confirming the influence of frontline employees' social relationships on adaptive selling behavior. Frontline employees communicate in customers' language to provide product information (Román and Martín, 2014) and obtain information from internal relationships to solve customers' special problems (Lee and Han, 2020). Additionally, information exchange between individuals is possible through social capital (Hughes et al.…”