Service worker role in encouraging customer organizational citizenship behaviors

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Abstract

Assessment of the role of the individual service worker in encouraging customer organizational citizenship behaviors (customer OCBs) is the primary focus of this paper. The researchers investigate this topic empirically across three service contexts. Customer OCBs are voluntary, outside of the customer's required role for service delivery, which provide help and assistance and are conducive to effective organizational functioning. In this paper, commitment to the service worker is the strongest predictor of customer OCBs. Further, personal loyalty to the service worker serves as a partial mediator of the effects of perceived benevolence of the service worker and commitment to the service worker on customer OCBs. Finally, theoretical, managerial and future research implications are included.

Introduction

In service firms, customers often act as “partial employees”, participating in the service creation process (Bowen and Schneider, 1985) through the application of their knowledge and skills. This participation may be either in the form of in-role and/or extra-role behaviors (Bettencourt and Brown, 1997). Customer in-role behaviors are those behaviors required to perform the service delivery, such as arriving on time for an appointment, providing a description of needs, following a prescribed treatment, or paying for the service. In contrast, extra-role behaviors are voluntary, helpful behaviors enacted towards the firm, service worker, or other customers that are not required for core service delivery. These behaviors can positively affect the performance of service workers, the organization, and even other consumers, and generally help to create a desirable setting for the parties in a service encounter. Examples might include gestures of appreciation to the service worker in the form of thank you notes or gifts, positive word-of-mouth, or suggestions for service improvements. These extra-role behaviors often involve a sacrifice on the customer's part in terms of time, effort, material possessions or even physical welfare (Staub, 1978), and are collectively referred to as customer organizational citizenship behaviors (customer OCBs), similar to employee OCBs (Bettencourt, 1997).

The effectiveness of customer participation, in the form of both in- and extra-role behaviors, provides the firm with a potential source of competitive advantage (Paine and Organ, 2000). However, the drivers of both types of behaviors are likely to differ, as customers have no choice but to follow role-prescribed behaviors if they want to experience a successful service outcome. In contrast, customers have greater latitude in exercising extra-role behaviors, because of their voluntary nature. An important goal here is to gain a better understanding of important predictors of customer OCBs.

In high- to medium-contact contexts, service personnel are integral to service delivery to customers, noting that their attitudes and behaviors during the service encounter strongly influence customer satisfaction, loyalty, and behavioral intentions (Hartline and Ferrell, 1996). Continued interaction between the customer and the service worker can lead to the development of a relationship between the parties. An argument put forth in this paper is that customers' perceptions of the relationships they have with their service personnel are critical to the enactment of customer OCBs. The process by which this occurs is the object of this paper.

Although the sales literature considers the extra-role behaviors of sales representatives (MacKenzie et al., 1998), the study by Ahearne et al. (2005) appears to be the only published research which examines the influence of service workers (e.g., sales representatives) on customer OCBs. Their findings suggest that sales representatives contribute to their customers' identification with the organization, which encourages customer OCBs. This study extends this research theoretically and empirically. Unlike other studies that examine limited numbers of customer OCB dimensions, this study includes eight dimensions of customer OCBs. Finally, an empirical study of over 500 customer-service worker relationships across three service contexts provides an assessment of the conceptual ideas suggested.

In this manuscript, first, customer OCBs definitions and dimensions appear, along with reasons for these discretionary behaviors. As part of this discussion, emphasis is placed on the key role of the customer's relationship with the service worker. Next, the conceptual model, which includes several important relational variables—a customer's assessment of the service worker's perceived credibility and benevolence (two dimensions of interpersonal trust), and the customer's commitment and personal loyalty to the service worker, appears. Next, the researchers assess the model across three service contexts, to broaden the applicability of the framework. Finally, the researchers address the theoretical and managerial implications and a research agenda for the future.

Section snippets

Organizational citizenship behaviors

The term, organizational citizenship behaviors, typically refers to the extra-role actions of employees that enhance organizational effectiveness. Researchers have shown interest in OCBs since the early 1980s when the phrase was first used (cf. Bateman and Organ, 1983). It is commonly defined as “individual behavior that is discretionary, not directly or explicitly recognized by the formal reward system and that, in the aggregate, promotes the effective functioning of the organization” (Organ,

Theoretical framework

Social exchange (Blau, 1964) has been the dominant theoretical framework used to explain employee OCBs (Organ, 1990). A major underlying idea of social exchange theory is that of reciprocal reinforcement. This idea suggests that an individual's actions toward another are based on the expectation of a valued response (Emerson, 1976). Although not the only social exchange that engenders reciprocity and influences performance, the employee relationship with the supervisor is a local focus of

Sample selection and administration

Three service contexts (pharmacy, hairdressing and medical services) where personal loyalty and customer OCBs are likely to be present, provide the industry backdrop for this study. These contexts differ in their emphasis on search, experience and credence properties (Zeithaml, 1981); thus providing greater variability and range, which allows for a more robust assessment of model relationships.

Three versions of the questionnaire represented the three service contexts, namely

Structural model and hypothesis tests

Amos 7.0 is used to assess the structural model. This process yields identical fit measures to those reported for the CFA above. The SEM results, which support all hypotheses except for H2, appear in Table 4. First, the positive association between customer OCBs and the level of customer commitment to the service worker (β = 0.35, p < 0.01) provides support for H1. Support for H3 is indicated by the positive association between customer OCBs and perceived benevolence of the service worker (β = 0.20, p

Discussion and theoretical implications

This research demonstrates that customers are motivated to go beyond their prescribed roles when they are committed and loyal to service workers and perceive them to be benevolent. This study expands on the research of others (cf. Bettencourt, 1997, Ahearne et al., 2005) by investigating another motive why customers engage in OCBs — that is, their relationships with service workers. The empirical framework provided here illustrates the importance of customer loyalty and commitment to service

Limitations and future research

Although this study contributes to customer–citizenship behavior research, some limitations are of note. First, self-ratings of citizenship behaviors and the other variables were collected at the same time, which could produce a consistency bias (Podsakoff and Organ, 1986). Second, self-ratings may be higher than ratings provided by others due to potentially inflated self-ratings in an effort to enhance self-image (Allen et al., 2000); thus, a measure of social desirability could be included in

Conclusion and managerial implications

This research provides some empirical support for the key role of the service worker in encouraging customer OCBs. Customers are motivated to go beyond prescribed roles when they are committed or loyal to service workers or perceive them to be benevolent. Through the performance of OCBs, customers indirectly help raise service quality and service productivity (Keh and Teo, 2001). Hence, service managers should view customers as a valuable resource, not only in terms of desired in-role

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the initial participation of Nichola Robertson in this project and the helpful comments by Jan Heide and Christian Homburg on earlier drafts of this manuscript.

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