A pilot study was conducted to test a hierarchical model in which empowerment of contact personnel is presented as an antecedent condition to role conflict, role ambiguity, adaptability, self-efficacy, and job satisfaction. The latter are, in turn, presented as antecedents to helping behaviors directed at customers. The model is structured on three interfaces: employee-manager, employee-role, and employee-customer. The data were collected in six branches of the same bank in a major North American city. Results reveal that empowerment is a very efficacious managerial control tool in that it significantly affects the behavior and attitudinal dispositions of boundary-spanning service employees. Specifically, role ambiguity emerges as the most influential variable in the employee-role interface, and employee adaptability is a highly determining factor for the delivery of effective role-prescribed and extra-role performances. Implications for the management of customer-contact service employees and directions for further research are discussed. © 2000 Sage Publications, Inc.
CITATION STYLE
Chebat, J. C., & Kollias, P. (2000). The impact of empowerment on customer contact employees’ roles in service organizations. Journal of Service Research, 3(1), 66–81. https://doi.org/10.1177/109467050031005
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