ON THE FRONT LINES - STRESS, CONFLICT, AND THE CUSTOMER SERVICE PROVIDER

Previous marketing research. examines role stress (role conflict and r ole ambiguity) as an antecedent of job satisfaction across a range of professional marketing contexts. Recently, research has begun to addre ss the impact of nonwork factors on employee job satisfaction. For the most part, however, this research ignores the front line service prov iders who, given their hey role in building customer satisfaction and relationships, are immensely important in many business settings. In t his study, a model is developed and tested that posits work-family con flict as a partial mediator of the role stress-job satisfaction relati onship. Empirical results suggest that increased role conflict and rol e ambiguity diminish job satisfaction both directly and indirectly, su ch that the true effect of these important role constructs may not be understood without a consideration of work/family conflict. Results av e contrasted with those from other work domains, and implications for marketing managers are discussed.