THE MANAGEMENT OF CUSTOMER-CONTACT SERVICE EMPLOYEES - AN EMPIRICAL-INVESTIGATION

The authors develop and test a model of service employee management th at examines constructs simultaneously across three interfaces of the s ervice delivery process: manager-employee, employee-role, and employee -customer. The authors examine the attitudinal and behavioral response s of customer-contact employees that can influence customers' percepti ons of service quality, the relationships among these responses, and t hree formal managerial control mechanisms (empowerment, behavior-based employee evaluation, and management commitment to service quality). T he findings indicate that managers who are committed to service qualit y are more likely to empower their employees and use behavior-based ev aluation. However, the use of empowerment has both positive and negati ve consequences in the management of contact employees. Some of the ne gative consequences are mitigated by the positive effects of behavior- based employee evaluation. To increase customers' perceptions of servi ce quality, managers must increase employees' self-efficacy and job sa tisfaction, and reduce employees' role conflict and ambiguity. Implica tions for the management of customer-contact service employees and dir ections for further research are discussed.