EMPLOYEE BEHAVIOR IN A SERVICE ENVIRONMENT - A MODEL AND TEST OF POTENTIAL DIFFERENCES BETWEEN MEN AND WOMEN

The authors examine the attitudes and behaviors of employees who provi de frontline service and address the extent to which relationships var y among male and female employees. The overall model predicts effects of role stress and work/nonwork conflict on customer-contact employees ' job performance, job and life satisfaction, and quitting intent. Res ults of structural equations modeling suggest an important role for wo rk/nonwork conflict overall as well as two areas of interesting variat ion across gender. Specifically, multisample structural equations anal yses suggest that role stress affects female service providers' job pe rformance more negatively than it does males', and that job satisfacti on is related more highly to quitting intent among males. Overall, res ults suggest interesting similarities and differences across gender.