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1 – 10 of 881Chenchen Weng, Martin J. Liu, Jun Luo and Natalia Yannopoulou
Drawing on the social presence theory, this study aims to explore how supplier–customer social media interactions influence supplier observers’ trust in the customers and what…
Abstract
Purpose
Drawing on the social presence theory, this study aims to explore how supplier–customer social media interactions influence supplier observers’ trust in the customers and what mechanisms contribute to variation in trust experience.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 36 semi-structured interviews were conducted with Chinese suppliers using WeChat for business-to-business interactions. Data were analyzed in three steps: open coding, axial coding and selective coding.
Findings
Findings reveal that varied trust is based not only on the categories of social presence of interaction – whether social presence is embedded in informative interactions – but also on the perceived selectivity in social presence. Observer suppliers who experience selectivity during social and affective interactions create a perception of hidden information and an unhealthy relationship atmosphere, and report a sense of emotional vulnerability, thus eroding cognitive and affective trust.
Originality/value
The findings contribute new understandings to social presence theory by exploring the social presence of interactions in a supplier–supplier–customer triad and offer valuable insights into business-to-business social media literature by adopting a suppliers’ viewpoint to unpack the mechanisms of how social presence of interaction positively and negatively influences suppliers’ trust and behavioral responses.
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Kamelia Chaichi, Alexander Trupp, Mageswari Ranjanthran and K. Thirumaran
Employee well-being in a casino work environment is crucial for the quality of work-life and employees' performance. This study examines the dimensions of well-being at a casino…
Abstract
Purpose
Employee well-being in a casino work environment is crucial for the quality of work-life and employees' performance. This study examines the dimensions of well-being at a casino in Malaysia to gain deeper insights into employee challenges and motivational factors to arrive at practical mitigation efforts.
Design/methodology/approach
The study adopted a qualitative approach involving 14 semi-structured interviews with casino employees in Malaysia. Interviews lasted 30 min to 2 h at a time when Covid-19 was raging in 2021. Responses were analysed via a data-driven approach and coded using NVivo software to delineate the contents into analytical categories of well-being dimensions.
Findings
The findings suggest that employees at the casino face challenges in achieving work-life balance. Employee's well-being suffers from insufficient break time, irregular working hours affecting family time, managing customer temper tantrums and lack of emotional support systems and remunerations altered by the pandemic. Women employees were particularly vulnerable.
Research limitations/implications
The findings suggest a need to create better working conditions and address well-being with counselling support for stress management, a balanced approach by employers to the “customer is always right” mantra, creating promising career pathways and supervisors to have better oversight of workaholics. The research focused only on one casino and there was limited access to management departments for an organizational perspective.
Originality/value
This study adds to the body of knowledge on employee well-being in the context of a casino. It suggests hospitality and tourism organizations review their human resource practices that would ease the stresses at the workplace and create support systems to promote employee well-being. Crucially, in a pandemic crisis, well-being dimensions must be accommodating and integrative to employee sentiments, sensitivity and self-actualization.
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Hillman Wirawan, Rudi Salam, Normawati Normawati, Vip Paramarta and Denok Sunarsi
This study aimed to investigate the effect of citizens' uncivil behaviours on the turnover intention of public service personnel. It tested the moderated mediation role of job…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aimed to investigate the effect of citizens' uncivil behaviours on the turnover intention of public service personnel. It tested the moderated mediation role of job insecurity and workplace incivility. The conservation of resource (COR) theory was employed to explain the public service personnel's reactions to resource loss threats and the desire to conserve the remaining resources.
Design/methodology/approach
A longitudinal quantitative study design was used with a moderated mediation regression technique. Data were collected from 235 full-time public service personnel from five Indonesian public service organizations. The organizations included higher education, regional government institutions, and health, tourism, and transportation departments. All measures were valid and reliable for study purposes.
Findings
The citizen incivility's effect on turnover intention was mediated by job insecurity and moderated by workplace incivility. Citizen incivility positively influenced job insecurity only under high workplace incivility. Therefore, citizens' uncivil behaviours could not increase public service personnel's job insecurity and turnover intention without high workplace incivility.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the literature on citizens' incivility as a source of social stressors in Indonesian public organizations. The findings showed that citizens' hostile behaviours impact public employees' job insecurity only through workplace incivility.
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This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.
Design/methodology/approach
This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.
Findings
This study explores employee well-being in casinos, and finds that the economic benefits of working in a casino are offset by a highly challenging social, physical and psychological work environment and the psychological stress of handling customers who become aggressive when they lose. Casinos that want to retain skilled employees should look to improve employee satisfaction by reducing emotional stress and creating a more positive work environment.
Originality/value
The briefing saves busy executives, strategists and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.
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Kangcheol Lee and Taeshik Gong
Drawing on the conservation of resources theory, this study aims to identify the mediating effects of depersonalization and resilience on the relationship between customer…
Abstract
Purpose
Drawing on the conservation of resources theory, this study aims to identify the mediating effects of depersonalization and resilience on the relationship between customer incivility and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). It further posits that these indirect effects vary depending on the caring climate and achievement orientation.
Design/methodology/approach
A field survey among 622 service employees (Study 1) and a three-wave field survey of 315 service employees and their managers (Study 2) from various service organizations were conducted.
Findings
This study confirms that depersonalization operates as a negative mediator in the relationship between customer incivility and OCB. Simultaneously, resilience emerges as a positive mediator, underscoring the contrasting pathways through which customer incivility affects OCB. Furthermore, a caring climate plays a pivotal role in mitigating the detrimental impact of depersonalization on OCB and weakening the positive impact of resilience on OCB. Additionally, this study identifies achievement orientation as a significant moderator between customer incivility and resilience.
Originality/value
This study advances theoretical foundations by investigating depersonalization and resilience as critical mediators in the intricate relationship between customer incivility and OCB. It goes beyond the conventional understanding of customer incivility’s impact by shedding light on the dual roles of a caring climate, demonstrating its potential to alleviate both positive and negative consequences of customer incivility. Moreover, its identification of achievement orientation as a moderator adds a novel dimension to the discourse, emphasizing the need for tailored strategies to harness employee resilience in the face of customer incivility.
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Fang Xie, Xufan Zhang, Jing Ye, Lulu Zhou, Wenjian Zhang and Feng Tian
Based on the resource conservation theory, this research paper aims to evaluate the positive impact of customer orientation on frontline employees' emotional exhaustion and the…
Abstract
Purpose
Based on the resource conservation theory, this research paper aims to evaluate the positive impact of customer orientation on frontline employees' emotional exhaustion and the moderating effects of customer incivility and supervisor monitoring.
Design/methodology/approach
Two-wave data from 484 frontline employees in power supply business halls were analyzed. This study used AMOS 23.0, SPSS22.0 and PROCESS macro for data statistics and analysis.
Findings
Our empirical research demonstrates that customer orientation has a significant positive impact on frontline employees' emotional exhaustion. At the same time, supervisor monitoring moderates the relationship between customer orientation and emotional exhaustion. The higher the interactional or observational monitoring, the stronger customer orientation's effect on frontline employees' emotional exhaustion. Moreover, a three-way interaction model exists between customer orientation, customer incivility and supervisor monitoring.
Practical implications
This study yields practical implications for helping the frontline employees of service-oriented organizations alleviate multiple interpersonal workplace pressures.
Originality/value
Based on resource conservation theory, this paper used a novel approach to focus on customer orientation, customer incivility and supervisor monitoring as interpersonal stressors.
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Linda Alkire, Rebekah Russell-Bennett, Josephine Previte and Raymond P. Fisk
Profound economic, social, political and environmental problems are cascading across modern civilization in the 21st century. Many of these problems resulted from the prevailing…
Abstract
Purpose
Profound economic, social, political and environmental problems are cascading across modern civilization in the 21st century. Many of these problems resulted from the prevailing effects of rational economics focused on profit maximization. The purpose of this paper is to reframe the mindsets of scholars, firms and public policy decision-makers through enabling Service Thinking practices.
Design/methodology/approach
Marketing, service and allied discipline literature are synthesized, and Raworth's (2018) Doughnut Economics model is adapted to conceptualize and construct the Service Thinking framework.
Findings
Service Thinking is defined as a just, mutualistic and human-centered mindset for creating and regenerating service systems that meet the needs of people and the living planet. Service Thinking is enabled by five practices (service empathy, service inclusion, service respect, service integrity and service courage).
Practical implications
Actionable implications are presented for service ecosystem entities to uplift well-being, enhance sustainability and increase prosperity.
Originality/value
Service Thinking practices are shaped by influencing forces (marketing, education and law/policy) and operant service ecosystem resources (motivation–opportunity–ability or MOA), which makes Service Thinking applicable to four economic entities in the service ecosystem: the household, the market, the state and the commons.
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Andrés Salas-Vallina, Alma Rodríguez Sánchez and Manoli Pozo-Hidalgo
This study explores the phenomenon of compassionate leadership, a promising concept in management literature. Despite significant contributions towards the understanding of its…
Abstract
Purpose
This study explores the phenomenon of compassionate leadership, a promising concept in management literature. Despite significant contributions towards the understanding of its antecedents and consequences, the specific role of compassion concerning the leader behavior under extreme pressure remains unexplored.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing empirically on the case of three banks under three different logics, the authors trace how heads of banking branches, namely, middle managers, deal with the paradoxical phenomenon of integrating their human nature with the coetaneous need to achieve aggressive objectives. The authors analyzed interviews using the interpretive research method (Hatch and Yanow, 2003).
Findings
The authors identified that the logic of savings banks and credit cooperatives, together with specific human elements, created a healthier environment to develop compassionate behaviors compared to commercial banks. The authors found coherence when linking the institutional message of putting the spotlight on a personalized treatment of customers, and the middle manager compassionate actions towards customers and subordinates.
Research limitations/implications
Suggestions for future theorizing and research are advanced, along with constructive practical implications to rehumanize the dark side of banking for both employees and customers.
Originality/value
The findings provided in this paper are original because they provide further evidence of linking business logics with compassionate leadership of middle managers and its impact on employees and customers.
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Mark Yi-Cheon Yim, Eunice (Eun-Sil) Kim and Hongmin Ahn
In keeping with recent body image social trends, consumer demand for the adoption of plus-size models is increasing, although the use of thin models remains prevalent. The current…
Abstract
Purpose
In keeping with recent body image social trends, consumer demand for the adoption of plus-size models is increasing, although the use of thin models remains prevalent. The current study explores how consumers process information about fashion products displayed on different sizes of models in advertisements, focusing on model and consumer body sizes and both genders. As an underlying mechanism explaining how the relationship between model and consumer body sizes shapes consumer purchase intention, this study explores the role of guilt, shame and mental imagery.
Design/methodology/approach
The current study uses a text analytics technique to identify female consumers' general opinions of thin models in advertising. Employing a 3 (consumer body size: normal, overweight, obese) × 2 (model body size: thin, plus-size) × 2 (gender: male, female) between-subjects online experiment (n = 718), the main study comparatively analyzes the influences of plus-size and thin models on consumer responses.
Findings
The results reveal that, despite body positivity movements, thin models still generate negative emotions among female consumers. For obese female consumers, advertisements featuring plus-size models produce fewer negative emotions but not more mental imagery than advertisements featuring thin models. Conversely, for obese male consumers, advertisements featuring plus-size models generate more mental imagery but not more negative emotions than advertisements featuring thin models. The results also reveal that the relationship between consumer body size and guilt is moderated by perceived model size, which is also moderated by gender in generating mental imagery. While guilt plays a mediating role in enhancing mental imagery, resulting in purchase intention, shame does not take on this role.
Originality/value
This study is the first to present an integrated model that elucidates how consumers with varying body sizes respond to different sizes of models in advertising and how these responses impact purchase intentions.
Research limitations/implications
Our findings only apply to contexts where consumers purchase fashion clothing in response to advertisements featuring thin versus plus-size models.
Practical implications
Exposing normal-size consumers to plus-size models generates less mental imagery, and thus, practitioners should seek to match the body sizes of the models featured in advertising to the body sizes of their target audience or ad campaigns that include both plus-size and thin models may help improve message persuasiveness in fashion advertising. Moreover, guilt-appeal advertising campaigns using thin models would appeal more to thin consumers of both genders than shame-appeal advertising.
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