Income inequality is core social and societal issue that has important implications for individuals, organizations, and communities. The study proposes to contribute to existing literature by examining the impact of the level of income inequality in U.S. states on the level of hotel front-line service employees’ job satisfaction, perceived fairness, and teamwork perceptions. Although previous work has found an association between state-level income inequality and individual-level life satisfaction as well as various indicators of community health and well-being, there is a lack of evidence relating state-level income inequality to service employees’ job satisfaction and workplace perceptions. Extending the understanding of the impact of environmental income inequality to service employees’ job satisfaction and workplace perceptions is important because job satisfaction and work perceptions are generally viewed as being affected primarily by individual-level characteristics or conditions within the organization, as opposed to the broader context in which organization exists. However, the work of front-line service workers exists at the boundary between the organization and the external environment in the form of interactions between these workers and external customers. This is especially true for front-line service workers in hotel organizations in which low-wage employees are often required to serve customers with higher levels of income and socio-economic status. Thus, it is likely that the effects environmental income inequality would have an especially strong impact on these employees.
The sample for this study consists of 2,700 employees nested in approximately 200 hotel franchises located in 40 U.S. states. Individual-level employee survey data was collected on hotel workers’ demographic characteristics (race, gender, education level), type of job (front-desk, housekeeping), job satisfaction, and workplace perceptions as part of a larger study. Additional survey information on the hotel’s size, brand, and human resource (HR) practices was collected from hotel managers. State-level data on population size, average home value, median household income, and income inequality (GINI coefficient) was gathered from archival U.S. public records. Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) is used to examine the relationship between state-level income inequality and employees’ job satisfaction and work perceptions, controlling for other factors. In addition, the moderating effect of the hotel’s system of HR practices on this relationship is explored. Preliminary results show that, controlling for individual-level demographic characteristics and type of job as well as state-level characteristics, the level of income inequality in a state has a statistically significant negative relationship with individual-level job satisfaction, perceived workplace fairness, and teamwork perceptions for front-line hotel service workers in the state. These results suggest the level of income inequality in the environment in which the service organization exists affects not only the general health and well-being of the people in that environment, but also the way that front-line service employees experience their work. For managers and researchers attempting to understand variation in the job satisfaction and workplace perceptions of these employees, the level of environmental income inequality appears to matter.

Driven by mounting customer expectations and intensified competition, service organizations are increasingly deploying human resources practices and leveraging technology for service enhancement. Yet, artificial intelligence-powered automated service technologies (AI-AST) may ultimately hamper service delivery efforts when failing to strike a balance between employee efficiency and effectiveness. Accordingly, service organizations seek to complement these operational transformations through targeted human resource systems aiming at improving employees’ work attitudes and service performance. These changes in service provision simultaneously impact the nature of frontline work and customer experiences. With frontline employees being the cornerstone of organizational performance, they face obstacles in working amidst these persistent disruptions to fulfill customers’ highest needs. To anchor this phenomenon, we position “the future of services” as a reshaping of services in response to the emerging service paradigm shifts.

This phenomenon will be studied through two key questions. First, what is the effect of service-oriented high performance work systems (SHPWS) and AI-AST on frontline employees perceptions, attitudes and service performance behaviours? Second, how can service organizations maximize their performance in an increasingly competitive environment? The current study conceptualizes the impact of the future of services phenomenon as a combination of frontline employee's individual attributions of (1) SHPWS and (2) AI-AST implemented with the intent to improve organizational efficiency or effectiveness and (3) customer delight (CD) at the unit level.

To discuss the trickle-down effects precipitated by this phenomenon, we ground our study in a revised service profit chain explicating subsequent impacts on internal service quality, employee and organizational outcomes. We rely on attributional processes from the organizational behaviour literature to explore the frontline perspective of the focal phenomenon. CD complements our conceptualization, representing the heightened stakes service organizations must grapple with to adapt to customers’ changing needs.

Our study reveals that SHPWS and AI-AST aiming to improve organizational efficiency are likely to negatively impact frontline employees perceptions, while conversely having a positive impact when aiming to improve employee’s effectiveness. It also illustrates the importance of the cross-level effect of superior service performance behaviours on CD, thereby driving organizational revenue and profitability.

By addressing technology-induced changes on the nature of work and customer experiences, we respond to recent service research priorities on technology leveraging for service provision and consumption. Thus, we theorize the neglected frontline employees’ perspective on changes impacting their service delivery through an organizational frontline research lens. We provide a multidisciplinary roadmap for understanding the impact of the reshaping of services at the frontlines and its effect on organizational performance. We answer a call on reimagining the service profit chain framework through the integration of specific human resources systems and technology components in a revision of internal service quality. We explicate their impact on employee well-being and service orientation as additional mediators to the framework, and highlight the business imperative of delighting customers to increase financial performance. Finally, our study generates practical guidance for future human resources and automated service technology investments in a climate that has intensified the use of technology and customer expectations.

Research has indicated that stress and its harmful outcomes are particularly pronounced for call center service representatives (Charoensukmongkol & Puyod, 2020; Deery et al., 2002). However, not much is known about the effect of stress on performance in call centers and more importantly, what resources might assist employees in coping with stress. The present study explored the role of servant leadership in employees’ coping with stress and subsequent service performance.
Servant leadership theory (Greenleaf, 1977; Van Dierendonck, 2011) suggests that servant leaders’ primary aim is to serve their followers while developing employees in areas such as task effectiveness and self-motivation (Van Dierendonck, & Patterson, 2015). Servant leaders are driven by empathy altruism, and a commitment to follower empowerment and well-being (Liden et al., 2008). Based on these characteristics of servant leaders, we developed a model suggesting that servant leaders enhance performance by providing service employees with resources conducive to coping with stress—specifically, work-related self-efficacy and mindfulness.
Data were collected in a field study testing the research model and a scenario study.
Field Study
Method: Questionnaires were administered at two points to 128 call center employees in three large service organizations, measuring servant leadership (Time 1), self-efficacy, mindfulness, and stress (Time 2). Reliabilities were .80 to .95.
Employees’ performance was assessed with customer satisfaction surveys and repeat calls data (percentage of customers who contact the center within 72 hours after the service meeting).
Results: Data were analyzed with PROCESS (Hayes, 2013). The results indicate that servant leadership was negatively related to employee stress and repeat calls through the mediating effects of mindfulness and self-efficacy. Customer satisfaction was only related to specific dimensions of servant leadership: forgiveness and acceptance.
Scenario Study
Method: The scenario study was conducted through social media with 256 employees. Participants were randomly presented with a description of either a high-level servant leader or a low-level servant leader (Wu et al., 2020). They were asked to imagine themselves working on the leader’s team and to report the self-efficacy, mindfulness, and stress they would experience with such a leader. The manipulation, tested with a 7-item version of the servant leadership scale, was effective.
Results: The results show that participants assuming the role of followers of a high-level servant leader reported significantly higher levels of self-efficacy and mindfulness, and a lower level of stress, than participants assuming the role of followers of a low-level servant leader.
Discussion and Conclusion
The results of the two studies suggest that servant leaders not only increase employee motivation as indicated in previous research (e.g., Chiniara & Bentein, 2016) but also provide resources that enable employees to cope with challenges at work and thereby, attain better performance. Specifically, the unique characteristics of servant leaders who primarily aim to benefit their followers provide employees with a sense of work-related self-efficacy and situational mindfulness, which are likely to enhance employees’ ability to effectively solve service problems, maintain positive relationships with customers even under challenging conditions, and adequately manage the many demands of their role.

Purpose.

Empathy is a professional skill required to enhance service quality and customer satisfaction during service interactions. It contributes to engaging customers in collaborative interactions oriented toward the co-creation of value beneficial for both customers and the firm. However, there is a dearth of research systematically analyzing how to train service employees (SE) in empathy and how such empathic training affects service quality and customer satisfaction. Our paper aims to address this gap. We conducted a systematic review of empirical studies published in the last ten years in management, education, health, and psychology to address the following research questions: 1) What are the methods, empirically tested, used to train SE to empathize? 2) What are the effects of empathy training on perceived service quality and customer satisfaction? 3) What are the adverse effects of such training on SE, and how it affects the customer experience during service interactions?

Methodology.

We ran a comprehensive systematic review through major databases in health, business, education, and psychology. Our inclusion criteria were as follows:
1. Only qualitative, quantitative, or mixed methods empirical studies.
2. At least one training in empathy is identifiable.
3. The described training in empathy is developed for or tested with SE dealing with customers.
The search produced 15,043 articles, to which we removed 4707 duplicates. By screening the 10,336 references remaining, we excluded 10,075 of them. We assessed 261 articles for eligibility, and we eliminated those that failed to meet our inclusion criteria. The final sample was of 39 relevant articles. Articles meeting the inclusion criteria were subjected to methodological quality assessment using the criteria provided by the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool.

Findings.

Empathy training relies mainly on arts-based narrative intervention, mindfulness-based, and simulation-based role-playing, and motivational/counseling interviewing training. Results show that empathy training decreases burnout and emotional exhaustion and increases self-compassion. It also improves empathy and mindfulness, fostering a positive change in the SEs’ attitude that benefits service quality and customer satisfaction. For instance, SE develops more effective counseling skills to explore the causes of the customers’ emotions and develop creative problem-solving in partnership with customers. They use more congruent and empathic responses to customers’ emotional cues. In turn, customers evaluate service interactions as more respectful, kind, thoughtful, and personalized.
Results of our systematic review also show that empathy training benefits the work environment and teamwork. It increases empathy between SE, humanizes the work environment, and permits SE to share, legitimize, and make meaning of complex service experiences. Empathy training also improves the sense of work community, which leads to better wellbeing. SE are less inclined to fixate upon mistakes, acknowledging the need for humility and self-compassion.

Discussion and implications.

Our study shows that empathy is a professional skill that needs to be trained to be effective during service interactions. Empathy training positively improves SEs’ empathic capacity, which enhances service quality and customer satisfaction. However, the reviewed studies did not focus on potential adverse effects, which provide opportunities to draw a research agenda for the future.