Purpose

To reduce costs, many banks have increased customer involvement during the creation and delivery of their products and services. Based on a job demands-resources (JD-R) model, this study tests an inverted U-shaped curvilinear relationship between perceived customer participation and employee work engagement. Customer orientation (CO) and service employee perceived fit with customers (PCF) moderate this relationship, which eventually affect both the internal and external benefits of service-employee work engagement.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors collected survey data from 518 service employees in the South Korean banking and insurance industries and analyzed the data using structural equation modeling (SEM).

Findings

The results indicate that perceived customer participation (PCP) has a significant inverted U-shape effect on work engagement. Results also suggest that CO and PCF have positive relationships with work engagement. In addition, they moderate the inverted U-shaped relationship between service employee PCP and work engagement, while work engagement positively affects organizational citizenship, job satisfaction and commitment.

Research limitations/implications

The authors empirically identify a curvilinear effect of PCP on work engagement. In doing so, the authors introduce and operationalize the new construct: PCF and suggest PCF and CO as unique job resources for service employees. The authors also examine these constructs as predictors based on a motivational process and as moderators based on a strain (energetic) process.

Practical implications

From a managerial perspective, examining the curvilinear relationships of customer participation and work engagement suggests that front-line employees’ (FLEs’) PCP does not necessarily enhance the economic benefits of productivity gains by using customers as substitutes for portions of employee labor. Another finding with managerial relevance indicates that service employees, who have more CO and PCF, showed more tolerant attitudes toward unnecessary and excessive levels of customer participation and regarded it as a job resource.

Originality/value

This study explains that researchers must consider the positive and negative sides of customer participation simultaneously because frontline employee PCP can be changed depending on the level of participation provided by customers. This study also shows that CO can be assumed as a personal resource and PCF as an environmental resource in the work engagement process.

中文翻译：

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从员工角度看客户参与的影响

目的

为了降低成本，许多银行在产品和服务的创建和交付过程中增加了客户参与度。基于工作需求资源（JD-R）模型，本研究测试了感知的客户参与度与员工工作参与度之间的倒U型曲线关系。以客户为导向（CO）和被认为适合客户的服务员工（PCF）可以缓和这种关系，最终影响服务员工工作投入的内部和外部利益。

设计/方法/方法

作者从韩国银行和保险业的518名服务员工中收集了调查数据，并使用结构方程模型（SEM）分析了数据。

发现

结果表明，感知的客户参与度（PCP）对工作参与具有显着的倒U型影响。结果还表明，CO和PCF与工作投入具有积极关系。此外，它们减轻了服务员工PCP与工作投入之间的倒U型关系，而工作投入则对组织公民，工作满意度和承诺产生积极影响。

研究局限/意义

作者根据经验确定了PCP对工作投入的曲线影响。在此过程中，作者介绍了PCF并将其付诸实践，并建议PCF和CO作为服务员工的独特工作资源。作者还检查了这些构造，将其作为基于动机过程的预测因子，并作为基于压力（能量）过程的调节因子。

实际影响

从管理者的角度来看，检查客户参与和工作参与的曲线关系表明，一线员工（FLE）的PCP不一定通过使用客户代替部分员工劳动来提高生产率的经济效益。与管理相关的另一个发现表明，拥有更多CO和PCF的服务员工对不必要和过度的客户参与表现出更宽容的态度，并将其视为工作资源。

创意/价值

这项研究解释说，研究人员必须同时考虑客户参与的积极和消极方面，因为一线员工PCP可以根据客户提供的参与程度进行更改。这项研究还表明，在工作参与过程中，可以将CO假定为个人资源，将PCF假定为环境资源。