Purpose

This paper aims to investigate how perceptions of employee authenticity and customer–employee rapport influence customers’ interactional justice assessments and related service evaluations, and how customers’ need for uniqueness impacts these relationships.

Design/methodology/approach

A multi-method, three-study design is used to test the research model. Specifically, structural equation modeling provides tests of the main hypotheses, and two supplemental experimental studies tease out conditional effects providing insightful managerial contributions.

Findings

Results indicate that customers’ perceptions of employee authenticity affect customers’ interactional justice evaluations, particularly when customers identify high levels of customer–employee rapport. Additionally, the aforementioned relationships are contingent upon customers’ need for uniqueness, such that customers with higher levels of need for uniqueness experience lower levels of customer–employee rapport and, consequently, provide poorer interactional justice assessments. Finally, conditional effects are found given the type of provider and frequency of visit.

Originality/value

This research extends prior efforts to understand how customer–employee dynamics influence customers’ service encounter evaluations. In particular, it furthers understanding of authentic FLE–customer encounters, explores drivers of interactional justice and explicates how consumers’ varying levels of need for uniqueness have differential effects on service outcomes.

中文翻译：

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前线服务中的真实性、融洽性和互动公正：独特性需求的调节作用

目的

本文旨在调查对员工真实性和客户-员工关系的看法如何影响客户的互动公正评估和相关服务评估，以及客户对独特性的需求如何影响这些关系。

设计/方法/方法

使用多方法、三项研究设计来测试研究模型。具体来说，结构方程模型提供了对主要假设的检验，两项补充实验研究梳理了条件效应，提供了有见地的管理贡献。

发现

结果表明，客户对员工真实性的看法会影响客户的互动公正评价，尤其是当客户确定客户与员工的高度融洽关系时。此外，上述关系取决于客户对独特性的需求，因此对独特性需求水平较高的客户体验到较低水平的客户-员工关系，因此提供较差的互动公正评估。最后，根据提供者的类型和访问频率找到条件效应。

原创性/价值

这项研究扩展了先前的努力，以了解客户-员工动态如何影响客户的服务遭遇评估。特别是，它进一步理解了真实的 FLE 与客户的相遇，探索了互动公正的驱动因素，并解释了消费者对独特性的不同需求水平如何对服务结果产生不同的影响。