ABSTRACT

This study represents a scholarly endeavour to explore the effects of Covid-19 perceptions on customer orientation via job insecurity, burnout and workplace motivation alongside generational effects non-equivalency amongst a sample of customer service employees working in different businesses located in three countries in the MENA region. We received 752 responses composed of three generations (i.e. X, Y, and Z) that were analysed mainly using Partial-Least-Square Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) approach and that included path and multigroup analyses. Our results show that intense Covid-19 perceptions have indirect adverse effects on customer orientation via a sequence of mediators comprising job insecurity, burnout and workplace motivation. Non-equivalency is spotted across generations regarding the relationships between job insecurity and burnout, burnout and motivation as well as motivation and customer orientation. Besides, intense Covid-19 perceptions act more substantially as an indirect trigger of less favourable levels of customer orientation amongst younger generations.

摘要

这项研究代表了一项学术努力，旨在通过工作不安全感、职业倦怠和工作动机以及在中东和北非地区三个国家不同企业工作的客户服务员工样本中的代际效应不对等来探索 Covid-19 对客户导向的影响地区。我们收到了由三个世代（即 X、Y 和 Z）组成的 752 个响应，这些响应主要使用偏最小二乘结构方程建模 (PLS-SEM) 方法进行分析，包括路径和多组分析。我们的结果表明，强烈的 Covid-19 认知通过一系列中介因素（包括工作不安全感、倦怠感和工作场所积极性）对客户导向产生间接的不利影响。在工作不安全感和职业倦怠、职业倦怠和动力以及动力和客户导向之间的关系上，不同代人都发现了不对等。此外，对 Covid-19 的强烈看法在很大程度上间接触发了年轻一代对客户的偏好程度较低。