Purpose

Collaboration between frontline employees (FLEs) and frontline robots (FLRs) is expected to play a vital role in service delivery in these increasingly disrupted times. Firms are facing the challenge of designing effective FLE-FLR collaborations to enhance customer experience. This paper develops a framework to explore the potential of FLE-FLR collaboration through the lens of interdependence in customer service experience and advances research that specifically focuses on employee-robot team development.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper uses a conceptual approach rooted in the interdependence theory, team design, management, robotics and automation literature.

Findings

This paper proposes and defines the Frontline employee – Frontline robot interdependence (FLERI) concept based on three structural components of an interdependent relationship – joint goal, joint workflow and joint decision-making authority. It also provides propositions that outline the potential impact of FLERI on customer experience and employee performance, and outline several boundary conditions that could enhance or inhibit those effects.

Practical implications

Managerial insights into designing an employee-robot team in service delivery are provided.

Originality/value

This study is the first to propose a novel conceptual framework (FLERI) that focuses on the notion of human-robot collaboration in service settings.

中文翻译：

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服务中的员工（机器人）机器人协作：相互依赖的视角

目的

在这个日益混乱的时代，一线员工 (FLE) 和一线机器人 (FLR) 之间的协作预计将在服务交付中发挥至关重要的作用。公司正面临着设计有效的 FLE-FLR 协作以增强客户体验的挑战。本文开发了一个框架，通过客户服务体验中的相互依存性和推进特别关注员工-机器人团队发展的研究，探索 FLE-FLR 协作的潜力。

设计/方法/方法

本文使用了一种植根于相互依赖理论、团队设计、管理、机器人技术和自动化文献的概念方法。

发现

本文基于相互依赖关系的三个结构组成部分——联合目标、联合工作流和联合决策权限，提出并定义了一线员工——一线机器人相互依赖（FLERI）概念。它还提供了概述 FLERI 对客户体验和员工绩效的潜在影响的提议，并概述了可能增强或抑制这些影响的几个边界条件。

实际影响

提供了在服务交付中设计员工机器人团队的管理见解。

原创性/价值

这项研究首次提出了一种新颖的概念框架 (FLERI)，该框架专注于服务环境中人机协作的概念。