IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v13y2021i7p3693-d524538.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

When and How Does Sustainable HRM Improve Customer Orientation of Frontline Employees? Satisfaction, Empowerment, and Communication

Author

Listed:
  • Youngsam Cho

    (College of Business, Gyeongsang National University, BERI, Jinju-daero 501, Jinju 52828, Korea)

  • Yongduk Choi

    (College of Business, Chonnam National University, Yongbong-ro 77, Buk-gu, Gwangju 61186, Korea)

Abstract

This study investigated the relationship between sustainable human resource management (HRM) practices, employee satisfaction, and customer orientation of frontline employees (FLEs) in the hotel industry from the perspective of internal marketing. Specifically, the study focused on three facets of sustainable HRM practices (i.e., training, reward, and benefit) as well as organizational empowerment and communication as FLE-supportive contexts. Although some studies have examined the relationship between HRM practices and customer orientation, they overlooked the importance of service context in facilitating FLE customer orientation. Thus, this study developed a comprehensive framework based on social exchange theory and self-determination theory. The results show that all three facets of the sustainable HRM practices were positively related to FLEs’ satisfaction. FLEs’ satisfaction was also positively related to their customer orientation. Furthermore, both organizational empowerment and communication moderated the relationship between FLEs’ satisfaction and customer orientation, which showed a positive relationship only when FLEs perceived high organizational empowerment or communication. The research findings provide beneficial theoretical and practical implications.

Suggested Citation

  • Youngsam Cho & Yongduk Choi, 2021. "When and How Does Sustainable HRM Improve Customer Orientation of Frontline Employees? Satisfaction, Empowerment, and Communication," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-14, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:7:p:3693-:d:524538
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/7/3693/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/7/3693/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Coelho, Filipe J. & Evanschitzky, Heiner & Sousa, Carlos M.P. & Olya, Hossein & Taheri, Babak, 2021. "Control mechanisms, management orientations, and the creativity of service employees: Symmetric and asymmetric modeling," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 753-764.
    2. Huseyin Arasli & Hasan Evrim Arici & Ezel Kole, 2020. "Constructive Leadership and Employee Innovative Behaviors: A Serial Mediation Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-17, March.
    3. Stock, Ruth Maria, 2016. "Understanding the relationship between frontline employee boreout and customer orientation," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(10), pages 4259-4268.
    4. Conduit, Jodie & Mavondo, Felix T., 2001. "How critical is internal customer orientation to market orientation?1," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 51(1), pages 11-24, January.
    5. Stock, Ruth, 2016. "Understanding the Relationship between Frontline Employee Boreout and Customer Orientation," Publications of Darmstadt Technical University, Institute for Business Studies (BWL) 84792, Darmstadt Technical University, Department of Business Administration, Economics and Law, Institute for Business Studies (BWL).
    6. Loan Pham Thi Phuong & Young-joo Ahn, 2021. "Service Climate and Empowerment for Customer Service Quality among Vietnamese Employees at Restaurants," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-14, January.
    7. Unji Baek & Hossein Olya & Seul Ki Lee, 2018. "Effects of individual resources and team-member exchange on service quality," The Service Industries Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(9-10), pages 584-606, July.
    8. Gahye Hong & Eunmi Kim, 2019. "How to Attract Talented Expatriates: The Key Role of Sustainable HRM," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(19), pages 1-13, September.
    9. Mariappanadar, Sugumar, 2020. "Do HRM systems impose restrictions on employee quality of life? Evidence from a sustainable HRM perspective," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 38-48.
    10. Hamidreza Khalili & Ardalan Sameti & Hassan Sheybani, 2016. "A Study on the Effect of Empowerment on Customer Orientation of Employees," Global Business Review, International Management Institute, vol. 17(1), pages 38-50, February.
    11. Huseyin Arasli & Ahmet Nergiz & Mehmet Yesiltas & Tugrul Gunay, 2020. "Human Resource Management Practices and Service Provider Commitment of Green Hotel Service Providers: Mediating Role of Resilience and Work Engagement," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-22, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Akriti Gupta & Aman Chadha & Vijayshri Tiwari & Arup Varma & Vijay Pereira, 2023. "Sustainable training practices: predicting job satisfaction and employee behavior using machine learning techniques," Asian Business & Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 22(5), pages 1913-1936, November.
    2. Roel Schouteten & Beatrice van der Heijden & Pascale Peters & Sascha Kraus-Hoogeveen & Leonie Heres, 2021. "More Roads Lead to Rome. HR Configurations and Employee Sustainability Outcomes in Public Sector Organizations," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-21, October.
    3. Daria Gom & Tek Yew Lew & Mary Monica Jiony & Geoffrey Harvey Tanakinjal & Stephen Sondoh, 2021. "The Role of Transformational Leadership and Psychological Capital in the Hotel Industry: A Sustainable Approach to Reducing Turnover Intention," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(19), pages 1-20, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chux Gervase Iwu & Abdullah Promise Opute & Olayemi Abdullateef Aliyu & Chukuakadibia Eresia-Eke & Tichaona Buzy Musikavanhu & Afeez Olalekan Jaiyeola, 2021. "A Structural Equation Modelling Evaluation of Antecedents and Interconnections of Call Centre Agents’ Intention to Quit," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-21, April.
    2. Dirk De Clercq & Steven A. Brieger, 2022. "When Discrimination is Worse, Autonomy is Key: How Women Entrepreneurs Leverage Job Autonomy Resources to Find Work–Life Balance," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 177(3), pages 665-682, May.
    3. Karatepe, Osman M. & Kim, Taegoo Terry, 2020. "Investigating the selected consequences of boreout among cabin crew," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    4. Roel Schouteten & Beatrice van der Heijden & Pascale Peters & Sascha Kraus-Hoogeveen & Leonie Heres, 2021. "More Roads Lead to Rome. HR Configurations and Employee Sustainability Outcomes in Public Sector Organizations," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-21, October.
    5. Lyngdoh, Teidorlang & Chefor, Ellis & Hochstein, Bryan & Britton, Benjamin P. & Amyx, Douglas, 2021. "A systematic literature review of negative psychological states and behaviors in sales," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 518-533.
    6. Chen, Jian-xun & Zhang, Bo & Zhan, Wu & Sharma, Piyush & Budhwar, Pawan & Tan, Hui, 2022. "Demystifying the non-linear effect of high commitment work systems (HCWS) on firms’ strategic intention of exploratory innovation: An extended resource-based view," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    7. Junfeng Zhang, 2010. "Employee Orientation and Performance: An Exploration of the Mediating Role of Customer Orientation," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 91(1), pages 111-121, February.
    8. Jiminez-Guerrero, Jose F. & Perez-Mesa, Juan C. & Burgos-Jimenez, Jeronimo de & Piedra-Munoz, Laura, 2018. "Considering the consumer in the design of a supply chain of perishables," International Food and Agribusiness Management Review, International Food and Agribusiness Management Association, vol. 21(4).
    9. Youn Kue Na & Sungmin Kang & Hye Yeon Jeong, 2019. "The Effect of Market Orientation on Performance of Sharing Economy Business: Focusing on Marketing Innovation and Sustainable Competitive Advantage," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-19, January.
    10. Vishal K. Gupta & Gizem Atav & Dev K. Dutta, 2019. "Market orientation research: a qualitative synthesis and future research agenda," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 13(4), pages 649-670, August.
    11. Salomão Alencar de Farias, 2010. "Internal Marketing (IM): a literature review and research propositions for service excellence," Brazilian Business Review, Fucape Business School, vol. 7(2), pages 99-115, May.
    12. Hugo Palácios & Helena de Almeida & Maria José Sousa, 2021. "A Bibliometric Analysis of Service Climate as a Sustainable Competitive Advantage in Hospitality," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-27, November.
    13. Gounaris, Spiros P., 2006. "Internal-market orientation and its measurement," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 59(4), pages 432-448, April.
    14. Park, Hyewon & Hur, Won-Moo & Kang, Seongho, 2023. "Contribution of sales control in salespeople’s creative selling: Work engagement as a mediator," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    15. Alisher Khamdamov & Zhiwei Tang & Muhammad Ali Hussain, 2023. "Unpacking Parallel Mediation Processes between Green HRM Practices and Sustainable Environmental Performance: Evidence from Uzbekistan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(2), pages 1-18, January.
    16. Tsang-Kai Hung & Chih-Hung Wang & Mu Tian & Ming Lin & Wen-Hsiu Liu, 2022. "How to Prevent Stress in the Workplace by Emotional Regulation? The Relationship Between Compulsory Citizen Behavior, Job Engagement, and Job Performance," SAGE Open, , vol. 12(2), pages 21582440221, June.
    17. Bassam Dalal & Ahmad Aljarah, 2021. "How Brand Symbolism, Perceived Service Quality, and CSR Skepticism Influence Consumers to Engage in Citizenship Behavior," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-18, May.
    18. Wu, Chih-Wen, 2011. "Global marketing strategy modeling of high tech products," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 64(11), pages 1229-1233.
    19. Matina Gjurasic & Dina Loncaric, 2018. "Internal Market Orientation And Organizational Citizenship Behaviour In The Hospitality Industry €“ A Literature Review," Economic Thought and Practice, Department of Economics and Business, University of Dubrovnik, vol. 27(1), pages 157-176, june.
    20. Rabindra Kumar Pradhan & Madhusmita Panda, 2021. "Human Resource Empowerment: Development and Validation of a Measurement Tool," Global Business Review, International Management Institute, vol. 22(4), pages 1019-1037, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:7:p:3693-:d:524538. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.