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Your Appreciation Helps Me Grow: The Influence of Customer Gratitude Expression on Employee Career Growth

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  • Yuan Zhang
  • Sihong Zhang
  • Shaoqing Zhang

Abstract

Building on emotions as social information theory, this study examines the mechanism underlying the impact of cognitive job crafting on the relationship between customer gratitude expression and frontline employees’ career growth. Career centrality is tested as a boundary condition. To deepen the understanding of the gratitude effect in this context, this research employs both a scenario-based experiment and a three-wave field survey. The findings reveal that customer gratitude expression positively affects frontline employees’ career growth through cognitive job crafting. This effect is amplified among employees with high career centrality. As an initial attempt to investigate the gratitude effect on the relationship between customers and frontline service employees, this paper contributes to the literature on customer gratitude by highlighting its influence on frontline employees’ career growth from the perspective of cognitive job crafting.

Suggested Citation

  • Yuan Zhang & Sihong Zhang & Shaoqing Zhang, 2025. "Your Appreciation Helps Me Grow: The Influence of Customer Gratitude Expression on Employee Career Growth," SAGE Open, , vol. 15(3), pages 21582440251, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:sagope:v:15:y:2025:i:3:p:21582440251356031
    DOI: 10.1177/21582440251356031
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