IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/vision/v30y2026i4p449-462.html

The Contribution of Communication to Employee Satisfaction in Service Firms: A Causal Configurational Analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Carla Curado
  • Paulo Lopes Henriques
  • Helena Mateus Jerónimo
  • Jéssica Azevedo

Abstract

Following social exchange theory, which claims that a set of dimensions lead to employee satisfaction, we tested a sample of 163 employees from companies operating in the services sector in Portugal. We used a fsQCA approach to identify the configurations of conditions that lead to the presence and absence of satisfaction. The results show that there are several paths leading to high satisfaction, which require the simultaneous existence of three levels of communication: the organization, the leader and peers. Equally, there are a number of paths that lead to low satisfaction. Our findings enrich social exchange theory as a theoretical background to understanding the complex nature of satisfaction and to illustrating which conditions promote reciprocity among employees through higher levels of satisfaction.

Suggested Citation

  • Carla Curado & Paulo Lopes Henriques & Helena Mateus Jerónimo & Jéssica Azevedo, 2026. "The Contribution of Communication to Employee Satisfaction in Service Firms: A Causal Configurational Analysis," Vision, , vol. 30(4), pages 449-462, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:vision:v:30:y:2026:i:4:p:449-462
    DOI: 10.1177/09722629221101157
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/09722629221101157
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/09722629221101157?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:sae:vision:v:30:y:2026:i:4:p:449-462. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.