| Author: | Dong, Yun |
| Title: | Exploring the antecedents and consequences of customer-oriented perspective taking |
| Advisors: | Hon, Alice (SHTM) |
| Degree: | Ph.D. |
| Year: | 2024 |
| Subject: | Customer services -- Management Consumer satisfaction Hospitality industry -- Management Hotels Management Hong Kong Polytechnic University -- Dissertations |
| Department: | School of Hotel and Tourism Management |
| Pages: | xiii, 220 pages : color illustrations |
| Language: | English |
| Abstract: | Customer-oriented perspective taking (COPT) is the ability of employees to adopt the viewpoint of customers, comprehending their thoughts, motivations, and emotions. This ability enables employees to gain insights into customer needs, fostering a heightened capacity for empathy. Consequently, employees are better equipped to meet customer needs swiftly and are ideally positioned to deliver superior service. Despite the practical benefits of adopting a customer-oriented perspective, research has largely neglected this concept. Furthermore, the existing body of literature has predominantly investigated this concept at the employee level, overlooking the potential advantages of COPT at the team level. To fully leverage the benefits of COPT, gaining more knowledge of both employee-and team-level COPT is crucial. Grounded in social information processing theory and the relevant work on this topic, the present research suggests that team factors, such as a collectivist culture, servant leadership, and coworker exchange, can communicate to employees that being other-oriented and caring for others’ needs are valued and necessary at work. When employees receive this information and believe that caring about others is a priority, they tend to think from customers’ viewpoints in their service delivery. Accordingly, this research proposes that a collectivist culture, servant leadership, and coworker exchange foster employee-and team-level COPT, helping to promote employee service quality and team service innovation, respectively. Furthermore, this study suggests that high service performance work systems (HSPWS) can significantly moderate the relationships between COPT and its outcomes on a variety of levels. To verify these hypotheses, this research conducted two empirical studies. First, through the adoption of scenario experiments, Study 1 collected data from employees using an online platform and found evidence regarding the effects of organizational factors (i.e., team collectivist culture, servant leadership, and coworker exchange) on employee COPT and service quality. Second, Study 2 employed a field study conducted in China and investigated the impact of the above-mentioned organizational factors on team and employee COPT. Furthermore, this research examined whether COPT could promote service outcomes in the hospitality industry. Finally, this work examined the moderating role of HSPWS in the relationship between COPT and its consequences at different levels. In particular, data from 557 hospitality employees and 121 team leaders of 121 teams was analyzed. The findings show that team factors, including a collectivist culture, servant leadership, and coworker exchange, enhance employee- and team-level COPT, which in turn increase employee service quality and team service innovation, respectively. Furthermore, the findings present that the effect of employee COPT on service quality is heightened when supported by HSPWS. Additionally, the path from team COPT to team service innovation is augmented by HSPWS. This thesis makes a significant contribution to both theory and practice. It demonstrates meaningful factors within an organizational context that can shape employee- and team-level COPT. Furthermore, it affirms the connection between COPT and two critical service outcomes. In addition, it provides valuable insights regarding the human resource strategies that organizations should adopt to enhance team service innovation and employee service quality, thereby delivering ideal outcomes from the practice of COPT. Practically speaking, this study also offers suggestions regarding how to improve employee- and team-level COPT, which in turn will lead to beneficial service outcomes. Team managers should encourage a collectivist culture, promote servant leadership, enhance exchange among coworkers, and implement high service performance human resource management systems. |
| Rights: | All rights reserved |
| Access: | open access |
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