Promoting employee service behaviour: The role of perceptions of human resource management practices and service culture

In this study we shed light on the relationship between satisfaction with human resource management (HRM) practices and employee performance. We examined the proposition that employee perceptions of HRM practices predict their behaviour toward customers. Previous writers have based such hypotheses on theory formulated at the level of individual employees, but have used analyses at organizational or aggregate levels. We therefore sought to demonstrate individual-level relationships between employee perceptions and service behaviour We also sought to contrast the role of satisfaction with HRM practices with that of employees' perceptions of how service-oriented their organization's culture was, based on the position of marketing theorists that a service culture is fundamental to promoting service behaviour Our study of airline service employees showed that service culture had a direct effect on self-reported service behaviour and that HRM practice perceptions had both a direct effect on self-reported service behaviour and an indirect effect through service culture. Specifically, satisfaction with leadership and with work demands were the strongest predictors of service behaviour Service culture did not moderate the relationship between perceptions of HRM practices and service behaviour Discussion focused on alternative explanations for the relationship between organizational practices and service behaviour and on the implications for organizations wishing to promote service behaviour.