ANTECEDENTS AND CONSEQUENCES OF FRONTLINE SERVICE EMPLOYEE COMMITMENT TO SERVICE QUALITY

Research that examines approaches for improving frontline service employee commitment to service quality is relatively scarce, especially in business-to-business contexts. Using a sample of 310 frontline service employees from the logistics service provider industry, we examine the effects of alternative developmental and reward-based antecedents and affective and behavioral consequences of frontline service employee commitment to service quality. We also evaluate the moderating effect of manager commitment to service quality relative to frontline service employee commitment to service quality. Our findings indicate that managerial coaching has the strongest influence on frontline service employee commitment to service quality. The results also show that frontline service employee commitment to service quality improves job-related outcomes. In addition, manager commitment to service quality relative to frontline service employee commitment to service quality has a moderating influence on the proposed frontline service employee commitment to service quality framework.