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The Antecedents of Customer-Contact Employees' Empowerment

The Antecedents of Customer-Contact Employees' Empowerment. Written by Yahya Melhem Presented by Sara Plummer. Previous Research.

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The Antecedents of Customer-Contact Employees' Empowerment

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  1. The Antecedents of Customer-Contact Employees' Empowerment Written by Yahya Melhem Presented by Sara Plummer

  2. Previous Research • Empowerment is “freeing someone from rigorous control by instructions, policies, and orders, and giving that person freedom to take responsibility for his/her ideas, decisions, and actions” (Carlzon, 1987). • Empowerment of employees is crucial in competitive service environments (Bowen and Lawler, 1992). • Enabling employees to sense their own power and the significance may help employees manage the emotions required of their performance (Fineman, 1993).

  3. Previous Research • The more intangible, inseparable, heterogeneous the service the more important the role-played by the customer-contact employee in the service delivery process and in the service encounter relationship (Lovelock, 1983). • Empowerment is significant in delivering service to the degree of responsiveness and flexibility needed to satisfy customer needs. (Bitner et al., 1990).

  4. Objective • To examine the impact of four antecedents to empowerment of customer contact employees in the service industry. • Trust • Information and Communication • Incentives • Knowledge • These factors are predicted to have influence customer-contact staff empowerment, which is expected to produce satisfied employees that are more capable of providing value to customers.

  5. Figure 1

  6. Knowledge • Definition: Skills and Expertise • Research: Knowledge enables service employees to solve customers' problems and answer customers' questions promptly saving time and effort for the customer, the manager and themselves (Drucker, 1989). • Proposition: Empowerment levels are higher among employees with more knowledge and skills.

  7. Information Flow & Communication • Definition: the extent of information sharing between customer-contact employees and their supervisors • Supervisor-Employee (S-E) Communication • Information Flow • Research: Communication enables employees to answer the customer questions correctly, quickly and effectively (Kanter, 1989) • Proposition: The levels of empowerment will be higher when effective communication and dissemination is present within organization

  8. Trust • Definition: an individual's willingness to be vulnerable to another based on the belief that another party is competent, honest, reliable, and concerned about the individual's own interests • Research: Without trust, no empowerment scheme could work (Rothstein et al. 1995). • Proposition: Empowerment will be higher when more trust is being exercised supervisors and employees

  9. Incentives • Definition: Positive reinforcement for solving problems • Research: Incentives enhance employees' concern for the success of their organization (Miles and Creed, 1995) • Proposition: Empowerment levels will be higher when employees are rewarded and recognized for their ability to satisfy customers

  10. Methodology • Data collection • 517 bank employees in 14 commercial banks in Jordan. • Managers and most service employees were familiar with the concept of empowerment • Asked about their perceptions regarding empowerment and the empowerment conditions.

  11. Survey • 12 questions regarding the employee’s self perceived role within three dimensions of empowerment • Responsiveness – flexibility in their response to customers • Control – procedural and decision-making control • Discretion – autonomy and freedom in dealing with customers • Additional questions asked separately pertaining to each of the antecedents • Results sought to link the importance of each antecedent to each empowerment dimension

  12. Figure 2

  13. Empowerment Survey

  14. Results • Positive relationship between antecedents and empowerment dimensions • Control • Significant: Trust and Knowledge • Mildly Significant: S-E Communication • Not Significant: Information Flow and Incentives • Responsiveness • Significant: Trust, Information Flow and Knowledge • Not Significant: S-E Communication and Incentives • Discretion • All significant but incentives • Negative correlation to incentives

  15. Results • Trust, knowledge and communication all proved significant • Contrary to previous research, incentives were found less significant than other antecedents

  16. Limitations • Results may not represent majority of services because of: • Type of service • Geographic location • Cultural differences • Only one measurement method was used • Difference in worker perceptions

  17. Management Implications • Give more attention to the empowerment aspect examine the antecedents and their relation to empowerment • Create a more flexible work structure that allows for staff initiative and creativity • Focus on knowledge and trust as they are the most important factors in empowerment

  18. Sources Yahya Melhem (2004). The antecedents of customer-contact employees' empowerment. Employee Relations. Bradford: Vol. 26, Iss. 1/2; pg. 72

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