The Antecedents of Customer-Contact Employees' EmpowermentWritten by Yahya MelhemPresented by Sara Plummer

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).

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).

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.

Figure 1

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

Figure 2

Empowerment Survey

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

Results

Trust, knowledge and communication all proved significant

Contrary to previous research, incentives were found less significant than other antecedents

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

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

Sources

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