Dynamic characteristics of customer participation: Based on job demand and resource model

Abstract

Scope and Method of Study: Based on a Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model, this study advances and empirically tests a conceptual model proposing the relationship between perceived customer participation (PCP), frontline employee's work engagement and employee's job performance (job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and organizational citizenship behavior). This study suggests an inverted U-shaped relationship between perceived customer participation and work engagement. In this research, customer orientation (CO) and frontline employee-customer fit (PCF) are suggested as moderators. As a personal resource, CO has direct effect on work engagement. As an environment resource, PCF also show positive relationship with work engagement. Based on the JD-R model, CO and PCF enhance the positive relationship and buffer the negative relationship between frontline employee PCP and work engagement. Internal and external benefits of frontline employee's work engagement are also investigated.

Findings and Conclusions: The findings suggest the dynamic characteristics of customer participation and confirm the need for job demands-resources model as a background theory when one attempts to link frontline employee's perception about customer participation on his/her work engagement. Results also support the larger moderating effects of CO and frontline employee-customer fit in the inverted U-shaped relationship between employees' perceived participation and work engagement. Based on these findings, managerial and research implications are offered at the conclusion of the dissertation.