Samenvatting
Previous literature fails to offer firms consistent guidelines on how successful managers may enhance or reduce the potential to learn from frontline service encounters. In addressing this research gap, this study contributes to the frontline employee (FLE) literature by 1) investigating the contingency role of managers’ perceived career success in FLEs’ personal learning process, 2) distinguishing between FLEs’ service-related and context-related personal learning, and 3) accounting for both exploratory and exploitative learning. This study uses two datasets: an exploratory dataset on 253 FLEs and a multilevel and multisource dataset on 444 FLEs and 55 service managers. Findings reveal that managers who are unsuccessful in their careers still stimulate frontline learning processes, but their subordinates generally use only their service-related personal learning to generate ideas for service improvement. Successful managers are better able to guide their FLEs in how to turn context-related learning into service improvement.
| Originele taal-2 | Engels |
|---|---|
| Pagina's (van-tot) | 601-617 |
| Aantal pagina's | 17 |
| Tijdschrift | Journal of Business Research |
| Volume | 134 |
| DOI's | |
| Status | Gepubliceerd - sep. 2021 |
Financiering
Cristiana R. Lages is grateful to the Portuguese Science and Technology Foundation—FCT—(BD111502002) for financial support and the company’s employees who provided invaluable assistance. Cristiana Raquel Lages is the Vice-Director of the Service Management Lab and a Researcher financed by Foundation for Science and Technology at the Research Centre in Management and Economics, Católica Porto Business School. Previously, Cristiana was Senior Research Manager at Elsevier, Associate Professor at Henley Business School, University of Reading as well as Senior Lecturer in the faculty of Loughborough University School of Business and Economics and a Lecturer at Leeds University Business School. Her research has received financial support from several bodies, namely EUDOKMA Marie Curie, Banco Santander, Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, European Institute for Advanced Studies in Management (EIASM), Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Warwick Business School, Loughborough School of Business and Economics, The University of Warwick, among others.