Antecedents and consequences of the contact employee's service orientation: From personality traits to service behaviors

Scope and method of study. The purpose of this dissertation was to investigate the contact employee's service orientation trait. Two studies were completed to create and test a service orientation scale. The first study utilized a diverse group of contact service employees who completed the service orientation items. Once the items were completed, exploratory factor analysis was used to reduce the scale down to a manageable number of items. In the second study, a bank and restaurant sample was collected to test the seven hypotheses proposed. By using two diverse service settings, the external validity of the scale was evaluated. Furthermore, the scale was tested for discriminant validity against four scales that are conceptually unrelated to service orientation. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypotheses in both service settings.;Findings and conclusions. Service firms may train their employees in the art of providing superior service. However, if an employee is not predisposed to a service orientation, training may be pointless. This study developed a service orientation scale and identified basic psychological traits predictive of service orientation. The service orientation trait is conceptualized as a surface trait (Mowen 1999) resulting from the interaction between basic psychological traits and the specific situational context in which employees interact with customers. The research used Goldberg's (1993) Big Five personality traits to investigate employee service orientation. The study found that the psychological traits of extraversion, stability, agreeability, conscientiousness and openness predict the service orientation trait. Thereafter, the service orientation mediating variable predicted an employee's service performance. Employees that rated high on service orientation performed better than lower rated employees on functional performance (the process), technical performance (the outcome), global performance and organizational citizenship behaviors.