The Antecedents of Customer-Contact Employees' Empowerment Written by Yahya Melhem Presented 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 Employee Empowerment KnowledgeIncentives Information Flow and Communication Trust

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 Control Responsiveness Discretion Knowledge Supervisor- Employee (S-E) Communication Information- Flow TrustIncentives

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