Employees Treat Customers the Same Way as They Are Treated by Their Managers: The Relationship between Differentiated Empowering Leadership and Employee Proactive Customer Service Performance

Abstract

Abstract: Based on the proactive motivation model, the present research examines how and when differentiated empowering leadership influences employees' proactive customer service performance. Using 321 employees matched with 92 team leaders in hotel industry as sample, our hierarchical linear analysis shows that differentiated empowering leadership negatively influences employees' harmonious passion, and in turn, reduces their proactive customer service performance. In addition, the power distance perceived by employees mitigates the negative effect of differentiated empowering leadership on employees' harmonious passion in such a way that the negative effect is especially significant when the power distance perception is weak and less significant when power distance perception is strong. Finally, the present study establishes a moderated mediation model in which power distance perception moderates the indirect negative relationship between differentiated empowering leadership and employees' proactive customer service performance via employee harmonious passion.

Key words: differentiated empowering leadership, harmonious passion, proactive customer service performance, proactive motivation model

Dong Yanan, Jiang Jing, Gu Huimin, Yang Baiyin. Employees Treat Customers the Same Way as They Are Treated by Their Managers: The Relationship between Differentiated Empowering Leadership and Employee Proactive Customer Service Performance[J]. Management Review, 2022, 34(7): 211-223.

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