Search results

An exploratory study examines the relationships between particular managerial practices and qualities of soft intelligence information provided by the sales forces of firms responding to a mail survey. The hypotheses explored were formulated from a review of the literature and anecdotal data. Among the findings are positive associations between managerial practices designed to improve the information provided by the salesforce ‐ such as training, involvement in decision making, recognition and performance evaluation ‐ and various dimensions of the information gleaned from the salesforce. This paper recommends the use of the salesforce as a source of marketing information, and identifies key managerial practices which may be used to improve the flow of information from the salesforce to the organisation's information system.

Frontline employees (FLEs) are a key source of competitive advantage for organizations and have a significant impact on the quality of customer–firm interactions. This study aims to use the stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) model as a theoretical lens to examine whether internal communication (IC) (stimulus) evokes FLEs’ organizational identification (emotional) and job satisfaction (cognitive), and whether these in turn shape FLE customer-oriented behavior (response). The study also tested whether these mediated relationships are moderated by perceived communication formalization.

The hypothesized mediated and moderated effects were tested using data collected from a cross-sectional survey of 293 full-time salespeople working for a large general insurance company.

Both organizational identification and job satisfaction simultaneously mediate the relationship between IC and customer-oriented behavior. Perceived communication formalization was found to weaken the mediated relationship between IC and customer-oriented behavior, but only when this is via job satisfaction.

This study has shown that where IC is positively viewed by FLEs, it can be leveraged as a key driver by organizations to evoke simultaneous positive emotional and cognitive reactions, leading to increased customer-oriented behavior.

This study informs both theory and practice related to effective IC among customer-contact FLEs.

The study shows how IC can simultaneously produce two simultaneous emotional and cognitive reactions leading to FLE customer-oriented behavior and how these mediated relationships can be moderated by perceived communication formalization. The study used the S-O-R model as the theoretical lens to test these relationships.