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The purpose of this paper is to examine a model linking directive and supportive leadership to group-level helping behaviors via group-level perceived organizational support (GPOS) and collective affective commitment (CAC).

Using data from 115 business units of an international retailer, the authors tested and compared the theoretical model against more parsimonious solutions using χ² difference tests. The hypotheses were examined within a structural model.

The results show that GPOS acts as a mediator in the relationship between leadership behaviors and CAC and between directive leadership and group-level helping behaviors. Supportive leadership is directly related to CAC and group-level helping behaviors.

Implications of these findings for research on supportive and directive leadership are discussed.

This paper proposed a model that examined intermediate linkages between directive and supportive leadership and group-level helping behaviors. In doing so, the authors provide a preliminary response to recent calls for examination of mediators of task-oriented and relations-oriented leadership effects (Judge et al., 2004).

Relying on the theories of substitutes for leadership and psychological empowerment, this study aims to explore how perceptions of customer positive feedback can substitute for managers’ transformational leadership in driving frontline employees’ psychological empowerment and, in turn, task performance.

The authors tested the research hypotheses with frontline employees working in 17 equipment rental stores. Employees completed a questionnaire about customer positive feedback, transformational leadership and psychological empowerment, and supervisors completed a separate questionnaire about employees’ task performance. A total of 178 employee-supervisor dyads formed the final sample of the study.

The results provided support for our hypotheses. Psychological empowerment fully mediated the relationship between transformational leadership and task performance. Moreover, customer positive feedback moderated the indirect relationship between transformational leadership and task performance such that it was significant and positive only when customer feedback was low.

This paper contributes to the service marketing literature by showing that customer positive feedback can substitute for managers’ leadership in helping frontline employees feeling more in control of their work and psychologically empowered. Another useful contribution for practitioners is that customers may have a positive impact on frontline employees’ motivation state, which past research has little explored.

Drawing on the need–supply fit perspective, this study aims to examine how (mis)alignment between customer orientation (CO) and the service climate (SC) influences the affective organizational commitment and indirectly impacts employees’ customer-oriented behavior (COB) and customers’ word-of-mouth (WOM).

This paper used data from three different sources. The data set comprises 1,420 time-lagged observations from 725 employees surveyed at multiple time points, a total of 19,630 customers from 34 retail stores across multiple time points and the managers of the 34 stores, surveyed multiple times.

Employees’ affective commitment was found to be higher when CO and SC were both high. In case of misalignment, commitment is higher when the SC is stronger than the CO (compared to when the CO is stronger than SC). Employees’ commitment was positively related to subsequent store-level COBs, which in turn boosted customers’ WOM.

Very few studies have looked for impact of (mis)alignment of frontline employee characteristics with business unit features and how it relates to employees and customers responses.

This study aims to investigate the impact of customers’ delight on the likelihood of frontline employees (FLEs) receiving expressions of gratitude from customers, as well as the subsequent effects on their customer-focused and coworker-focused behaviors. Additionally, it examines how customer orientation moderates the relationship between FLE’s likelihood of receiving customer gratitude expressions and their performance behaviors.

The study used a sample from a Canadian retailer specializing in the sale of artistic and creative materials for artists, crafters and hobbyists. Longitudinal data was collected through a survey administered to frontline employees, unit managers and customers, spanning 7 assessment waves over a 12-month period. In total, the data set comprised 1,609 individual observations and 3,533 customers nested within 35 business units. The hypotheses were tested by using a multilevel longitudinal modeling approach.

This research has yielded important insights. First, significant relationships emerged between enhanced customers’ delight and an increased likelihood of FLEs receiving expressions of gratitude from customers. Second, gratitude expressions received from customers were found to be positively associated with prosocial behaviors toward both customers and coworkers. Third, the findings indicate that the impact of receiving customer gratitude expressions on FLEs’ performance behaviors is more pronounced for employees with a high level of customer orientation.

This study highlights the importance of investing in relationship-building strategies aimed at enhancing customers’ delight. This can motivate customers to express their gratitude toward service employees and to elicit higher prosocial behaviors from employees.

This study offers theoretical insights into gratitude, customer behaviors and employee performance in the retail industry. A pivotal contribution of this study to marketing literature lies in its paradigm shift, redirecting attention from the traditional examination of firm-customer relationships to a nuanced exploration of customer–employee relationships.

This study aims to examine how changes in power disparity shape in-groups and upper-level management conflict are associated with intragroup relationship and task conflict variations. It also examines how workplace conflicts relate to focal employees’ perceptions of coworker support.

Data were collected from 3,343 respondents for nine years, comprising measurements taken on six occasions in 47 departments and stores of a Canadian retailer. The relationships between, within and across levels were tested using multilevel structural equation modeling.

The results showed that higher levels of power concentration vested by a few members or a single person are associated wih higher levels of intragroup conflict than usual. Furthermore, higher levels of task and relationship conflicts at upper management levels are associated with higher-than-usual task and relationship conflicts between nonhierarchical employees. Additionally, a higher-than-usual intragroup task conflict level was associated with lower-than-usual coworker support, supporting the proposed multilevel dynamic model.

An important limitation of this study is that all variables are self-reported despite using the six-wave repeated measurements, thereby increasing the possibility of inflating some observed relationships. Future research should examine the emergence of a larger spectrum of power dispersion configurations and their role on process conflict.

Retail managers should legitimize why a high-power concentration occurs when the equal distribution of power is not possible and find ways to minimize the trickle-down effects of conflicts at upper levels on their subordinates.

This study examines the effect of variability on power configurations and conflict in upper management ranks on conflict dynamic. The findings show that a high-power concentration elicits increasing conflicts, and that there is no empirical evidence that intragroup conflict is associated with positive outcomes.

This study sought to test two competing sets of hypotheses derived from two different theoretical perspectives regarding (1) the effects of leader–follower similarity and dissimilarity in psychological resilience on the follower's absenteeism in times of organizational crisis and (2) the moderating effect of relational demography (gender and age similarity) in these relationships.

Polynomial regression and response surface analysis were performed using data from 510 followers and 149 supervisors in a financial firm in Canada.

The results overall support the similarity–attraction perspective, but not the resource complementarity perspective. Dissimilarity in resilience was predictive of followers' absenteeism, and similarity in surface-level conditions (gender and age) attenuates the relational burdens triggered by resilience discrepancy.

The findings reiterate the importance of developing employees' resilience, while shedding light on the importance for managers of being aware of their potential misalignment with subordinates resilience.

The results (1) suggest that it is the actual (di)similarity with the leader, rather than leader's degree of resilience, that shapes followers' absenteeism and (2) add nuance to the resilience literature.

The purpose of this study is to examine whether the performance of the compensation system is better explained by the universalist approach or the contingent approach. The paper also attempts to determine the type of fit that yields the most promising gains in terms of perception of performance.

Data were collected by questionnaire from 602 large organizations in three countries (Canada, France, and the UK), and from this, five hypotheses were formulated and tested using moderated regression analysis.

The study shows that having an optimal relationship among compensation policies (intra‐activity fit) leads to a more efficient compensation system than that obtained following an alignment with business strategies (vertical strategic fit) and with organizational development strategies (internal organizational fit). However, the results suggest that the universalist perspective cannot be rejected.

Human resources managers should exercise prudence regarding the pairing of compensation policies with various organizational characteristics, particularly those related to compensation management policies, because it is the interaction between compensation policies and their management methods that most influences the perception of performance. Of all these management policies, transparency of salary information seems to be central to the contingency perspective.

One of the most interesting contributions of this research is the identification of negative alignments that may result in negative performance. The joint application of two compensation policies, which, individually, have a positive influence on performance, can create a negative interaction. Contingency is therefore not always desirable, and prudence is recommended in the types of alignments introduced.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate how perceived career channels and career anchors are related to objective internal career success, and how subjective career success mediates the effects of objective success on employer satisfaction.

Data were collected using questionnaires, and hypotheses were tested on a sample of 800 engineers and managers. Of the sample, 35 percent were female and 67 percent worked in the private sector.

The findings show that the more respondents perceive that performance carries weight in promotion decisions, the higher their level of objective career success. In contrast, the importance placed on relations with the hierarchy has no significant influence. Respondents with a strong management anchor report greater objective career success, and those with a strong life style anchor report lesser objective career success, but greater success in life outside work. Finally, the findings indicate that job success is associated with greater satisfaction with employer, whereas life success is related to lesser satisfaction.

This study is based on a sample taken from one profession (engineers), in a specific cultural context. The cross-sectional research design precludes the inference of some causality conclusions.

Organizations may benefit from disseminating promotion attribution criteria and reducing perceptions of favoritism in reward allocation. In addition, this study shows that not only individuals but also the employer can benefit from greater positive interdependence between career success and life success.

This study represents the first comprehensive attempt to examine the role of perceived career channels and career anchors in objective and subjective career success.

Based on the high-involvement management model and the Substitutes for Leadership theory, the purpose of this paper is to evaluate the moderating role of high-involvement management practices on the relation between managers’ transformational leadership and employees’ affective organizational commitment.

Data were collected from employees of a large Canadian financial firm. Questionnaires were sent out and 219 received, representing a response rate of 63.3 percent. The hypotheses were tested using multiple regressions analysis with moderation effects.

The results show three statistically significant interactions between transformational leadership and high-involvement management practices. More specifically, information sharing and power sharing practices acted as leadership enhancers, while skill development practices served as a leadership substitute.

The results of this research could help immediate supervisors adjust their leadership strategies to their organizations’ HRM practices, and also guide top managers in choosing practices that can support these supervisors.

This study contributes to the literature on leadership by considering how contextual factors may affect the influence of transformational leadership and by integrating HRM practices within the substitutes for leadership framework.

This paper seeks to examine the relationships between affective commitment and organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) across four foci: organizations, supervisors, coworkers, and customers. Further, it aims to determine whether relationships among commitments and OCBs involve mediated linkages.

This study relies on matched employee‐supervisor data (n=216). The relative fit of different models representing relationships among commitments and OCBs was examined using structural equations modeling.

Results revealed that commitments to coworkers, customers and supervisors displayed positive relationships with OCBs directed at parallel foci. In addition, commitment to the global organization partially and negatively mediated the relationship of commitments to coworkers and customers to parallel OCBs dimensions. Results also revealed cross‐foci relationships between local commitments and OCBs. Finally, no commitment target was significantly associated with organization‐directed OCBs but the latter were positively related to local OCBs.

The paper demonstrates that multiple commitments and OCBs are involved in a complex net of relationships among which local foci play a critical, and positive, role.