Tracy M. Hayes and Marilyn M. Helms
Companies today must continuously improve their processes in order to meet the ever changing needs of the consumer. In the past, most utility providers (telephone, natural gas…
Abstract
Companies today must continuously improve their processes in order to meet the ever changing needs of the consumer. In the past, most utility providers (telephone, natural gas, etc.) paid little attention to improving processes in order to improve customer service, due to their monopolistic hold on the consumer. However, due to past and current utility deregulation, many of these companies face the possibility of losing their customers to new competitors. This means these companies are being forced to leave their old ways behind and embrace new ideas. This article is a description of one utility company’s approach to improving one of its key processes. Special attention is given to team work, measurement systems, and the role of top management, in an attempt to help the reader understand the potential pitfalls of process improvement as well as the potential for improvement in bottom line results.
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The aim of this chapter is to define and explore the group of emotions known as self-conscious emotions. The state of the knowledge on guilt, shame, pride, and embarrassment is…
Abstract
The aim of this chapter is to define and explore the group of emotions known as self-conscious emotions. The state of the knowledge on guilt, shame, pride, and embarrassment is reviewed, with particular attention paid to research on these four self-conscious emotions in work and organizational settings. Surprisingly little research on self-conscious emotions comes from researchers interested in occupational stress and well-being, yet these emotions are commonly experienced and may be a reaction to or even a source of stress. They may also impact behaviors and attitudes that affect stress and well-being. I conclude the review with a call for more research on these emotions as related to stress and well-being, offering some suggestions for areas of focus.
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Felix Septianto, Fandy Tjiptono and Denni Arli
Prior research suggests that consumers can engage in moral decoupling by separating their judgments of morality from their judgments of performance. Hence, they might rationalize…
Abstract
Purpose
Prior research suggests that consumers can engage in moral decoupling by separating their judgments of morality from their judgments of performance. Hence, they might rationalize the benefits of unethical behavior without condoning the behavior itself. This paper aims to study how a discrete positive emotion, such as authentic pride, can mitigate moral decoupling.
Design/methodology/approach
Using three experimental studies, this research investigates and tests the underlying mechanism driving authentic pride, its effects and its key moderator. The results are analyzed using ANOVAs, regression-based serial mediation and moderated mediation analyses.
Findings
The results show that authentic pride decreases consumer acceptance of unethical behavior across different contexts, including purchase intentions for unethically manufactured products (Study 1), evaluations of the corporate social responsibility activities of a tobacco company (Study 2) and acceptance of questionable consumer behavior in daily situations (Study 3).
Research limitations/implications
This research explores attitudes and behavioral intentions as dependent variables. It would thus be of interest for future research to examine a behavioral measure.
Practical implications
Given the potential problems of moral decoupling among consumers, marketers can devise effective strategies to reduce this problem using authentic pride appeals.
Originality/value
This research demonstrates how authentic pride can decrease consumer acceptance of unethical behavior. More importantly, this research enriches our understanding of the underlying mechanism driving the influence of authentic pride such that it increases the belief in a just world, which in turn lowers moral decoupling (a serial mediation).
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Yue Lu, Zhanqing Wang, Defeng Yang and Nakaya Kakuda
Brands are increasingly reflecting social values, and many brands have begun to embrace equality and inclusivity as a marketing strategy. Accordingly, consumers are increasingly…
Abstract
Purpose
Brands are increasingly reflecting social values, and many brands have begun to embrace equality and inclusivity as a marketing strategy. Accordingly, consumers are increasingly being exposed to brands associated with different social groups. This paper aims to examine how consumers who have experienced pride respond to brands associated with dissociative out-groups.
Design/methodology/approach
Four studies were conducted. Study 1 tested the basic effect of how the experience of different facets of pride affects consumers’ brand attitudes toward a brand associated with a dissociative out-group. Studies 2 and 3 examined the underlying mechanism of consumers’ psychological endorsement of egalitarianism using both mediation and moderation approaches. Study 4 derived implications of our findings for marketers.
Findings
The results show that consumers respond differently to a brand associated with a dissociative out-group based on the facets of pride they experience. When consumers experience authentic (vs hubristic) pride, they exhibit a more favorable attitude toward the brand associated with the dissociative out-group. This is because authentic (vs hubristic) pride increases consumers’ psychological endorsement of egalitarianism, which enhances consumers’ brand attitudes toward the brand associated with the dissociative out-group.
Practical implications
The findings suggest that brand managers should think about ways to elicit consumers’ authentic pride to minimize the potential backlash from consumers when promoting equality and inclusivity in their brand communications, particularly when such communications contain cues of dissociative out-groups.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to the branding literature by identifying pride as an important determinant that can help brands overcome the negative impact of dissociative out-groups on consumers’ brand reactions, enriches the literature on pride by documenting a novel effect of the two facets of pride on consumer behavior and extends the literature of egalitarianism by demonstrating pride as a driver of consumers’ psychological endorsement of egalitarianism.
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Billy Sung, Felix Septianto, Michelle Stankovic and Chien Duong
Expressions of pride may elicit others’ envy. In the consumer context, prior research has repeatedly demonstrated that such envy significantly affects consumers’ attitudinal and…
Abstract
Purpose
Expressions of pride may elicit others’ envy. In the consumer context, prior research has repeatedly demonstrated that such envy significantly affects consumers’ attitudinal and behavioural responses towards the object of envy. This paper aims to investigate whether this pride-envy relationship is bi-directional. Does being envied by others affect consumers’ self-directed feelings of pride, as well as their subsequent attitude towards a product (i.e. the object of envy)?
Design/methodology/approach
Three experiments examined how emotional reactions of envy from others may influence consumers’ subsequent affective and attitudinal responses towards their own product or purchase. The first experimental study (n = 129) examined whether exposure to benign envy from others evokes higher levels of authentic pride and positively influences product attitude. The second experiment (n = 159) investigated whether exposure to malicious envy from others evokes high levels of hubristic pride, and therefore, negatively influences product attitude. The third study (n = 80) was a quasi-field experiment seeking to provide further empirical support for the relationship between benign (vs malicious) envy and authentic (vs hubristic) pride and their effects on attitude.
Findings
The first experiment showed that when participants observed expressions of benign envy towards them, they expressed authentic pride, which ultimately increased positive attitudes towards the product. The second experiment showed that when participants observed expressions of malicious envy towards them, they expressed hubristic pride, which, in turn, reduced positive attitudes towards the product. The effect of malicious envy was further moderated by susceptibility to social influence, whereby the indirect effect of malicious envy on product attitudes was only significant among participants with high susceptibility. The third experiment demonstrated the relationship between benign (vs malicious) envy and authentic (vs hubristic) pride and the effects on attitude in a quasi-field study.
Research limitations/implications
The present paper aims to fill a research gap by showing how being the recipient of others’ malicious or benign envy affects consumers’ self-directed feelings of pride, as well as their attitude towards a product that is the object of envy.
Practical implications
The current research is among the first to show that the emotional expressions of other consumers can influence existing consumers’ affective responses and attitudes towards a product. These findings highlight the importance of building a positive culture and community around brands and products, whereby other consumers’ consumption of the brand or product is perceived positively.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first empirical evidence demonstrating that others’ expression of benign (malicious) envy may lead to the self-feeling of authentic (hubristic) pride, which has a downstream effect on attitude towards the product.
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Anna Milena Galazka and Sarah Jenkins
Drawing on interviews with two types of essential workers – wound clinicians and care workers – the chapter examines stigma management in dirty care work through the lens of…
Abstract
Drawing on interviews with two types of essential workers – wound clinicians and care workers – the chapter examines stigma management in dirty care work through the lens of emotion management. The study combines two dimensions of dirty work: physical taint in relation to bodywork and social taint linked to working in close proximity to socially stigmatized clients. Hence, stigma management extends to dealing with the physically and socially dirty features of essential care work. In addition, the authors’ assessment of social stigma includes how essential care workers also sought to alleviate the social stigma encountered by their clients. In so doing, the authors extend the literature on dirty work to identify how emotion management skills are central to the stigma management strategies of the essential care workers in this study. The authors demonstrate how both groups deal with their stigma by emphasizing the emotion management skills in ‘doing’ dirty work and in the ‘purpose’ of this work, which includes acknowledging how the authors attempt to address the social taint encountered by their clients. Additionally, by comparing two occupations with different contexts and conditions of work, the authors show how complex emotion management skills are gendered in care work to expand the understanding of gender and stigma management. Furthermore, these emotion management skills emanate from the deep relational work with clients rather than through occupational communities. The authors argue that by focussing on emotion management, the hidden skills of dirty work in gendered care work are illuminated and contribute to contemporary debates about whether stigma can be overcome.
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Ulrich R. Orth, Roberta Carolyn Crouch, Johan Bruwer and Justin Cohen
The purpose of this study is to adopt a functional perspective to integrate and extend three streams of research, the first distinguishing between global affect and discrete…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to adopt a functional perspective to integrate and extend three streams of research, the first distinguishing between global affect and discrete emotional episodes, the second highlighting the capability of places to elicit emotions and the third demonstrating the differential impact of discrete emotions on consumer response. Doing so shows that four positive place emotions have a significant and variable influence on consumer purchase intentions for brands originating there.
Design/methodology/approach
A focus group pilot corroborates that places relate to contentment, enchantment, happiness and pride, which impact consumer response. Study 1 uses landscape photographs to show the four place emotions influence purchase intention for bottled water. Study 2 retests the impact of place emotions, using short vignettes and establishes the moderating role of product hedonic nature. Study 3 replicates emotion effects, corroborating their non-conscious nature and establishing their impact in the presence of place cognitions.
Findings
Together, the empirical studies provide evidence for effects of four discrete place emotions, especially with hedonic products and under conditions of cognitive load. Effects are robust when a person’s mood, buying volume, category knowledge, impulse buying tendencies and place cognitions are included as controls.
Research limitations/implications
The study contributes to a better understanding of the emotional dimension of origin effects by adopting a novel, theory-based perspective on discrete positive place emotions impacting consumer response.
Practical implications
Managers invest substantially in places to elicit positive feelings, gravitating toward the view that all they need to do is create a global positive effect with consumers. The study informs this perspective by demonstrating how discrete emotions influence consumer response.
Originality/value
This study is among the first to examine discrete positive place emotions as possible drivers of consumers’ purchase intention.
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Jinfeng (Jenny) Jiao, Catherine Cole and Gary Gaeth
Pride is an emotional response to success or achievement with two facets, AP and HP. This study aims to address an unanswered question: how does each type of pride affect…
Abstract
Purpose
Pride is an emotional response to success or achievement with two facets, AP and HP. This study aims to address an unanswered question: how does each type of pride affect indulgence when consumers engage in relatively thoughtful processing (System II) versus when they engage in rapid and more superficial processing (System I).
Design/methodology/approach
Using four experiments, this research investigates the effects of pride and cognitive resources on indulgence. This study also tests the mediating roles of deservedness and self-esteem using an ANOVA, a bootstrap analysis and a binary logistic-regression analysis.
Findings
The results show that cognitive resources moderate the effects of AP and HP on indulgence. When consumers have ample cognitive resources, AP leads to more indulgence than HP. When consumers have restricted cognitive resources and engage a quick, affective-based processing system, HP leads to greater indulgence than AP.
Research limitations/implications
This research enhances understanding of the impact of two kinds of pride on indulgence and advances the authors’ understanding in the broader area linking emotion and consumer decision-making.
Practical implications
Marketers and public policymakers need to understand the differences between AP and HP because they have potentially different impacts on consumer behavior. Depending on whether companies are trying to motivate consumers to indulge or to restrain from indulging, companies can successfully incorporate AP or HP into their marketing communications.
Originality/value
The key contribution of this research is that the authors show that both AP and HP can lead to indulgence, depending on the amount of cognitive attention that is allocated to the decision and, therefore, which system consumers deploy.
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Ashly Pinnington, Hazem Aldabbas, Fatemeh Mirshahi and Tracy Pirie
This study aims to investigate the relationship between different organisational development programmes (360-degree feedback; Coaching; Job assignment; Employee assistance…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the relationship between different organisational development programmes (360-degree feedback; Coaching; Job assignment; Employee assistance programmes; On-the-job training; Web-based career information; Continuous professional development; External education provision) and employees’ career development. The implications of the moderating effects of gender on the relationships between these eight organisational programmes and career development are assessed.
Design/methodology/approach
To examine hypothesised relationships on eight organisational programmes and career development, this paper computed moderated regression analyses using the PROCESS macro (3.5), for a two-way analysis of variance (Hayes, 2018). The data collected are based on a survey sample of employees (n = 322) working in Scotland.
Findings
Two main findings arose from this empirical study. First, there are significant direct relationships between seven out of the eight organisational development programmes and their influences on employees’ career development. Second, gender is a significant moderator for four of the programmes’ relationship with career development, namely, coaching, web-based career information, continuous professional development and external education provision. However, gender failed to moderate the four other programmes’ (i.e. 360-degree feedback, job assignment, employee assistance programmes and on-the-job training) relationship with career development.
Originality/value
This paper concludes that closer attention should be given to the organisational design of these development programmes and consideration of potential gender differences in employees’ perception of their importance for career development in their organisation. To date, the majority of research in the literature has concentrated on the impact of training on career development, so this study contributes to the body of knowledge on a set of organisational development programmes and their effect on career development moderated by gender.
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Felix Septianto, Nitika Garg and Nidhi Agrawal
A growing literature shows that (integral) emotions arising in response to firm transgressions may influence consumer punishment. However, incidental emotions (which are unrelated…
Abstract
Purpose
A growing literature shows that (integral) emotions arising in response to firm transgressions may influence consumer punishment. However, incidental emotions (which are unrelated to the decision at hand) can also be powerful drivers of consumer decision-making and could influence responses to firm transgressions. This paper aims to examine the role of incidental gratitude, as compared to incidental pride and a control condition, in shaping the acceptance of questionable consumer behavior toward a transgressing firm and the mediating role of self-righteousness in this regard.
Design/methodology/approach
Four experimental studies are conducted to examine the effect of gratitude, as compared to pride and a control condition, on the acceptance of questionable consumer behavior against a transgressing firm. Further, this research tests the underlying mechanism and a boundary condition of the predicted effect.
Findings
The results show that consumers experiencing gratitude, as compared to pride and a control condition, judge a questionable consumer behavior directed against a transgressing firm as less acceptable. These different emotion effects are found to be explained by self-righteousness. The findings also demonstrate that an apology by the firm attenuates the effect of emotions on consumer response toward the transgressing firm.
Research limitations/implications
The present research contributes to the literature on consumer punishment by identifying the role of incidental emotions in determining self-righteousness and ethical judgments. The research focuses on and contrasts the effects of two specific positive emotions – gratitude and pride.
Practical implications
This paper offers managerial implications for firms involved in a transgression by highlighting the potential of gratitude. Notably, the findings of this research suggest that gratitude activation via marketing communications may help firms mitigate the negative effects of transgression events.
Originality/value
The present research provides a novel perspective on when and how positive emotions, such as gratitude and pride, can differentially and systematically influence ethical judgment toward a transgressing firm.