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This study explores the moderated mediation effect, wherein collective mindfulness attenuates the hypothesised relationship between customer incivility, service sabotage and psychological well-being and is supported by the conservation of resources (COR) theory.

Multiwave and multisource data were collected from 315 frontline employees (FLEs) working in 32 Indian bank branches. Using HLM 7.00, the authors tested a multilevel model in which branch-level collective mindfulness moderated the association amongst individual-level customer incivility, psychological well-being and service sabotage.

A higher level of collective mindfulness had a profound cross-level effect on the association between customer incivility and service sabotage through psychological well-being.

Distinct from prior research that focussed on individuals' personal resources as a buffer against customer incivility, the authors' study identified branch-level collective mindfulness as a boundary condition that helps employees experiencing customer incivility decrease service sabotage. By uncovering a branch-level variable that reduces the negative impact of customer incivility on service sabotage, the authors' study offers valuable insights for banks to enhance customer service at their branches.

This study aims to explore how and when managers' job crafting contributes to their service performance. The first objective of the research was to assess the mediating relationship between franchised restaurant managers' job crafting, work engagement and service performance. Its second objective was to examine the moderating effect of organizational control systems on the job crafting–work engagement relationship.

The authors administered paper-and-pencil surveys to 235 franchised restaurant managers in South Korea. The authors tested their hypotheses via Process 3.5 macro and bootstrapping.

The results confirmed the mediating effect of work engagement on the relationship between job crafting and work engagement. Furthermore, this relationship was more pronounced when the headquarters used a high level of outcome-based control systems and a low level of behavior-based control systems.

Distinct from studies that have examined service employees' job crafting, this study uncovers the role of managerial job crafting in service performance. The findings contribute to service theory and practice by providing novel insights into the interplay between managerial job crafting and organizational control systems.

This study aims to explore the role of frontline service employees’ (FSEs) awareness that their job can be substituted by smart technology, artificial intelligence, robotics and algorithms (STARA) in their job autonomy and proactive service performance and when these relationships can be buffered. Drawing on the cognitive appraisal theory of stress, the study examined the mediating relationship between FSEs’ STARA awareness, job autonomy and proactive service performance and the moderating effects of self-efficacy and resilience on this relationship.

The authors administered two-wave online surveys to 301 South Korean FSEs working in various service sectors (e.g. retailing, food/beverage, hospitality/tourism and banking). The Time 1 survey measured respondents’ STARA awareness, self-efficacy, resilience and job autonomy, and the Time 2 survey assessed their proactive service performance.

FSEs’ STARA awareness negatively affected their subsequent proactive service performance through decreased job autonomy. The negative association between STARA awareness and job autonomy was weaker when FSEs’ self-efficacy was high than when it was low. While the authors observed no significant moderation of resilience, the author found a marginally significant three-way interaction between STARA awareness, self-efficacy and resilience. Specifically, STARA awareness was negatively related to job autonomy only when both self-efficacy and resilience were low. When either self-efficacy or resilience was high, the association between STARA awareness and job autonomy became nonsignificant, suggesting the buffering roles of the two personal resources.

Given that the measurement of variables relied on self-reported data, rater biases might have affected the findings of the study. Moreover, the simultaneous measurement of STARA awareness, self-efficacy, resilience and job autonomy could preclude causal inferences between these variables. The authors encourage future studies to use a more rigorous methodology to reduce rater biases and establish stronger causality between the variables.

Service firms can decrease FSEs’ STARA awareness through training in the knowledge and skills necessary to work with these technologies. To promote FSEs’ proactive service performance in this context, service firms need to involve them in decisions related to STARA adoption and allow them to craft their jobs. Service managers should provide FSEs with social support and exercise empowering and supportive leadership to help them view STARA as a challenge rather than a threat.

Distinct from prior research on STARA awareness and employee outcomes, the study identified proactive service performance as a key outcome in the STARA context. By presenting self-efficacy and resilience as crucial personal resources that buffer FSEs from the deleterious impact of STARA awareness, the study provides practitioners with insights that can help FSEs maintain their job autonomy and proactive service performance in times of digitalization and automation.

Due to volatile changes and crises in the business environment, frontline service employees (FSEs) are faced with increasing work stressors in the new service marketplace. Of these, customer incivility has been found to negatively affect their work outcomes. This study aims to examine the moderating effect of experiencing an imminent environmental crisis (i.e. the COVID-19 pandemic) on the relationship between customer incivility, work engagement and job crafting, using pre- and postpandemic samples.

The authors administered two-wave surveys to 276 FSEs (prepandemic sample) in July and October 2019 and to 301 FSEs (postpandemic sample) in March and April 2020.

Moderation analyses showed that the relationship between customer incivility, work engagement and job crafting varied between FSEs who experienced the pandemic and those who did not; the relationship was stronger for the postpandemic than the prepandemic sample. There was a positive relationship between work engagement and job crafting; it was weaker for the postpandemic sample.

The deleterious effect of customer incivility exacerbated after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic; however, the authors did not explore why the pandemic aggravated the negative effect. The mechanism underlying the moderating effect of the pandemic and the effect of more diverse types of incivility should be explored in future research.

It is critical to provide FSEs with instrumental and emotional support to cope with the crisis brought on by the pandemic. Service organizations must monitor customers’ uncivil behaviors to identify their causes and develop interventions to improve service quality. Furthermore, service organizations are advised to enhance the coping capabilities of FSEs by using diverse interventions, such as emotion regulation training, debriefing sessions, short breaks and job crafting.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to reveal the moderating effect of the pandemic on the relationships between customer incivility, work engagement and job crafting, using pre- and postpandemic samples. This study offers necessary insights to improve FSEs’ engagement at work and enhance their job crafting in the new service marketplace.

This study aims to test the mediating effect of cross-selling behavior (CSB) on the relationship between sales manager feedback (i.e. output and behavioral) and sales performance, and the moderating effect of emotional labor (i.e. deep and surface acting) on this relationship.

The authors used two-wave multisource data: survey and objective sales performance (sales revenue) data collected from 300 door-to-door salespeople working at a South Korean cosmetics company.

The relationship between output feedback and sales performance was mediated by CSB. In addition, the positive relationship between output feedback and CSB was weakened by deep and surface acting, whereas that between behavioral feedback and CSB was strengthened by deep acting. Specifically, behavioral feedback had a positive relationship with CSB when salespeople engaged in a high level of deep acting. This relationship was not significant for low and medium levels of deep acting. The authors’ supplementary analyses indicated no significant three-way interaction effect between output feedback, behavioral feedback and emotional labor on CSB.

Data collection from door-to-door salespeople in a single cosmetics company undermines the generalizability of the present findings.

By exploring the boundary conditions that strengthen or weaken the effectiveness of manager feedback, this study provides insights into how the two types of manager feedback can be effectively used to promote CSB and sales performance.

This study offers a nuanced understanding of the relative roles of output and behavioral feedback in CSB and the differential moderating effects of emotional labor on the two types of manager feedback.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between employees’ perceptions of organizational virtuousness and task crafting, and to test the mediating roles of organizational identification and work engagement in this relationship.

The authors collected questionnaires from 175 Korean flight attendants and conducted structural equation modeling analyses.

Employees’ perceptions of organizational virtuousness were positively associated with task crafting. While organizational identification was not solely responsible for mediating this relationship, it intervened in the relationship between organizational virtuousness perceptions and task crafting by affecting work engagement.

While this study provides important insights into the roles of organizational virtuousness, organizational identification, and work engagement in promoting task crafting, the use of self-reported, cross-sectional data limits causal inferences between variables.

Based on the present findings, managers can better understand the antecedents and mediating processes affecting employees’ task crafting.

This study adds value to the positive organizational psychology literature by revealing crucial intermediary processes linking organizational virtuousness perceptions and task crafting, thus suggesting reciprocity and social identity-based motivation as potential underlying mechanisms of task crafting.

The purpose of this paper is to test the theoretical proposition, put forward by Yukl et al. (2002), that the leadership constructs of transformational and transactional leadership, laissez-faire, consideration, and initiating structure can be arranged into three meta-categories of leadership, namely, relations, task, and change-oriented leadership.

After a comprehensive literature search, 1,402 correlations from 286 sources were obtained which referred to the above mentioned leadership constructs and outcome criteria of effective leadership.

It was found that three meta-categories of leadership (i.e. relations, task, and change-oriented leadership) were sufficient to explain the leadership constructs of transformational and transactional leadership, laissez-faire, consideration, and initiating structure. Moreover, it was also found that change-oriented leadership was most effective in predicting the job satisfaction of followers. In contrast, relations-oriented leadership accounted for most of the variance in both commitment and job performance.

In combination, these results allow for a more comprehensive, integrative description of effective leadership behavior.

The results have implications for leadership assessment and development as well as leader selection and feedback.

Applying Occam’s razor, and in contrast to the majority of prior leadership studies, the present meta-analytical study provided evidence that three categories of leadership behaviors allow for a precise and comprehensive description of effective leadership behavior.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive examination of different leadership constructs investigated extensively, namely transformational and transactional leadership, laissez-faire, consideration, and initiating structure, as well as leader-member-exchange. The theoretical overlap as well as the empirical correlations between these constructs is explored.

Overall, 735 correlations were analyzed to generate a meta-analytical correlation matrix.

The meta-analyses revealed highly interrelated leadership constructs (0.26<∣ρ∣<0.74). Results of confirmatory factor analyses suggest a one factor solution of leadership.

The uniqueness and construct validity of leadership constructs is challenged, calling for a revision of the respective leadership theories. Ultimately, an integrative theory of leadership should be developed which accounts for similarities as well as differences between leadership constructs. An integrated theory of leadership would help: researchers to combine their forces and, consequently, organizations across the globe to better select and develop leaders for the future.

By taking a critical, cross-theoretical compare and contrast approach, the present study yielded a comprehensive picture of the interrelationship and partial redundancy of several of the currently researched leadership constructs.

New insights into the overlap between leadership constructs were generated and confirmed by meta-analyses.