Abstract:
The successful management of frontline staff is important for service organisations as
customers often make evaluative judgements of the service encounter through interactions
with these staff. The behaviour and attitude of these frontline staff therefore playa
fundamental part in this evaluation. It is important therefore to understand the factors which
affect staff performance, their satisfaction with their job and their quitting intentions. With
that in mind, this study investigates the relationship between organisational level service
orientation and staff training, individual service orientation, job satisfaction, affective
commitment and instrumental commitment, and intention to leave the organisation. The
study is a survey to frontline service staff in a tourism operation. We find that employees'
perception of organisational level service orientation positively impacts their behaviour
towards customers, as does training. However, employee satisfaction and affective
commitment do not appear to be significant predictors of customer focused behaviour.
The study contributes to the field of services management, by further exploring managerial
actions that impact the behaviour of employees towards customers, and casts doubt-on the
long held assumption that satisfied and committed employees will be motivated and able to
deliver exceptional customer service.
