Research Article
A Study on the Effect of Service Employees' Role Ambiguity on Customer Orientation
Published: January 2002 · Vol. 31 No. 5 · pp. 1165-1183
Full Text
Abstract
This study established and investigated a structural model comprising the antecedents of role ambiguity—empowerment, consideration, feedback, and behavior-based evaluation—along with the outcome variables of employee satisfaction and customer orientation, in measuring the customer orientation of service employees according to their role ambiguity. The results indicated that the more effectively supervisory consideration, task feedback, and behavior-based evaluation were provided to employees, the more their role ambiguity decreased. Empowerment and supervisory consideration were found to have direct effects on employee satisfaction. Meanwhile, employee role ambiguity had a negative effect on both employee satisfaction and customer orientation, while employee satisfaction had a positive effect on customer orientation.
