Bridging two tales of engagement: a meta-analytic review of employee engagement and customer engagement in service contexts
verifiedmedium profile · Journal of Service Management · 2022
Michel, Eric J.; Lindsey-Hall, Kristina K.; Kepes, Sven; Qi, Ji (Miracle); Leon, Matthew R.; Weinzimmer, Laurence G.; Wheeler, Anthony R.
How this was studied
A meta-analytic synthesis — it pools many primary studies rather than running a single design, so there is no single-study diagram.
What this article reports
The findings we extracted from this work, normalized into Principia’s relationship form (X → Y). Each feeds the synthesized models below.
employee engagement score → employee service performance
work engagement → employee service performance
Models this article informs
The meta-analytic priors this article contributes evidence to — its place in the broader synthesis.
employee engagement score predicts employee service performance
employee service performance predicts customer loyalty
work engagement predicts employee service performance
In the authors’ words
The article’s own abstract.
Purpose Employing a service-profit chain (S-PC) framework, this manuscript investigates the relationship between employee engagement (EE) and customer engagement (CE) within service contexts and explores how a mediating mechanism, service employee work performance (SEWP), links EE with CE. Design/methodology/approach Meta-analytic procedures ascertain the magnitude of the relationship between EE and SEWP ( k = 102, <m:math xmlns:m="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><m:mrow><m:mover accent="true"><m:mi>ρ</m:mi><m:mo>^</m:mo></m:mover></m:mrow></m:math> = 0.45) and between SEWP and three dimensions of CE: customer purchases ( k = 42, <m:math xmlns:m="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><m:mrow><m:mover accent="true"><m:mi>ρ</m:mi><m:mo>^</m:mo></m:mover></m:mrow></m:math> = 0.47), customer knowledge ( k = 4, <m:math xmlns:m="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><m:mrow><m:mover accent="true"><m:mi>ρ</m:mi><m:mo>^</m:mo></m:mover></m:mrow></m:math> = 0.33) and customer influence ( k = 7, <m:math xmlns:m="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><m:mrow><m:mover accent="true"><m:mi>ρ</m:mi><m:mo>^</m:mo></m:mover></m:mrow></m:math> = 0.42). The current meta-analysis reports an effect size for the EE-overall SEWP relationship nearly 1.50 times greater than related extant meta-analyses. Findings Results suggest SEWP, consisting of service employee task performance and contextual performance, serves as an important intervening mechanism between EE and CE by considering nine dimensions of SEWP. Such findings suggest that to maximize SEWP, service employees must go beyond simply being satisfied in their work roles; instead, service employees must feel energized, find fulfillment and meaning and be engrossed in their work to maximize the service they provide to customers. Originality/value This research extends previous meta-analytic efforts, bridges the multi-disciplinary gap between EE and CE research, provides an empirical link allowing for informed decision-making for managers and stakeholders, underscores the importance of service employees surpassing required job responsibilities to meet and exceed customer needs and suggests an agenda for future service research integrating EE and CE.
What the literature says about it
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