BECOMING WHO WE SERVE: A MODEL OF MULTI-LAYERED EMPLOYEE-CUSTOMER IDENTIFICATION

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Cardador, M. Teresa; Pratt, Michael G.
• 署名单位: University of Illinois System; University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; Boston College
• 刊物名称: ACADEMY OF MANAGEMENT JOURNAL
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0001-4273
• DOI: 10.5465/amj.2015.1201
• 发表日期: 2018
• 页码: 2053-2080
• 关键词: Social identity; COMPANY IDENTIFICATION; JOB-PERFORMANCE; EXPANDED MODEL; self-esteem; DIRTY WORK; orientation; ORGANIZATIONS; satisfaction; COMMITMENT

摘要

Though employee identification with customers has received little explicit attention in organizational scholarship, and has only recently emerged as an area of focus in marketing, research suggests that customers should play a central role in the identity dynamics of employees. What makes employee-customer identification different from other forms of identification (e.g., employee-organization and customer-organization identification) is that although the organization may be the conduit for identification to occur, it may not be the focus of identification. Indeed, in the organization we explore here, organizational practices lead employees to identify with customers, but to do so in such a way that employees become-at least in part-more like who they served than vice versa. Moreover, the bonds we find between employees and customers are multilayered, incorporating nonwork identities, as well as identities at different levels of inclusiveness (e.g., collective and role). This paper explores and models the development and consequences of multilayered employee-customer identification, argues for its theoretical and practical implications, and suggests avenues for future research.