Resumen de Promoting boundary spanning behavior among service personnel
Jaewon Yoo, Todd Arnold, Gary L. Frankwick
Purpose The model proposed in this research helps to explain how person-organization fit and competitive intensity, conceptualized as a job resource and a job demand, respectively, ultimately affect the development of frontline employee boundary spanning behavior.
Design/methodology/approach A survey methodology was employed in collecting data from a sample of bank employees in South Korea. To analyze the data, a structural equation model procedure using LISREL 8.5 was employed (Jöreskog and Sörbom 1996).
Findings Results suggest that a frontline employee�s person-organization fit decreases emotional exhaustion and increases achievement striving motivation. Competitive intensity significantly reduces achievement striving motivation. Results also show that competitive intensity significantly attenuates the positive relationship between Person-Organization fit and employee achievement striving motivation, highlighting the importance of contextual industry stressors upon internal organizational behaviors. Both emotional exhaustion and achievement striving motivation are found to ultimately affect boundary spanning behaviors except for the link between emotional exhaustion and service delivery.
Originality/value The current study applies the Job-Demands Resources Model to demonstrate how both an externally-initiated job demand (competitive intensity) and an internally-oriented job resource (person-organization fit) influence employee experience of emotional exhaustion and achievement striving motivation. Interaction effects of person-organization fit and competitive intensity on employee�s psychological states (emotional exhaustion and achievement striving motivation) are also examined. Further, it is demonstrated that both emotional exhaustion and achievement striving motivation will directly influence service employee boundary-spanning behaviors, but in differential manners. This highlights the importance of exhaustion and motivation as mediators for the ultimate effect of a job resource (P-O fit), answering a call for such understanding of the developmental process for boundary spanning behaviors (Podsakoff et al., 2000). This is the first empirical study to link both internal and external elements to illuminate the process for developing job demands and resources, as well as boundary spanning behaviors.
