When Frontline Employee Behavior Backfires
研究揭示一线员工行为可能引发顾客感激或亏欠感，后者会阻碍正面口碑等关系行为，基于威胁自尊理论构建模型并通过两项实证检验。
Frontline employee behaviors can elicit gratitude, allowing service providers to reap benefits including positive word of mouth. However, research has begun to suggest some behaviors might instead elicit indebtedness, a different emotion not always associated with positive outcomes. Using a qualitative study, we construct a model grounded in the threat to self-esteem theory that delineates differences in employee behaviors that generate these two emotions and the consequences of their elicitation. The model is empirically tested in two studies. Consistent with the threat to self-esteem theory, the findings indicate that customer gratitude arises in supportive employee-customer encounters and drives positive relational behaviors. Conversely, customer indebtedness occurs in threatening employee-customer encounters and possesses the potential to deter positive relational behaviors. As a result, we encourage scholars to appreciate the differences between these two emotions and managers to promote employee behavior designed to generate gratitude and not indebtedness.