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The International Journal of Human

Resource Management
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The antecedents of employee

commitment to customer service:
evidence from a UK
a b
Riccardo Peccei & Patrice Rosenthal
a
London School of Economics
b
The Management Centre , King's College, London
Published online: 28 Jul 2006.

To cite this article: Riccardo Peccei & Patrice Rosenthal (1997) The antecedents of employee
commitment to customer service: evidence from a UK, The International Journal of Human
Resource Management, 8:1, 66-86, DOI: 10.1080/09585199700000041

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 8: I Februrrry 1997
The Internarional Journal of H~itnrrnRe.\ource M~tiagetner~t

The antecedents of employee commitment

to customer service: evidence from a UK
service context

Riccardo Peccei and Patrice Rosenthal

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Abstract This paper provides a first attempt at conceptualizing and operationalizing the
notion of commitment to customer service (CCS) as part of a broader concern to explore
the determinants of key aspects of service quality and of intlividuai-level performance in
service organizations. Based on an explicitly bchavioural delinitior~of commitment to
customer service, we first set out a ~iiodelof thc antcccdenls of CCS. We then test it using
data from a representative sample of 717 employees of a major hod-retailing
organization in the UK. The results suggest that commitment to customcr scrvice is
primarily a non-calculative phenomenon driven above all by affcctivc. normative and
al~ruistic concerns, rather than by overtly instrumental considerations. Additional
significant determinants of CCS were job pressure, job routinization. job compctcncc ant1
employees' underslanding of customer scrvice requirements. Research and policy
implications of the study are discussed.
Keywords E~nployeecommitment to customcr service. customcr orientation, service
quality, empowerment, human resource management. scrvice sector

Introduction
Interest in the HRM phenomenon has outstrippctl our knowledge of its potential
contribution to performance. Some recent studies have attempted to capture human
resource systeni effects by statistically relating various forms of enlployee management
(defined by the presence of intensity of particular practices) and establishment-lcvel
outcomes (see, for example, Arthur, 1994; Fernie and Metcalf? 1995; Guest and Hoque,
1994). Althougll research within this vein is important in beginning to assess the impact
of HRM within organizations, it does not address the 1ir1kuge.s through employee
attiti1r1e.sand behovioltr arid incliviclircil-level pc~tf?)rtnntlcewhich are implied by existing
maps or models of HRM (Guest. 1987).
These intervening relationships - of ernployee attitudes. beliaviour and individual
level performance - which may link HR practice and organizational performance
remain insufficiently examincti in the HRM literature. Wc seek to contribute to the
debate about HRM and performance by opening this 'black box' in regard to the
antecedents of a particular aspect of individual \vork pcrforlnance. If the point of HRM
is to put into place the conditions necessary for a reorientation of employee behaviour,
for example in the direction of higher commitment, we need as a first step a better
understanding of what detemiines thc desired bchaviour within organizations.
The development and testing of modcls of individual-level pcrforlnance is i~iiportant
both for HRM theory building and prescription. First, it can provide a detailed - yet
testable - conceptual framework which, although tocusing on intervening linkages in
the HRM process, can be extended to incorporate and evaluate formal HRM policy/-

0985-5 192 O Chapman & Hall 1997

 The arztecedents of employee conznzitment to customer service 67
practice and organizational performance. Second, a better understanding of the
antecedents of desired behaviours can provide a more solid empirical basis for the
selection, design and operation of HRM policies. As Guest and Hoque (1994) note,
there is no theoretical basis to detennine whether some policies are more important for
performance than others. By focusing on particular desired HRM outc:onies, and
working back to discover the relative importance of individual and organizational
variables as determinants, we can build a better understanding of this issue. In this
paper, we focus on a key aspect of individual performance within service sector
organizations: employee commitment to customer service.

Commitment to customer service

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In response to intensified competition and changing customer preferences, a growing

number of service sector organizations strive to differentiate themselves on the basis of
high-quality customer service. This differentiation strategy can take a variety of specific
forms. The organization may, for example, offer timely delivery, decreased waiting
times, generous merchandise return policies and so on. Regardless of the specific
dimension of custolner satisfaction on which an organization is trying to excel, the role
of the front-line staff in its delivery is crucial. There is evidence that customers'
perceptions of the quality of service they receive from the organization is profoundly
affected by the nature of their interaction with front-line staff (Bowen, Siehl and
Schneider, 1989). Schlesinger and Heskett (1991: 74) cite research finding that two-
thirds of customers defecting from service organizations do so because they find those
e~nployeeswith whom they interact 'indifferent or unhelpful'.
The traditional route to service provision has been through the standardization of the
service transaction, achieved through the imposition of close supervision and standard-
ised rules for employees. Staff may, for example, be required to greet customers with
a certain form of words and to follow a specified sequence of actions throughout the
transaction. In this sense, the interaction between employee and custolner ideally
follows a kind of 'script', with customer as well as employee subject to its control.
However, with the rise of the concept of service quality, ideas about service - and
about how to provide it - have undergone a sea change. The flexibility, initiative and
individualised care entailed in the concept of service quality (defined most frequently as
exceeding the varying expectations of customers) are increasingly seen as irreconcilable
with bureaucratic structures and cultures. Attention has thus shifted to the possibility of
e~nployeecornrnitnlenr to c~~storner service as a conduit to the provision of high-quality
service.
For some writers working in the area of service quality, the concept of commitment
to customer service - or, as sornetimes termed, customer orientation - is used in an
attitudinal or dispositional sense, refelring to the internalization of customer service
values and norms (see, for example, Heskett, 1987). For others, the focus is more
behavioural. For example, Saxe and Weiss (1982) define customer orientation as the
satisfaction of custo~nerneeds at the level of the employee-customer interaction.
Nevertheless, the possibility of service quality driven by the commitment of staff has
captured the i~naginationof managers in many organizations, spurring investment in
initiatives designed to strengthen employees' custolner orientation and their comniit-
ment to customer service (see for example, Bowen and Lawler, 1992; Peters, 1987). As
an important interim goal of management, employee commitment to customer service
has clear practical significance.
 68 Kiccard(1 Peccei and Patrice KO.SCII~I~LII

It also has theoretical significance. The somewhat patchy treatment given it in

relevant literatures raises interesting questions about its nature, antecedents and
consequences. Further, as we shall see below, a focus on commitment to customer
service allows us to operationalize some central concepts and clarify some key debates
in both the quality and human resource management literatures. More broadly, it
provides a vehicle for linking an important aspect of the current debate about HRM and
performance to wider debates in the social science literature ribout the nature and bases
of action. Yet, despite its theoretical and practical significance, the concept of employee
commitment to customer service has not received systematic attention in the literature.
This is true in terms of both conceptualization/measure~nentand the analysis of its
antecedents.
The paper, therefore, has three main aims. First, to present an operational definition
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of the concept of commitment to customer service. Sccond, based on this definition, to

set out a model of its antecedents. And, lastly, to test this model enlpirically using data
from a large-scale employee survey we conducted in one of the miljor food-retailing
organizations in the UK. We start by looking at how the issue of commitment to
customer service has been approached in the literature. We then present our definition
of the concept and the model and hypotheses tested in the present research. In the last
part of the paper we present and discuss the results of the analysis along with possible
directions for future research.

Commitment to customer service in the literature

The n~ainstreamquality literature clearly prioritizes the empowerment and involvement
of all the organization's members in the achievement of continuous improvements in
products or services (Waldman. 1994). The importance of employees' comniitment to
quality, including service quality, is a recurring explicit or implicit theme in the
literature. Yet the predisposition in TQM writing to analysis in terms of systems rather
than individuals has meant little explicit consitleration of the nature or origins of such
commitment among individual employees. Linked to this. there is as yet no consensus
about what human resource policies (and combination of policies) sl~ouldbe deployed
to develop and strengthen commitment to customer scrvice among front-line employees
(Hill and Wilkinson, 1995).
The HRM literature more directly addresses the question of how the organization's
human resources are to be managed to achieve high-quality products and services. In
what has been characterized as its 'soft' form, HRM is about putting into place the
conditions necessary to tap the expertise. motivation anti com~nitmentof all the
organization's members (see, for cxample, Guest, 1987). While this literature contains
clear implications for service quality. the particular concept of commitment to customer
service and how it is related to key variables in HRM debates (e.g. empowerment, trust
and organizational commitment) remains largely unaddressed.
The burgeoning prescriptive literitturc more explicitly :lddresscs the issue of
commitment to customer service. Literature o n the clesign and iniplemcntation of
customer-care programmes invariably contains sections on the importance of develop-
ing a strong customer orientation among all employees of the organization. These works
contain description - usually from selected organizational 'success storics' - of policies
(e.g. selection, training, empowerment, reward systems, etc.) which it is claimed will
result in customer-oriented behaviours and, thus, thc delivery of service quality.
However, the applied literature has given less attention to the definition and
 The antecedents of enzployee commitment to customer service 69
measurement of customer orientation and commitment, although some contextl
occupationally specific scales exist (Saxe and Weiss, 1982). Even less attention has
been given to empirical work on the antecedents of customer orientation (Kelley, 1992).
As a result of these gaps in the relevant applied and academic literatures, we are without
the tools needed fully to understand this important construct, to test important
assumptions made in the literatures, and to evaluate relevant programmes of planned
change.
Addressing these gaps requires the development of an appropriate conceptual
framework and appropriate measures. Drawing from a variety of literatures, in the
following section, we propose a conceptualization of commitment to customer service
and a model of its antecedents.
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Conceptual framework and hypotheses

Commitment to customer service: u behuviourul approach

In this paper we adopt an explicitly behavioural approach to commitment to customer

service (CCS). It can initially be characterized as the relative strength of an individual's
concern to satisfy customer requirements and to provide high-quality customer service
in an individual and direct manner. In practice, however, this concern makes a
difference to day-to-day customer service performance only when it is translated into
concrete employee behaviour. Hence our interest is in the behavioural manifestations of
commitment to customer service. Such behaviour can take a variety of forms. We focus
on two of these, namely the extent to which individuals:

1 engage in continuous iniprovelnent on the job for the benefit of customers, and
2 exert effort on the job on behalf of customers.

Viewed from this perspective, CCS can then be defined as the relative properl.sih1 o f a n
rndividnal to engage irt contit~uousiniprovenlent nrld ro exert efSort on the job for t l ~ e
benejit of customers.
This explicit focus on continuous improvement and high work effort in relation to
customers is important for a number of reasons. First, it serves to highlight the fact that
CCS, as conceptualized here, represents niore than just a psychological state or general
positive attitude towards customers. Rather, it represents a form of purposive action
which involves an active expenditure of energy and effort on the part of the employee
and is therefore potentially costly to the individual.
Second, the focus on continuous improvement and effort provides ;I way of
operationalizing the notion of CCS in terms of key aspects of job performance which
are central to both TQM and HRM. The striving for continuous improvement in order
better to satisfy customer requirements is a key principle of TQM (see, for example,
Dean and Bowen, 1994). Continuous ilnprovement and high work effort are also central
goals of HRM which, particularly in its 'soft' form, is designed to maximize employee
flexibility, innovation and motivation (see, for example, Guest, 1987). Hence, the
present conceptualization serves to highlight the link between CCS and key individual-
level outcome variables within organizations, while at the same time helping to focus
attention on core, but heretofore relatively neglected, operational goals of both HRM
and TQM.
 70 Riccurrlo Peccri rrncl Putrice Roserzthcil
The bases o j commitment to cusrorner service
The behavioural approach adopted here calls attention to the fact that'commitment to
customer service, as a particular form of social action, can have different underlying
bases. Initially, three conceptually distinct bases can be hypothesized, corresponding to
the broad distinction made in the social science literature between affective, normative
and calculative action (Etzioni, 1988; Coleman, 1990). In the first case, the provision of
high-quality service to customers would be a source of intrinsic satisfaction, and hence
an end in itself for the individual. In the second case, customer service behaviour would
be normatively driven, based on the internalization by the individual of appropriate
service values and norms. In the last case, the underlying motivation would be
instrumental in the sense that the delivery of high quality service would be seen as a
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means to the attainment of other valued goals by the individual. such as financial
rewards, recognition, pro~notionor job security.
This latter case implies a greater element of deliberate calculation on the part of the
individual based on an assessment of: ( 1 ) the perceived costs and benefits (expected
extrinsic rewards) of engaging in continuous improvement and of exerting effort on
behalf of customers, and (2) the perceived probability of obtaining the expected rewards
and, therefore, of actually benefiting fro111 the action. The second of these elelncnts is
closely linked to individuals' felt degree of upward hierarchical trust. This refers to
employees' subjective belief in the benevolent intentions of hierarcliical superiors (e.g.
managers and supervisors) who control thc allocation of rewards (and punishments)
within the organization (Gambetta, 1988; Hosmer, 1995). To an important extent,
whether employees believe that their efforts on behalf of customers are likely to be
appropriately rewarded depends on whether they trust hierarchical superiors not to act
against their interests or behave either unfairly or opportunistically in the allocation of
rewards. In other words, the existence of upward hierarchical trust is an important
precondition of calculative forms of customer service. More generally, ill terms of
standard models of self-interested rational action (see, for example, Abell, 1992;
Marini, 1992), individuals can be expected to try to do their best by customers when the
perceived bcnefits of doing so outweigh the costs, and when they are reasonably
confident that their efforts on behalf of customers will be appropriately rewarded by
management.
This calculative approach to customer service is in sharp contrast to both affcctively
and normatively based forms of CCS. In all three cases, the provision of high-quality
service is given a high priority and constitutes an important work goal for the
individual, but for very different reasons. In the case of affectively based forms of CCS,
individuals engage in continuous improvement and exert cffort on behalf of customers
because they like to do so, because thcy find the activities involved satisfying and
enjoyable in their own right. In the case of normatively oriented forms of CCS, on the
other hand, individuals try to do their best by customers out of an internalized sense of
duty towards theni. because thcy feel a n~oralobligation to do so and think they ought
to. Finally, in the case of calculative for~iisof CCS individuals exert themselves on
behalf of customers because of the perceived positive balance of costs and benefits
involved, because they believe there is something to be gained from the action and that
it is therefore to their advantage to engage in it.
This standard approach to the analysis of social action can be extendcd to include
organizational comniitment (OC), understood as the strength of an individual's
affective, non-calculative attachment to the organization (Huchanan, 1974; Allen and
 The antecedents of ernployee cotnrnitment to customer service 71

Meyer, 1990), as a fourth, and distinct, basis of CCS. In line with commonly accepted
conceptualizations of attitudinal (affective) OC, individuals who are strongly committed
to the organization can not only be expected to identify more fully with the organization
and its core values, but also to exhibit a greater willingness to exert effort on its behalf
(Cook and Wall, 1980; Mowday, Porter and Steers, 1982; Mathieu and Zajac, 1990).
Other things being equal, therefore, organizationally committed individuals can be
expected to show a greater propensity to work hard and try to provide high-quality
service to customers as part of their job, particularly if they perceive the organization as
placing a strong value on service quality and customer satisfaction. However, in this
case individuals do not necessarily engage in continuous improvement or exert effort on
behalf of customers because they like to do so, or because they feel a moral obligation
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to customers, or because they expect to benefit from it. Rather, they do so for the sake
of the organization.
In other words, individuals' expenditure of energy and effort in this case is primarily
for the benefit of the organization itself, motivated by their strong sense of attachment
and identification with it. More generally therefore, this OC-driven type of customer
service can be said to represent a form of other-oriented, altruistic action. The primary
beneficiary of this action is intended to be the organization itself, thereby serving to
distinguish this OC-based, altruistic form of CCS from the other forms identified
above.
Although analytically distinct, affective, normative, calculative and (OC-based)
altruistic approaches to CCS are not necessarily mutually exclusiie. Individuals may in
fact engage in continuous improvement and exert effort on behalf of customers for a
variety, or combination, of reasons. Our interest here is in assessing the relative role
which affective, normative, calculative and altruistic orientations to customer service
play as deterniinants of CCS.

General nlodel of conzmitrnent to custotner service

The basic model of commitment to customer service tested in this paper is shown
schematically in Figure I . T h e model starts fro111t h e proposition that CCS is a function
of:
(1) individuals' willingness to engage in continuous improvement and exert effort on
behalf of customers, and
(2) their capacity to do so.
Willingness and ccq)clcity are unmeasured theoretical variables which are presumed to be
captured by the set of more specific operational variables covered in the niodel. The
specific variables involved are discussed below.

Willingness variables In line with our previous discussion, individuals' willingness

to exert themselves on behalf of customers is hypothesized to depend on the strength of
their affective, normative, calculative and altruistic (OC-based) orientation to customer
service. In the model, therefore, willingness is captured by the four main types of
orientation to customer service discussed abovc. All four of these variables are
hypothesized to have a direct positive impact on CCS.

Capacity variables There are a large number of variables which are likely to affect
individuals' capacity to engage in continuous improvement and respond flexibly and
 72 Kiccardo Peccei and Parrice Ro.renrhcr1
Willingness Variables

E
;S
;ci;e 0"entations
,.......................
Affectlve (+)
Willingness :
Calculalive (+) .........................
Altruistic (OC based) (+)

Commitment to
Customer Service
Capacity Variables
I I
Employee Knowledw and Competence
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Underslanding of Customer SeNiCe (+)

Job Competence (+) ......................
Em~owermenl
Supervisory Support (+) . Capacity :
Job Autonomy (+) I............I
_ ......

Job Routinization (-)

Resource ~vailabilit;
Resource Adequacy (+)
J O Pressure
~ (-) I
Figure 1 General model of cotrztnitrrlet~tro clrsrclrrrrr service

effectively to customer requirements. In our model we focus on seven main variables

relating to employee knowledge and competence. empowerment, ant1 resource
availability.

En~ployeeknowledge and competence

These are tapped by means of two variables in the modcl, utrclet:r/rr~~rlir~gof c~rsforrrer.
service and job cot~ipe/etice(see Figure I). The first of these variables refers to the
extent to which employees feel they have a clear knowledge and understanding of what
high-quality customer service entails and of how it can besl be provided. Job
competence refers to the extent to which individuals perceive that they have the
necessary training, skills and competence to do their job well and cope with any
unexpected problems in their work. In line with basic goal-setting and expectancy
theory arguments (see, for example, Latham and Locke. 1991; Porter and Lawler,
1968), a clear understanding of customer service performance requirements and a
strong sense of job competence can be expected to increase individuals' confidence and
ability to provide high-quality service and to experiment and Icarn on the job in a spirit
of continuous improvement. Both these variables therefore are hypothesized to have a
positive impact on CCS.

Empowerment
This is captured by the nature of supervision arid by the way in which jobs are designed
and organized. Key arguments i n the TQM literature suggest that narrowly defined,
routine jobs involving standardized repetitive tasks subject to close supervision,
severely limit the scope for innovation and experimentation on the job, and afford little
scope for employees to exercise their initiative and judgement when dealing with
customers (Hill, 1991; Crosby, 1979). Hence the emphasis in much of this literature on
issues of empowerment - on the need for organizations to move away from traditional
'command and control' styles of management and adopt more supportive and
 The antecedents of employee commitment to customer service 73
participative forms of leadership, while at the same time devolving greater responsibil-
ity to employees and giving them greater autonomy and control over work decisions
(Bowen and Lawler, 1992; Hill and Wilkinson, 1995).
In our model, the notion of empowerment is captured by means of three variables,
supervisory support, job autonomy and job routinization (see Figure 1). The first of
these variables refers to the extent to which individuals perceive their immediate
supervisors to be supportive and participative in their behaviour. Job autonomy refers to
the extent to which employees feel they are free to decide what to do on the job and
how to do it. Job routinization refers to the degree to which work tasks are perceived
to be repetitive. In line with the empowerment argument, supportive supervision and
job autonomy are hypothesized to have a positive impact on CCS, while job
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routinization is expected to have a negative effect.

Resource availability
The last two capacity variables in the model relate to organizational practices and
arrangements which are likely either to enhance or to constrain employees' ability to
engage in continuous improvement and respond effectively to customer requirements.
The specific variables involved are resource udequcicy and job pressure (see Figure I).
The first refers to the extent to which individuals feel that their department is
sufficiently well staffed to enable them to do their job well. The second refers to the
extent to which employees perceive their job to be pressurized both in terms of the pace
of work and the workloads involved. The resource variable is hypothesized to have a
positive impact on CCS, while job pressure is expected to have a negative effect.
The model as outlined assumes CCS to be a function of a simple additive relationship
between the willingness and the capacity variables. Clearly though, more complex
hierarchical (path analytic) and multiplicative models may also be worth exploring. In
hierarchical models, the capacity variables are presumed to have both a direct effect on
CCS, and an indirect one through their impact on the willingness variables. This is on
the assumption that the willingness to act on behalf of customers is systen~atically
affected by the capacity to do so. Justification for this position comes from general
reinforcement theory (Hammer, 199 I ) , as well as from more specific bodies of literature
and research dealing, for example, with the role played by supportive supervision and
positive job experiences in the generation of organizational commitment (Lincoln and
Kalleberg, 1990; Mathieu and Zajac, 1990). In contrast, multiplicative models are based
on the assumption that neither willingness nor capacity are, in themselves, sufficient
conditions for CCS. Both must be present if employees are to act on behalf of
customers so that, ultimately, CCS is presumed to be a function of the interaction
between the willingness and capacity variables in the model. Because of space
constraints, an examination of these more complex models is postponed to a later paper.
Here we concentrate on testing the simpler additive model shown in Figurc 1.

The research study

Dutu collectiorz and scimple

The data used in the present analysis were collected as part of the first phase of a three-
wave study being conducted in one of the largest food-retailing organizations in the
UK. The study is designed to evaluate the impact of a major customer care programme
 74 Riccardo Peccei and Patrice Ro.cerztl1~1
on employee commitment to customer service. The initiative represents an attempt to
gain competitive advantage by offering a more flexible, personalized type of service,
and management's judgement that the traditional 'command and control' style of
management practised within the firm is not conducive to this aim. Characterized within
the organization as a culture change, the programme contains a number of elements,
including structured customer service training; a shift to a more supportive, partici-
pative management style; and increased discretion on the part of front-line staff and
supervisors in their dealings with customers. Evaluation of the impact of this
programme will be addressed in forthcoming articles. Here we focus on testing the
model of the antecedents of CCS.
As part of the first phase of the research, a large-scale employee survey was
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conducted in March 1995. The survey covered appi.oximately 2100 staff employed in
seven separate stores at different stages of implementation of the customer service
initiative. The research instrument was a self-completion questionnaire which was
distributed to all staff in each of the stores. Seven hundred and seventeen completed
questionnaires were returned, making for a response rate of 35 per cent. The sample
comprises of fifty-four supervisors and 663 general staff. The latter category covers a
range of jobs within the stores, including till operators, shelf fillers, stock controllers
and staff serving customers at fresh food counters.
The survey sample was found to be representative of the store populations in terms
of a number of key demographic characteristics including age, sex, part-timelfull-time
status and tenure in the organization. The average age of the sample was 33 years; 75
per cent of respondents were women; 7 1 per cent worked f'ull-tinie: and their average
tenure in the organization was five years.

Where possible, the variables in the nod el were ~neasuredusing cxisting validated
scales. However a number of the measures used in the analysis were either adapted
from existing scales or were developetl spccifically for the present study. The individual
questionnaire items used to construct the scales used in the study are reproduced in the
Appendix. Responses to all items were scored on five-point Likert scales measuring
respondents' agreemenVdisagree11ient with the item in question ( 1 = strongly disagree;
5 = strongly agree). The main measures used in the analysis are outlined below.

Dependent variable In line with the definition proposed above, cornrtlitr7zerlt to

customer service was assessed by means of six items in the questionnaire designed to
tap respondents' (self-reported) propensity to exert effort on behalf of customers and to
engage in continuous improvement. Each of the two components of CCS was measured
by three items. Sample items included ' I often go out of my way to help custon~ers'and
'I have specific ideas about how to improve the service 1 give to custon~ers'.The latter
item taps continuous improvement. which in practice might mean eliciting and acting
on customers' comments, or experimenting and developing one's own ideas about how
to give better service (e.g. developing a broader repertory of conversational styles).
Factor analysis (principal components with varimax rotation) of the six items yielded
a single factor. The items were therefore combined into a single overall self-report
measure of CCS. This scale exhibited an acceptable level of reliability (Coefficient
Alpha = 0.80).
 The antecedetzts o j employee cornrnitnlent to custonler service 75
Independent variables Willingness variables
The strength of employees' affective orientation to customer service was measured by
means of a two-item scale tapping the extent to which respondents enjoyed dealing with
customers and found personal satisfaction from giving good service to customers
(Coefficient Alpha = 0.72). The strength of employees' normutive orientc~tion to
customer service was also measured using a two-item scale tapping the extent to which
respondents felt that customers have a right to expect superior treatment frotn all staff,
and that in doing their job staff should always have the best interest of the customer in
mind (Coefficient Alpha = 0.60).
For the calculative orientation variable, a more complex composite measure was
constructed, designed to capture the three elements which are hypothesized to underlie
a rational instrumental approach to customer service, and the way in which these
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elements combine to lead to calculative forms of CCS. Specifically, the strength of an

individual's calculative orientation to customer service can be captured by the following
expression:
Perceived extrinsic benefits (rewards) of
proactive customer service behaviour
Perceived costs of proactive customer X Degree of upward hierarchical trust
service behaviour
These elements were operationalized as follows in the research:
(a) The benefits element was operationalized in terms of a two-item scale measuring
the perceived level of attention and recognition given to staff in the organization for
providing high-quality service to customers (Coefficient Alpha = 0.62). In this context,
it is worth noting that customer service performance was not directly linked to any
system of financial incentives or rewards in the organization. Hence the decision to
operationalize the benefits variable in terms of recognition and approval. This is based
on the assutnption that recognition by superiors of one's high performance will be seen
by employees to cany positive implications. These positive implications can be of
various type, including self-esteem and the possibility of indirect rewards, for example,
job security, promotion or generally more favourable treatment by one's supervisor or
manager.
(b) The cost element was operationalized by inverting the affective orientation scale
described above and using this inverted scale as a measure of the perceived cost of
engaging in proactive customer service behaviour. The underlying logic is that
proactive forms of customer service require a direct expenditure of energy and effort by
the individual. However, other things being equal, employees who enjoy dealing with
customers and who derive personal satisfaction from giving good service are less likely
to view this expenditure of energy and effort on behalf of customers as a cost. In other
words, the perceived costs of customer service activities are presumed to be inversely
related to the amount of intrinsic enjoyment and satisfaction that individuals derive
from the activities - and this is precisely what the inversion of the affective scale is
intended to capture. Note that by operationalizing the cost variable in this way an
affective component is autornatically introduced into the rational calculus which
underlies an instrumental approach to CCS. This way of operationalizing the cost
variable explicitly highlights the fact that calculative approaches to CCS are imbued
with affective considerations and that, as Etzioni (1988) has argued, affective (and
normative) factors in the form, for instance, of emotions and tastes, play a major role in
shaping even calculatively oriented forms of behaviour.
 76 Ricccrrdo Peccei and Patrice Roserzthrrl
(c) The last element in the expression - the degree of upw(zrd hierarchical trust - was
measured using an adapted six-item version of the 'faith in management' component of
Cook and Wall's (1980) interpersonal trust at work scale. Three each of the items
tapped respondents' degree of trust in management and immediate supervisors
respectively. The six items were combined into an overall measure of upward
hierarchical trust (Coefficient Alpha = 0.86).
Finally, the strength of employees' altruistic (OC-Dasetl) orientutiorz to customer
service was measured by combining two variables, or~qcinizationalcor~zmitnzetztand the
perceived customer service climate within the organization. The latter refers to the
extent to which employees perceived that a strong emphasis was placed on service
quality and customer satisfaction within their store. As argued above, individuals who
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are strongly committecl to the organization are all the more likely to engage in
continuous improvement and exert effort on the job to try to satisfy customers if they
perceive these issues to be a major focus of concern within the organization. T o capture
this potential interactive effect. a composite measure of intlividuals' altruistic
orientation to customer service was constri~ctedby multiplying respondents' scores on
organizational commitment by their scores on the customer service climate variable.
Organizational commitment was measured using the six items from Cook and Wall's
(1980) Organizational Commitment Scale relating to identification with the organiza-
tion and the willingness to exert effort on its behalf. As we have seen, it is above all the
identification and effort components of OC which are of interest for the analysis of
CCS. The six items were combined into an overall measure of organizational
commitment (Coefficient Alpha = 0.86).
Customer service climate, on the other hand, was measured by means of nine items
in the questionnaire tapping the extent to which respondents perceived other people/
groups in the store (managers, supervisors and co-workers) to be cotnrnitted to customer
service and as consistently behaving in line with espoused customer service values.
These nine items were combined into a global nicasure of perceived customer service
climate (Coefficient Alpha = 0.90).
To facilitate comparisons, the more complex composite scales were convertcd to
scales with a potential range of between 1 and 5.

Capacity variables
Two of the capacity variables included in the model were measured by means of single
items from the questionnaire. These were urzder:c.trrndirrg of c~rstotnerset-vice and
rrsolrrce ~dequrrcy.Job cotnpetence was measured with a three-iten) scale developed
specifically for this study (Coefficient Alpha = 0.68). The rest of the capacity variables
(i.e. sniper visor)^ support (Coefficient Alpha = 0.88), job a~rtotrotnjl (Coefficient
Alpha = 0.74). job ro~itinizcrtiot~(Coefficient Alpha = 0.73) and job pre.c..slire
(Coefficient Alpha = 0.68)) were all nleasured by means of three-itern scales adapted
from Price, Mueller and Currivnn (1992).

Demographic/control variables
The demographic variables used as controls in the analysis included hi~rcrrchicnllevel
(I = general staff; 2 = supervisors), Lrge, orgnnizntiot~alten~rr-c.,st.\- (I = male; 2 =
female), work status ( 1 = part-time; 2 = full-time) and frequency of customer contact
on the job measured on a five-point scale.
 The antecedents of employee commitment to customer service 77
Data analysis
The inter-correlations between all the variables in the model, along with their respective
means and standard deviations, are reported in Table 1. The model itself was tested
using Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression with all the variables in the model
entered together as predictors of CCS, controlling for the demographic factors. The
results of the analysis are shown in Table 2.

Results
Before examining the results of the regression analysis, it is worth noting that the four
willingness variables were all strongly and positively intercorrelated (see Table 1). The
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average intercorrelation between these four variables was 0.54, thereby confirming our
initial presupposition that the different type of orientations to customer servlce are not
mutually exclusive. However, the sample means reported in Table 1 show that, on the
whole, normative and affective orientations to customer service within the sample
tended to be significantly more pronounced than either altruistic or calculalive ones.
Turning to the multiple regression results, Table 2 shows that seven out of the eleven
variables in the model had a significant impact on commitment to customer service.
Looking first at the results for the willingness variables, two points stand out. First,
affective, altruistic and normative orientations to customer service were all found to
have a significant influence on CCS with the affective variable emerging as the single
niost important predictor in the model. As expected, all three of these variables were
positively related to CCS, indicating a clear tendency for employees who derived direct
personal satisfaction from giving good service to customers, who felt a sense of moral
obligation to do so and who were strongly committed to the organization, to be
significantly more likely to engage in proactive forms of' customer service behaviour.
Second, the strength of employees' calculative orientation to customer service was not
found to be a significant predictor of CCS. In bivariate analysis, this variable was, as
expected, found to be positively and significantly correlated to CCS (see Table I).
However, when included in the multivariate analysis along with the other variables in
the model, its relationship to CCS was greatly attenuated.
The results for the capacity variables were more varied. As hypothesized, both
employee understanding of customer service and job competence had a significant
positive impact on CCS. However, of the three variables relating to empowerment, only
job routinization was confirmed as a significant predictor of commitment to customer
service. As predicted, thc relationship was negative, with higher levels of routinization
tending to be associated with lower levels of CCS. Both supervisory support and job
autonomy were found to be significantly related to CCS in bivariate analysis, but
neither of these variables survived in the multivariate analysis. Finally, of the two
variables relating to resource availability, only job pressure emerged as a significant
predictor of CCS. However, contrary to expectations, the sign on this variable was
positive rather than negative, suggesting a tendency for more pressurized jobs to be
associated with higher rather than lower levels of CCS, as originally hypothesized. The
resource adequacy variable was not found to be related to CCS in either the bivariate or
the multivariate analysis.
In summary, the results show that the most important predictors of CCS, in order of
importance, were: an affective orientation to customer service, job pressure, the strength
of individuals' altruistic (OC-based) and normative orientation to customer service, job
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 The antecederzts of employee committnent to customer service 79
Table 2 Test of model of commitment to customer service (CCS): regression rc:sults
Independent vuriubles L)eperzdent variable CCS
Hierarchical level -0.01
Organizational tenure -0.03
Age 0.08**
Sex -0.02
Work status 0.03
Customer contact O.lO***
Affective customer service orientation 0.32***
Nomlative customer service orientation 0.16***
Calculative customer service orientation 0.0 1
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Altruistic (OC-based) customer service orientation 0.20***

Understanding of customer service 0.08**
Job competence 0.11***
Supervisory support -0.02
Job autonomy - 0.02
Job routinization -0.12***
Resource adequacy -0.02
Job pressure 0.21***

Adj. R2
(N)
Notes
Figures in the table are standardized beta coefficients
**= p <.01
***= p <.001

routinization, job competence and a clear understanding of customer service require-

ments. Overall, the willingness variables emerged as stronger predictors of CCS than
the capacity variables, although these too made a significant contribution to explaining
variations in CCS within our sample. Taken together the variables in the model, along
with the control variables, accounted for well over half (57 per cent) the variance in the
level of commitment to customer service among our respondents. This suggests that,
although there clearly are additional predictors of CCS, our model captures a number of
its key determinants and, as such, provides a useful basis for explaining potential
variations in the phenomenon under investigation.

Discussion and conclusions

Although central to the debate on service quality and of key interest to both HRM and
TQM, the issue of employee commitment to customer service has not received
systematic attention in the literature. This paper provides a first attempt at conceptualiz-
ing and operationalizing the notion of CCS as part of a broader concern to model the
determinants of key aspects of individual level performance in service organizations.
Based on an explicitly behavioural definition of commitment to customer !jeyice, we
presented and tested a general model of the antecedents of CCS. This model, which was
placed in the context of a broader discussion of the bases of social action, was
purposefully designed to capture a number of key factors relating both to individuals'
willingness and to their capacity to engage in proactive forms of customer service. The
model itself was tested on data based on a large representative sample of employees
 80 Riccardo Peccei and Patrice Rosenthal
from one of the major food-retailing organizations in the U K . The main findings are
discussed below together with their implications for future research.
Overall, the proposed model of CCS was shown to provide a useful basis for
explaining variations in levels of employee commitment to customer service. Some of
the specific links hypothesized in the model failed to find confirmation in the data. In
general though, the results of the analysis provided good support for the model with a
number of both willingness and capacity variables emerging as strong predictors of
CCS.
A key finding of the study concerns the relative i~nportanceof calculative and non-
calculative motivations in the determination and shaping of customer service behaviour.
The results point to affective, normative and altruistic considerations, rather than
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calculative ones, as having a key inlluence on employees' propensity to engage in

continuous improvement and exert effort on the job on behalf of customers.
There are a number of possible explanations for the unexpected non-significant result
obtained for the calculative orientation variable. One possibility is that it is merely a
statistical artefact caused by problems of multicollinearity in the data. In particular, the
correlations between our measure of calculativeness and both the af'fective and altruistic
orientation variables are quite high. This explanation, howe\ler, seems unlikely since
further analysis using several alternative measures of calculative orientation which wcre
less strongly correlated with the other variables in the model did not yield significantly
different results.
An alternative explanation is in terms of the absence of direct financial incentives and
rewards for customer service performance within the organization. The organization is
not atypical in this regard. Yet, the absence of a direct link betwecn renumeration and
customer service performance does not, on the face of things, render irrelevant a
calculative orientation within an organizational context. Non-fi nancial rewards in the
.form of approval and recognition can serve as strong incenti\,es for engaging in
customer service behaviour. First. employees may value social recognition for their
performance for reasons of self-esteem. Sccond. a range of potentially \~aluetlrewards,
such as job security, promotion and better day to day treatment would reasonably bc
seen as contingent on recognition of effective performance by one's superiors.
The problem, though, may lie in the strength and visibility of the nun-financial
rewards (benefits) associated with the provision of customer service within the
organization. A more detailed analysis of our data shows that, by and large, employees
did not feel that they received strong recognition for providing high quality service to
customers. The mean score for the saniplc as a whole on the benefits variable was
relatively low (3.25; standard deviation=0.91). and this, in turn, may go some way in
explaining the lack of impact of the calci~lativevariable in our study.
Overall, however, the results of our research suggesl that, within the present context,
commitment to customer servicc is primarily a non-calculative phenomenon driven and
motivated above all by expressive. moral and altruistic concerns, rather than by overtly
instrumental considerations. Viewed in terms of broader social science debates about
the bases of action, therefore, our results would appear to be consistent with a .non-
rationalist' interpretation of custonier service behaviour and to lend support to the view
that much day-to-day customer service behaviour is ultimately 'governed by normative
commitmenis and affective involvements' (Etzioni, 1988: 93).
Clearly though, the critical question here concerns the generalizability of these
findings and conclusions. The key issue is whether the present results are likely to hold
in other service sector contexts and. in particular, in organizations which a) provide
 The untecedents of employee commitment to customer service 81
clear, explicit and well-publicized non-financial rewards for customer service (e.g.
public awards, recognition ceremonies) andlor b) have systematic policies linking
employees' level of remuneration to customer service performance. In other words,
future research is required to test the robustness of the present results concerning the
primacy of non-calculative considerations in the provision of customer service. To this
end, future research might usefully concentrate on exploring the effects of both
financial and non-financial incentive systems on customer service orientations and CCS
in diverse organizational settings.
The other main findings of the research relate to the capacity variables. Three points
stand out. First, in terms of employee knowledge and skills, our results confirmed the
links between CCS and job competence and employee understanding of customer
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service requirements. This has important human resource policy implications for
organizations. In particular, it suggests that policies which enhance employee
competence and understanding of customer service, like policies which help to
strengthen individuals' affective, normative and altruistic orientations to customer
service, can have a significant positive influence on CCS. Particularly important here
would be policies and practices relating to the recruitment, selection, induction and
socialization of new employees into the organization, to job and customer care training,
to employee development more generally, and to employee communication. Future
research could usefully explore these policy links more systematically by examining
specific sets of human resource policies and practices and tracing their inipact on
customer service behaviour and performance in different organizations.
Second, the argument from empowerment received only limited support in our
research. Job routinization was confirmed as an important (negative) antecedent of
CCS, thereby highlighting once again the potential significance of 'upstre;lm' policy
choices (this time concerning job design and the organization of work) for customer
service behaviour and performance within the organization. As we saw though, both
supportive supervision and job autonomy failed to attain significance in the multivariate
analysis suggesting that these two variables may not in fact be significant (direct)
predictors of CCS. But this does not necessarily mean that they are not important to an
understanding of CCS, or that they should be ignored in future research. First, both
variables are potentially important antecedents of organizational cotnmitnient (see, for
example, Mathieu and Zajac, 1990) and hence can be expected to have an important
indirect effect on CCS through their impact on employees' altruistic (OC-based)
orientation to customer servicc.
The second reason is more complex and is linked to the notion that these two
variables have an effect on CCS only in combination with other variables in the model.
Thus, for example, while a minimum degree of job autonomy may be necessary for
individuals to be able to engage in more proactive forms of customer service behaviour,
beyond this minimum there is no reason to expect employees to use their added
discretion for the benefit of customers, unless, that is, they have a strong customer
orientation to begin with. Conceptually, this type of argument is probably better
captured by notions of 'responsible autonomy' (Piore and Sabel, 1984) than of
'empowerment' and directs attention to inore complex non-linear relationships and
interactive effects in the data. Note that similar type of arguments also apply in relation
to supportive supervision. More generally, therefore, a fuller understanding of the
determinants of comlnitment to customer service requires a more detailed exploration of
the structural relations between some of the currently hypothesized predictors of CCS
 82 Kiccnrdo Peccei and Patrice Roser~thnl
and the development and testing of more complcx hierarchical and interactive
models.
Lastly, the argument from resource availability found little or no support in the data.
Thus, the variable measuring resource adequacy was not found to be significantly
related to CCS, while job pressure, although emerging as a strong predictor of CCS,
was positively rather than negatively related to it. The job pressure result is particularly
interesting in that it raises important questions about causality in our model. A possible
explanation for the (unexpected) observed positive relationship between job pressure
and CCS is that commitment to customer service implies and involves an intensification
of work for the individual, a form of self-exploitation. In order to satisfy customer
requirements and provide high-quality service, employees may in fact have to do more
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on the job. They may, for example, have to work harder or faster, and hence be more
likely to feel under pressure. In other words, job pressure may be a function of CCS,
rather than the other way around as originally hypothesized, thereby helping to account
for the observed positive relation in our data.
Note that this type of argument might also apply to the relationship between CCS and
a number of the other variables in our model (e.g. job routinization). More generally,
therefore, the job pressure result raises fundamental questions about direction of
causality and about exogeneity and endogeneity in our model. These issues, which
cannot easily be addressed with cross-sectional data, highlight the need for longitutlinal
studies in the area, as well as for the developriient and testing of various forms of
longitudinal and non-recursive models of CCS.
In conclusion, in this paper we have gone some way in identifying and isolating
potentially important antecedents of employec commitment to customer service. The
specific factors which were ultimately identified as having a significant inlluence on
CCS direct attention to a range of human resource policics and practices relevant to
enhancing this key aspect of cmployee pcrforrnance in service organizations. Specific
policy linkages and practices were only hinted at in the paper. However, the present
analysis provides a useful basis for thinking about such linkages and for developing
testable hypotheses in this area as part of the broader debate about the impact of HRM
on performance. Clearly though. this is only a starting point. Further research is
required to test the robustness of' the present findings and to identify additional
determinants of CCS.

Riccardo Peccei
Lorlilor~School qf' Ecorlonric.~
Potrice Roserlthal
Tile Matlngertlerlt Crrltr~'
K111g'sColle~c,,Lorlclot7

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Ray Richardson and the participants at the Human
Resource Management and Perf'orrnance confercncc sponsored by the Rotterdam
Institute for Busincss ant1 Economic Studies at the Tinbergen Institute (Holland,
22 September 1995) for their helpful comments on an earlier draft of this paper.
The research has been funded by the Seear Fellowship at the L,ondon School of
Economics.
 The antecedents of employee corntnitment to crrstomer ser~rice 83
Appendix: scale items
Commitment to customer service (CCS)
1 I am always working to improve the quality of service I give to customers.
2 I have specific ideas about how to improve the service I give to customers.
3 1 often make suggestions about how to improve customer service in my
department.
4 I put a lot of effort into my job to try to satisfy customers.
5 No matter how I feel, T always put myself out for every customer I serve.
6 1 often go out of my way to help customers.
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Affective customer service orientation

I I really enjoy dealing with customers.
2 I get a lot of satisfaction from giving good service to customers.

Normative customer service orientation

I In doing their job, staff should always have the customer's best interests in mind.
2 Custotners have a right to expect superior treatment from all staff.

Calculative customer service orientation

(Benefits/Cost.s) x Upward Hierarchiccil Trust

Benefits
I In this company you get a lot of recognition if you give good service to
customers.
2 In this company nobody really notices whether or not you give good service to
customers. (R)
Costs = reversed affective orientation scale
Upward hierarchical trust
1 Senior management in this store is sincere in its attempts to meet the employees'
point of view.
2 Senior management in this store would be quite prepared to gain advantage by
deceiving employees. (R)
3 I feel quite confident that management in this store will always try to treat me
fairly.
4 I feel quite confident that my immediate boss will always try to treat me fairly.
5 If 1 have problems at work 1 know my inlmediate boss would try and help.
6 1 can rely on my immediate boss to do hislher best by me.

Altruistic (OC-based) customer service orientation

(Orgcinizational committnetlt x customer setvice clitntite)

1 I am proud to be able to tell people that 1 work for this company.

2 1 feel myself to be a part of the company.
 84 Riccartio Peccei and Patrice Rosenthcil
3 1 would recommend a close friend to join the company.
4 1 an1 willing to put myself out to help the company.
5 In my work I like to feel I am making some effort. not just for myself but for the
company as well.
6 T o know that my own work had made a contribution to the good of the company
would please me.

I In this store there is a strong commitment to first class service.

2 In the company good customer service is given a high priority.
3 Management in this store is genuinely committed to first class service.
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4 Senior management at the store set a personal example of good customer service in
their daily activities.
5 My immediate supervisor is genuinely committecl to first class service.
6 My immediate supervisor sets a personal example of good customer service in hislher
daily job.
7 My immediate supervisor puts a lot of emphasis on giving good service to
customers.
8 Most of my coworkers are genuinely committed to first class service.
9 Most of my coworkers are genuinely committed to giving good service to
customers.

Understanding of customer service

I I feel I have a good understanding of what first class service is all about

Job conipetence
1 1 have had enough training to do 111y job well.
2 1 know how to dcal with 111ost problems in lily job.
3 1 am always comfortable dealing with customers.

Supervisory support
1 My immediate boss supports me in getting my job clone.
2 My ininlediate boss praises me when I do a good job.
3 My immediate boss encourages me to speak up when I disagree with a decision.

Job autonomy
1 1 can use my personal judgement in carrying out my job.
2 1 have the freedom to decide what 1 do on my job.
3 1 can make my own decisions in carrying out my job.

Job routinization
1 My job has variety. (R)
2 My job is repetitive.
3 1 have the opportunity to do a number of different things on my job. (R)
 The antecedents of ernployee commitment to custotner service 85
Resource adequacy
1 In my department there are not enough people to enable us to d o the job well.
(R)
Job pressure
1. I have to work very fast on my job.
2 1 am often under a lot of pressure in my job.
3 M y workload is too heavy.

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