Graduation Year

2005

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree

Ph.D.

Degree Granting Department

Business Administration

Major Professor

David Ortinau, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Karin Braunsberger, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Miriam Stamps, Ph.D.

Committee Member

James Stock, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Dana Zeidler, Ph.D.

Keywords

Emotional intelligence, Emotional labor, Perceived customer demands, Job stress

Abstract

Frontline service personnel (FSP) play an invaluable role in the marketing mix by directly influencing the customers perception of both the service organization as well as the service quality during the face-to-face delivery service encounter (Ashforth and Humphrey 1993). The purpose of this dissertation is to examine how sources of job stress for FSP such as perceived customer demands, role ambiguity, role conflict, role overload, and emotional labor and various mediators such as job autonomy, emotional intelligence, and emotion-focused coping directly and indirectly influence job stress and outcome variables such as attitudes, behaviors, physical consequences, emotional exhaustion, job performance, and intentions.

Research from frontline social service personnels (FSSP) perspective was collected in three phases: 1) eight personal in-depth interviews to determine the fit of the constructs in the model in a social service environment, 2) a cognitive response survey gathered from 86 FSSP to identify appropriate line items, and 3) a survey questionnaire gathered from 533 members of the National Association of Social Workers-Florida.

Psychometrically sound scales developed and purified in the study demonstrated reliability and validity. These scales were then used to examine the structural model. Structural equation modeling, correlations, and regression analyses were used to examine relationships in the model. Results of the study indicated that self-management of emotionally-based behavior was significant in the creation and reduction of job stress. Findings suggest that the influence of emotional-based behavior plays a significant role in job performance at the social service encounter and indirectly influences intention to switch and intention to leave.

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