Effects of emotional labor on musculoskeletal disorders among physical therapists in Seoul

Introduction: Healthcare workers, including physical therapists, have some of the most important roles in the healthcare system, as observed during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. Physical therapists encounter emotionally and physically vulnerable patients, experience emotional labor, and are exposed to conditions that can lead to job stress and musculoskeletal disorders. We aimed to examine the relationships between physical therapists' emotional labor, its effect on perceived job stress, and the risk of developing musculoskeletal disorders. Methods: We conducted a 30-day survey among 230 physical therapists working in various settings from October 2 to November 1, 2019. Questionnaires, including questions on musculoskeletal symptoms, perceived job stress, and emotional labor, were administered to the participants. Results: The emotional labor sub-factors "overload and conflict in customer service" (β=0.201, p>0.001), "emotional inconsistency and impairment" (β=0.199, p>0.001), and "organizational support and protection system" (β=0.298, p>0.001) affected the job stress sub-factors "physical environment" (β=0.105, p>0.020), "insufficient compensation" (β=0.072, p<0.05), and "relational conflict" (β=-0.083, p>0.024). These job stress sub-factors affected musculoskeletal disorders. Conclusion: To prevent the long-term consequences of work-related strain, physical therapists should receive support for maintaining a healthy lifestyle and developing effective methods of communication with patients. Encouragement of activities for psychological rejuvenation and sharing emotional difficulties with colleagues is also desirable. Moreover, it is necessary to establish a direct line of grievance communication between physical therapists to hospitals. © 2023 The Author(s).

The Value of Social Media Customer Support During the Pandemic

Many companies are utilizing social media as the primary avenue for customer service during the pandemic. However, how customers' behaviors and interactions with customer service agents on social media are impacted by the lockdowns has not been well understood. In this study, we examine the impact of lockdowns and physical distancing on changes in customers' behaviors, such as emotional expressions in tweets and customers' satisfaction with social media customer service. Using a difference-in-differences research design, we find that with the lockdowns and physical distancing, customers expressed more negative emotions when tweeting the company they were having issues with. Surprisingly, compared to before the pandemic period, customers' emotional expressions became more positive and they were more likely to express their satisfaction after interacting with customer service agents. Interestingly, our findings reveal that gender differences exist in these scenarios. We also discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings. © 2023 IEEE Computer Society. All rights reserved.

Transformational leadership influences on organisational justice and employee commitment in a customer service organisation

Orientation: Organisations are facing several challenges pertaining to effective leadership, fairness and loyalty of employees. The moderating influence of transformational leadership (TL) on the relationship between justice and employee commitment is still largely unknown and needs to be explored further, especially within the customer service industry. Research purpose: The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between organisational justice and employee commitment and to examine the moderating effect of TL on the relationship between organisational justice and employee commitment in a customer service organisation. Motivation for the study: The research setting of this study is a customer service organisation. This organisation calls for a role model leadership approach, such as TL, to create a just, fair workplace and ultimately increase the level of employee commitment. Research approach/design and method: A quantitative cross-sectional survey design was used to collect the data from a sample of 111 permanently employed staff in a South African customer service organisation. Main findings: The findings indicate that TL had a significant positive relationship with organisational justice and employee commitment. Furthermore, the results indicate that TL moderated the relationship between organisational justice and employee commitment. Practical/managerial implications: The findings showed that TL could be vital as an effective leadership approach that can enhance justice perceptions and psychological attachment in the workplace. Contribution/value-add: This study contributes to the theoretical debate on TL, workplace fairness and psychological attachment by providing empirical support on the effect of TL on the relationship between justice and commitment perceptions.

The effects of transformational leadership and HRM practices on employee outcomes and productivity in the Greek hospitality industry during COVID-19

PurposeThe present study investigates the role of "Transformational Leadership (TFL)” on employees' work engagement and its effect on their "Productivity” and "Extra-Role Customer Service” behaviors. In doing so, the present study examines the mediating role of two crucial variables, namely the creation of a "Service Climate” and the role of "Trust” that employees show toward their managers. Last but not least, this research examines the potential role of High Performance Work Systems (HPWS) as a moderator.Design/methodology/approachPartial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) was used on a sample of 459 customer-contact employees across thirteen 4- and 5-star Greek hotel organizations.FindingsThis study reveals the mechanism through which "TFL” impacts employees' productivity. Specifically, "TFL” first impacts employees' "Trust” toward their managers and helps toward creating a "Social Climate”. In turn, both "Trust” and "Social Climate” directly impact employees' "Work Engagement” who respond by showing increased "Productivity” and by exhibiting "Extra-Role Customer Service” behaviors. Nevertheless, the role of HPWS as a moderator was not confirmed.Practical implicationsThe present study underscores the need for hotels' management to pay the required attention on creating an employment relationship based on "Trust”, as well as on creating a "Service Climate” in order for their employees to become work engaged and highly productive.Originality/valueThis is among the first studies that examine the "TFL” effects on employee outcomes in the Tourism and Hospitality sector, during the COVID-19 era.

The "Mask Effect" on the tips that customers leave restaurant servers.

Masks have become the custom among restaurant workers and bartenders as a form of protection against COVID-19. Yet, given the rapid introduction of masks to the uniforms of restaurant servers there is a dearth of extant scholarship that has explored the effects of face coverings on customers' behaviors. In response, this research offers a preliminary test of the effect of server masks on a common consumer behavior in the full-service restaurant industry-tipping. We review theoretical and empirical reasons suggesting that a mask may have a negative effect on customers' tipping practices. Potential mask effects on tipping are then explored with a survey experiment that was administered to a large and diverse sample of Amazon Mechanical Turk "workers." Our results suggest that wearing a mask is not likely to, on average, have a meaningful effect on how much restaurant customers tip their servers. However, we do observe a negative indirect effect of a mask on customer reported tip amount through diminished perceptions of a hypothetical servers' friendliness. This effect was found to be attenuated among those who are altruistically motivated to tip servers as a way to help them financially. The implications of our results and directions for future research are discussed.

Service amid crisis: the role of supervisor humor and discretionary organizational support

Purpose: This paper aims to study the effects of widespread stress and uncertainty that is characteristic of organizational crises on service employees and to explore the extent to which organizations may proactively use supervisors' positive humor and discretionary organizational support that goes above and beyond service employee expectations to mitigate the pandemic's negative impact on work engagement. Design/methodology/approach: Cross-sequential survey-based data was collected from 172 service employees during the height of the pandemic to assess service employees' perceptions of both their supervisors' use of positive humor and their employers' discretionary organizational support in response to the emotion-laden stress and uncertainty surrounding COVID-19. PROCESS analysis was used to test the hypotheses and to conduct supplementary analyses. Findings: Results suggest employee perceptions of supervisors' use of positive humor positively impact dimensions of work engagement at Time 1. This engagement then positively impacts extra-role behavior, innovativeness and pride at Time 2. The impact from supervisor humor to the outcomes is fully mediated through work engagement. From a moderation perspective, discretionary organizational support was shown as a substitute for creating work engagement at low levels of supervisor humor suggesting that the two "resource builders” can act as substitutes in creating engagement. Originality/value: This paper provides unique insights into both the valuable role of positive workplace humor for service workers' work engagement during times of widespread crisis and the moderating role discretionary organizational support plays when perceptions of humor are relatively low. Moreover, the supplemental examination of the multidimensional work engagement construct as a mediator between humor and the service outcomes of extra-role behavior, innovativeness and organizational pride provides unique insights into how a crisis context may deferentially affect the experience and implications of engagement for other service worker outcomes. Understanding the proactive, ameliorative role in service effectiveness played by supervisor humor and discretionary organizational support during crises is an emerging question for service research. © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the quality of customer service in the local government units

Maintaining an adequate level of services becomes a particularly difficult challenge in the current conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic, which greatly complicates the organization and implementation of tasks assigned to public entities. Therefore, it was deemed important to determine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, considered in the context of global risk, on the quality of customer service in the local government units. In the theoretical part, the investigations presented in this study contain a discussion of public service provision by local government units. The publication includes a study of the concepts of quality and satisfaction. The article also draws attention to the aspect of risk as an indispensable element of business entities in relation to the global risk caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The empirical part presents the results of surveys conducted using the Servqual method and the Kruskal-Wallis test. In conclusion, providing high-quality services is a challenge for many local government units. The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively affected the dimensions of reliability and trust that make up the quality of customer service in local government units. This is evidenced by the results which show the deterioration of the quality of customer service during the pandemic. The current situation exacerbates the negative trend resulting from the gap between the perception of the services provided and the actual requirements of the respondents. © 2022, Bucharest University of Economic Studies Publishing House. All rights reserved.

The effects of transformational leadership and HRM practices on employee outcomes and productivity in the Greek hospitality industry during COVID-19

PurposeThe present study investigates the role of "Transformational Leadership (TFL)" on employees' work engagement and its effect on their "Productivity" and "Extra-Role Customer Service" behaviors. In doing so, the present study examines the mediating role of two crucial variables, namely the creation of a "Service Climate" and the role of "Trust" that employees show toward their managers. Last but not least, this research examines the potential role of High Performance Work Systems (HPWS) as a moderator.Design/methodology/approachPartial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) was used on a sample of 459 customer-contact employees across thirteen 4- and 5-star Greek hotel organizations.FindingsThis study reveals the mechanism through which "TFL" impacts employees' productivity. Specifically, "TFL" first impacts employees' "Trust" toward their managers and helps toward creating a "Social Climate". In turn, both "Trust" and "Social Climate" directly impact employees' "Work Engagement" who respond by showing increased "Productivity" and by exhibiting "Extra-Role Customer Service" behaviors. Nevertheless, the role of HPWS as a moderator was not confirmed.Practical implicationsThe present study underscores the need for hotels' management to pay the required attention on creating an employment relationship based on "Trust", as well as on creating a "Service Climate" in order for their employees to become work engaged and highly productive.Originality/valueThis is among the first studies that examine the "TFL" effects on employee outcomes in the Tourism and Hospitality sector, during the COVID-19 era.

Measuring customer satisfaction with the Gautrain during the COVID-19 pandemic using the service quality model

Background: The Gautrain was created with the sole purpose of availing efficient transportation between the three metropolitan municipalities, namely the City of Tshwane, the City of Johannesburg and the City of Ekurhuleni. The Gautrain has been transporting more than five million passengers annually. However, ridership decreased drastically because of COVID-19. Poor ridership has resulted in less revenue income and the halting of expansion. In prior years, the Gautrain Management Agency (GMA) measured customer satisfaction levels;however, it has not undertaken such a study since the start of COVID-19 pandemic. Objectives: The study measured service quality experienced by Gautrain users amidst the COVID-19 pandemic through the service quality (SERVQUAL) model. Unknown customer satisfaction levels with the Gautrain services during the COVID-19 pandemic posed a problem for the agency. Method: This study followed a descriptive and quantitative path. A cross-sectional survey via online platforms was used to collect the data. The study had a sample size of 84 Gautrain commuters. Results: The findings revealed that users experienced a negative service quality in terms of SERVQUAL dimensions, namely assurance, tangibles, empathy and responsiveness. Conclusion: The study concluded that COVID-19 had a negative impact on some of the Gautrain service factors;however, users were still satisfied with some of the service factors. It is recommended that the Gautrain can improve services by understanding what customers expect in terms of service factors during the pandemic. © 2022. The Authors. Licensee: AOSIS.

Guest editorial: Deepening the theoretical understanding of agility and resilience in global supply chains

Specifically, they address the following broad topics: the role of organizational intangible resources in facilitating supply chain resilience, the application of resilience to service recovery, the long-term view of supply chain resilience, the multifaceted effect of supply base complexity on supply chain agility and resilience, and the application of agility to improve customer performance. Using a cross-sectional questionnaire, the authors collected data from 180 medium-to senior-level managers and found that organizational learning has a positive impact on supply chain resilience, while organizational innovativeness and organizational agility mediate this relationship. To illustrate, the value of returns in the USA amounted to $400 bn in 2020 (National Retail Federation, 2021). [...]a recent customer survey by United Parcel Service showed that about 58% of consumers are not satisfied with the service they encounter when returning products to retailers (Warren, 2020). Furthermore, in keeping with the focus of the special issue on the theoretical underpinnings of supply chain resilience, the authors draw on procedural justice theory to also explore the mediating roles of procedural justice (i.e. the policies and procedures used to offer the desired customer outcome) and interactional justice (i.e. the customer's interpersonal treatment during service recovery) in the relationship between service recovery resilience on the one hand and customer satisfaction and customer loyalty on the other.

The impact and success of health-care-related social media usage – pre- and post-COVID analysis

Purpose The overall purpose of this empirically validated research paper is to determine factors that impact the success of using social media channels by consumers for salvaging health-care information by integrating constructs of the information system (IS) success model, e-health service quality and perceived usefulness during pre- and post-COVID settings. Design/methodology/approach Online survey responses of 243 consumers for study 1 and 184 consumers for study 2 were validated using factor analysis to understand consumers' attitudes toward social media use. Constructs from existing literature and theories have been extracted to develop the proposed model, which has been empirically validated through statistical tests. A paired-samples t-test was also conducted to compare the customer satisfaction mean of pre- and post-COVID conditions;and word of mouth (WOM) for pre- and post-COVID conditions. Findings The outcome of this study supports that service quality and information quality conclusively influence customer satisfaction of consumers for health-care information among respondents pre COVID, and service quality, perceived usefulness and information quality conclusively affect customer satisfaction of consumers for health-care information among respondents post COVID. Furthermore, the e-health service quality contributes noteworthy in shaping the consumers' satisfaction with social media usage for study 2 and information quality for study 1. A paired-samples t-test revealed that the two groups behaved significantly differently for customer satisfaction and WOM in the two groups. Research limitations/implications At prima facie, this study has a geographical limitation for the sample size. The respondents for the online research were from the urban suburb of Bengaluru, India. The data collection has not focused on any precise social media channel. Practical implications Identification and comprehension of constructs that influence consumer satisfaction related to social media usage for health-care information can assist health-care managers in developing appropriate strategies for consumers to maximize social media usage. Moreover, this study provides an insight into the consumer's perception of using social media channels for seeking health-care information. Originality/value This study recommends an empirically validated model for the success of social media in a consumer setting for the health-care scenario. This research is a unique attempt that inspects social media satisfaction by adapting constructs from existing theories of the IS success model, e-health service quality and perceived usefulness.

Healthcare Chatbot System: A Survey

A chatbot is a software that produces a computer model of conversation through auditory or textual method between the user and the computer. Such bots use AI and NLP to understand user's questions and automate responses to them, simulating human conversation. In this modern technology almost, every person utilize smartphones in their day to day lives. Simply because, it has made life of a person simple by the touch of the screen, from extracting information from the internet, to provide personal assistance to entertainment everything happens just by the click of a button. Today Chatbots are used in various domains like education, customer service, medical, website help etc for seeking information, FAQ answering and guidance. Due to the advancements in AI and techniques used in data mining, healthcare chatbots are often used for medical screening. The aim of this paper is to do detailed study of various research papers related to chatbots and analyze the different tools, algorithms, software and platforms that are utilized. © 2022 IEEE.

Determining Factors Affecting Customer Loyalty to Internet Service Provider during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach

Internet Service Provider (ISP) has been a critical aspect during the COVID-19 pandemic especially in developing countries such as Indonesia. The purpose of this study was to determine factors affecting customer loyalty to ISP in Indonesia during the COVID-19 pandemic by utilizing a structural equation modeling (SEM) approach. There were 252 respondents who voluntarily answered an online questionnaire which consisted of 49 questions that covered several factors such as Customer Service Performance (CSP), Internet Quality (IQ), Router Quality (RQ), Payment Method (PM), Internet Package (IP), Security & Privacy (SP), Promotion (P), COVID-19 impact (CV), Customer Satisfaction (CS), and Customer Loyalty (CL). SEM showed that IQ was found to have the highest effect on CS which subsequently led to CL, followed by SP, CSP, RQ, and PM. This study is one of the first studies that explored customer loyalty to Internet Service Providers during the COVID-19 pandemic. The SEM construct can be applied and extended to enhance customer satisfaction on ISP particularly in developing countries. © 2022 IEEE.

Customer Service Quality in Financial Entities a Factor for Generating Competitiveness in Times of Covid 19 Pandemic

In a globalized world, companies are under increasing pressure to generate a competitive advantage over others. Satisfying the needs or expectations of customers, becomes a predominant factor in attracting consumers for financial entities, so it is necessary to know the value of customer perception and satisfaction in such services. This study is based on analyzing the predominant factors, to know the perception that customers have on the quality of service of the financial companies of the segment 3 (assets: greater than 5′000.000,00 up to 20′000.000,00), according to the classification of the Standard for the segmentation of the entities of the popular and solidary financial sector [1]. These factors are immersed in variables of tangible aspects that reflect the perception of the service, as well as in aspects of an intangible nature that are perceived and valued by the customer. Those ones allow generating a competitive advantage in the financial services sector. The research was based on a model of variables to identify the tangible and intangible factors in customers satisfaction and their perception of quality and satisfied needs. The reliability analysis tested the hypotheses proposed in the research, while the factor analysis was used to identify the variables, their correlation and the validity of the study with its factors, the application of multiple linear regression analysis, allowed observing the effect of the independent variables on the dependent variables of perceived quality and satisfied needs. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Fostering quality customer service during Covid-19: The role of managers’ oral language, employee work engagement, and employee resilience

By integrating speech act and conservation of resources (COR) theories, the link between motivating language (ML) and commitment to quality customer service (CQCS) was tested. Furthermore, work engagement was introduced as a mediator and employee resilience as a moderator. Partial least squares-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was applied to analyze the data collected from 424 employees in the hotel industry in Thailand. ML has direct and indirect effects on CQCS via employee work engagement. Employee resilience moderates the relationship between ML, work engagement, and CQCS. Overall, the findings indicate the use of ML, employee resilience, and engaged employees to generate CQCS in the hotel industry in Thailand. The study's novelty is that it provides greater insight into how ML, employee resilience, and engaged employees affect quality customer service in the hotel industry in Thailand. The findings contribute to COR and speech act theories by examining the direct outcomes of ML, i.e., CQCS, and how ML is more effective when employee resilience is a boundary condition. Practical and theoretical implications are described.

Impact of leadership style on the employees' occupational stress and intention to leave in Vietnamese supply enterprises in the context of COVID-19

This study provides new evidence on the relationship between leadership style, job stress, and the intention to leave of employees in supply enterprises in Vietnam in the context of the COVID-19 epidemic. Unlike most previous studies, the results of this study found that the level of work stress of employees is quite high (4.03 points) and is positively affected by the transactional leadership style, while that of transformational leadership style will reduce stress levels. The study also found that, although the level of work stress was high, the intention to quit was quite low;the older the workers, the lower the intention to quit;and women have a higher intention to quit than men. However, this study has many limitations when it does not consider factors affecting work stress and intention to leave other jobs such as job satisfaction, working environment, etc. Research results provide a theoretical and practical basis for leaders at supply enterprises in adjusting human resource management policies to reduce stress for employees and enhance long-term commitment. with the company. (c) 2022 The Authors. Published by IASE. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Understanding the Voice of Customers Using Artificial Neural Networks: A Study of Food Aggregators in the Cachar District of Assam

The evolution of online food delivery system started in India in the late 2000’s and since then many Food Aggregators have come up with a variety of prospects for the customers. This process of Business to Customer services had found itself to be very popular especially in the last few years and after the COVID 19 attack the business had flourished to a large extent. People do not prefer to come out of their abodes and try to procure the eatables by maintaining proper social distancing. There have been a number of local Food Aggregators that have emerged in the Cachar District only recently and post 2020 especially in the lockdown phase they have accelerated their operations in the Valley by joining hands with a number of food outlets. These local entrepreneurial efforts are still in the growth phase and are trying to meet the customer demands to enhance their satisfaction level. Speaking of enhancing the satisfaction of the customers, there are many factors that work before meeting their overall satisfaction and these factors if are considered carefully would not only increase the customer loyalty towards the respective. Purposive Sampling was used in this study to get the responses from the online food buyers. It used Artificial Neural Networks to understand the pattern of the buying behavior of customers in this area and tried to create a model that would enhance the understanding of the Food Aggregators in regards to the buying frequency of the customers and take steps accordingly. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

How ostracism jeopardizes customers' interests at restaurants: a study in context of COVID-19

Purpose: With theoretical underpinnings in the conservation of resources theory, this research aims at understanding the link between workplace ostracism (WPO) and its effects on customers' interests in the context of COVID-19, with the mediation of stress and moderation of self-efficacy (SE). Design/methodology/approach: The study followed a time-lagged design. A sample of 217 frontline employees working in the food sector of southern Punjab, Pakistan responded to the study questions using survey method with structured questionnaires. A Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) tool was utilized for data analysis with bootstrapping and PROCESS macro. Findings: The findings show that an important mechanism by which ostracism translates into customer service sabotage (CSS) is the increase in perceived stress levels of the employees. Additionally, SE was found to be an important personal resource that acts as a moderator in the said relationship. Practical implications: Employees with high SE sense less workplace stress even during a pandemic. Leadership should consider the stress-alleviating effect of SE for lessening the damaging influence of WPO on customers. Originality/value: The study fills an important empirical gap in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, by showing that due to resource loss perceived by employees while being targeted by ostracism, they may decide to transfer their frustration towards organizational customers by sabotaging their service experience. © 2022, Ambreen Sarwar, Muhammad Ibrahim Abdullah, Muhammad Kashif Imran and Nazia Rafiq.

Integrated supply chain security risk management with a focus on customer service

The management of supply chains in the new time that will open once the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic is overcome will tend to give a key importance to risk management. It will mean greater chain visibility, and greater collaboration momentum will be needed, in order to diligently take consensual action. The objective of this article is to provide a theoretical approach to the integration of supply chain security risk management to the organizational system with a focus on customer service as a key logistics activity. For this, theoretical modeling was used with a systemic, structural approach with logical consistency adapted to elements of logistics and internal control. Links are established between the supply chain security system and the internal control system, focused on logistics flows in an organization. It is determined that, in terms of supply chains, it will be effective to manage risks with a focus on customer service, from the reduction of the five existing gaps in this environment. It is concluded that the integration of supply chain security risk management is a quality that seeks the effectiveness of these systems in organizations with a focus on customer service, integrated with internal control, thus achieving a better capacity of immediate response to the demands of the supply networks. (English) [ FROM AUTHOR] La gestión de las cadenas de suministro, en la actualidad, una vez se supere la pandemia de coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) tenderán a dar una importancia clave a la gestión de los riesgos. Va a implicar una mayor visibilidad de la cadena, y se necesitarán un mayor impulso de la colaboración, con el fin de tomar medidas consensuadas con diligencia. El objetivo de este artículo es ofrecer una aproximación teórica de la integración de la gestión de riesgos de la seguridad de las cadenas de suministros al sistema organizacional con un enfoque en el servicio al cliente como actividad clave de la logística. Para esto se utilizó la modelación teórica con un enfoque sistémico-estructural con consistencia lógica, adaptado a elementos de la logística y el control interno. Se establecen los nexos entre el sistema de seguridad de las cadenas de suministros y el sistema de control interno, enfocados en los flujos logísticos en una organización. Se determina que, en materia de cadenas de suministros, será efectivo gestionar los riesgos con un enfoque al servicio al cliente, a partir de la reducción de los cincos brechas existente en este entorno. Se concluye que la integración de la gestión de riesgos de la seguridad de las cadenas de suministros es una cualidad que busca la efectividad de estos sistemas en las organizaciones con un enfoque al servicio al cliente, integrado al control interno, se logrará así una mejor capacidad de respuesta inmediata a las demandas de las redes de suministros. (Spanish) [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Ingeniería y Competitividad is the property of Universidad del Valle and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Service amid crisis: the role of supervisor humor and discretionary organizational support

Purpose: This paper aims to study the effects of widespread stress and uncertainty that is characteristic of organizational crises on service employees and to explore the extent to which organizations may proactively use supervisors’ positive humor and discretionary organizational support that goes above and beyond service employee expectations to mitigate the pandemic’s negative impact on work engagement. Design/methodology/approach: Cross-sequential survey-based data was collected from 172 service employees during the height of the pandemic to assess service employees’ perceptions of both their supervisors’ use of positive humor and their employers’ discretionary organizational support in response to the emotion-laden stress and uncertainty surrounding COVID-19. PROCESS analysis was used to test the hypotheses and to conduct supplementary analyses. Findings: Results suggest employee perceptions of supervisors’ use of positive humor positively impact dimensions of work engagement at Time 1. This engagement then positively impacts extra-role behavior, innovativeness and pride at Time 2. The impact from supervisor humor to the outcomes is fully mediated through work engagement. From a moderation perspective, discretionary organizational support was shown as a substitute for creating work engagement at low levels of supervisor humor suggesting that the two “resource builders” can act as substitutes in creating engagement. Originality/value: This paper provides unique insights into both the valuable role of positive workplace humor for service workers’ work engagement during times of widespread crisis and the moderating role discretionary organizational support plays when perceptions of humor are relatively low. Moreover, the supplemental examination of the multidimensional work engagement construct as a mediator between humor and the service outcomes of extra-role behavior, innovativeness and organizational pride provides unique insights into how a crisis context may deferentially affect the experience and implications of engagement for other service worker outcomes. Understanding the proactive, ameliorative role in service effectiveness played by supervisor humor and discretionary organizational support during crises is an emerging question for service research. © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited.