行政院國家科學委員會補助專題研究計畫成果報告
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※ 員工情緒表達決定因素與效果之探討： ※
※ 以鞋店銷售員為例 ※
※ Determinants and Consequences of Employee ※
※ Displayed Emotions: ※
※ The Case of Shoe Store Salespersons ※
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計畫類別： 個別型計畫
計畫編號： NSC89－2416－H－011－007 執行期間： 88 年 8 月 01 日至 89 年 7 月 31 日
計畫主持人： 蔡維奇 助理教授 (E-mail: wtsai@ba.ntust.edu.tw）
計畫參與人員： 黃櫻美、林育瑋 研究生
執行單位： 國立台灣科技大學企業管理系
中 華 民 國 八 十 九 年 九 月 二 十 八 日
一、摘要
過去有關員工情緒表達的研究，以理 論的探討或質的個案分析居多，因此本研 究擬進行量的實證研究，探討員工情緒表 達之決定因素與效果。
本研究以 290 位鞋店銷售員及 284 位 顧客為對象，探討店內的服務態度氣候是 否會影響員工的情緒表達，及員工正面的 情緒表達是否會為組織帶來立即、二次、
及蔓延利益。結果發現服務態度氣候與員 工情緒表達有正相關，且員工正面情緒表 達會影響顧客再度光臨及向朋友推薦該店 的意願。
關鍵詞：情緒表達、服務態度氣候、顧客 反應
Abstract
This study examined whether the psychological climate for service friendliness correlated positively with employee positive displayed emotions, and whether such positive emotional displays would result in some benefits for the organization. Data was collected from 290 sales clerks in 156 retail shoe stores, and from 284 customers who were served by one of the sales clerks.
Results indicated a positive relationship between psychological climate for service friendliness and employees’ positive displayed emotions. The study also indicated that employees’ positive emotional displays would increase customer willingness to return to the store and pass positive comments to friends.
Keywords: displayed emotions, climate for service friendliness, customer reactions
二、緣由與目的
The issue of employee displayed
emotions has gained increasing attentions from organizational scholars (e.g., Hochschild, 1983; Rafaeli, 1989a; Rafaeli, 1989b; Rafaeli & Sutton, 1987, 1989; Sutton, 1991). “Employee displayed emotions” has been defined as “the act of expressing socially desired emotions during service transactions” (Ashforth & Humphrey, 1993:
88-89). It is concerned with an employee’s behavior (Wharton & Erickson, 1993) as displayed through a combination of facial expression, spoken words, and tone of voice such as smiling and thanking (Rafaeli &
Sutton, 1987).
Past research has made a distinction between employees’ displays of positive vs.
negative emotions (Rafaeli & Sutton, 1987).
The display of positive emotions (i.e., friendliness and happiness) is required in many service occupations including restaurant workers and flight attendants.
Funeral directors, in contrast, are expected to display negative emotions (i.e., sadness).
This paper looks at positive displayed emotions. The display of positive emotions was an important requirement for participants in this study (i.e., shoe store sales clerks).
Moreover, studies focusing on employees’
positive emotional displays will increase our understanding of the extent to which sales clerks meet a store’s emotion display rules and how this variation can be linked to important organizational variables.
Most past research in displayed emotions has consisted of conceptual discussions, with a few exceptions taking a qualitative approach and studying the phenomenon in a single organization.
Because of the lack of quantitative empirical
studies in this field, the present study is intended to close this gap by empirically exploring determinants and consequences of employee positive displayed emotions across several organizations. Specifically, this study seeks to test whether psychological climate for service friendliness will be a determinant of employee positive displayed emotions.
Further, this study examines the effects of positive displayed emotions on customers’
purchase decisions and customer willingness to return to the store and pass positive comments to friends. In the following sections, past relevant research studies will be reviewed.
三、結果與討論
Sales clerks and customers of 156 retail shoe stores in Northern Taiwan were included in this study. 290 sales clerks participated in this study. Their mean age was 23.51and 115 of them (39.7%) were men.
In addition, 284 customers served by one of the sales clerks participated in this study.
Customers’ mean age was 24.25 and 94 of them (33.1%) were men.
The present study found that when a psychological climate for service friendliness was higher, employees would display more positive emotions toward customers. This finding is complementary to those by Rafaeli and Sutton (1987), Sutton (1991), and Ashforth and Humphrey (1995). In those, variables of socialization and rewards and punishments were the main foci. The present one showed that employees’ cognitive appraisals of these and other practices and procedures in the organization correlate positively with their positive emotional
displays. This finding has one practical implication. Managers can create a high psychological climate for service friendliness, in order to increase the possibility that employees will display positive emotions toward customers. By what means can a high psychological climate for service friendliness be created? Implications drawn from Schneider and others (Kelley, 1992;
Schneider & Reichers, 1983; Schneider, et al., 1998; Schneider, Wheeler, & Cox, 1992) have suggested that managers might expend efforts toward implementing human resources practices (e.g., evaluating the appropriateness of employee displayed emotions and giving rewards or punishments accordingly), and remove obstacles to employees displaying positive emotions (e.g., scolding employees for showing hostility to coworkers who display positive emotions, since coworkers who follow the emotion display rules often make these employees look bad).
Results of this study also showed that positive emotional display is not related to purchase decision. A customer’s likelihood of purchasing the product would not be increased even if the sales clerk displayed positive emotions toward him or her. Perhaps in the context of this study (i.e., shoe stores), positive displayed emotions had a much weaker effect on a customer’s purchase decision than other factors mentioned frequently by marketing researchers (see Schoell and Guiltinan, 1995). Thus if factors such as price of the product and product characteristics were measured and statistically controlled, the effect of positive displayed emotions on purchase decision
could be more accurately determined.
As expected, this study found that when employees displayed more positive emotions toward customers, customers were more willing to visit the store again and pass positive comments to friends. Further analyses of positive displayed emotions at the indicator level suggested it was an employee’s thanking and rhythmic tone of voice that effectively influenced customer reactions. These results partially confirmed Rafaeli and Sutton’s (1987) proposed displayed emotions-organizational benefits relationships at the transaction level of analysis. The work of Brown and Sulzer- Azaroff (1994) indicated employees’
displays of positive emotions can result in some positive consequences for the organization in the context of a bank. This study adds to the literature and suggests that positive emotional displays could bring benefits for the organization in retail settings like a shoe store. Taken together, from a practical standpoint, it seems clear that the display of positive emotions on the part of employees is one desirable action managers should promote.
This study contributes to the literature by providing results of an empirical investigation of employee positive displayed emotions. It also extends previous research by testing some of Rafaeli and Sutton’s (1987) hypotheses at a different level of analysis. Specifically, research was focused on exploration of phenomenon in the reality of actual transactions. The findings based on this research strategy should add value to the literature.
四、計畫結果自評
本研究之結果發現，四個假設中有三 個得到支持，顯示本研究大致能達到預期 目標。至於研究成果的學術或應用價值，
可包括下列幾方面：(1)本研究所編製員工 情緒表達之評量表可供日後相關研究參考 使用；(2)本研究所編製員工情緒表達之評 量表可供企業界評估其服務人員績效時參 考使用；(3)本研究所得之結果可確定情緒 表達對組織而言為一重要行為，企業組織 可進一步參考 Schneider et al.
(1998)的建議在組織中創造一個好的服務 態度氣候，以增加員工表達出正面情緒的 機率。整體來說，本研究結果極適合在學 術期刊上發表。
五、參考文獻
1. Ashforth, B. E., & Humphrey, R. H.
1993. Emotional labor in service roles:
The influence of identity. Academy of Management Review, 18: 88-115.
2. Ashforth, B. E., & Humphrey, R. H.
1995. Emotion in the workplace: A reappraisal. Human Relations, 48: 97- 125.
3. Brown, C. S., & Sulzer-Azaroff, B. 1994.
An assessment of the relationship between customer satisfaction and service friendliness. Journal of Organizational Behavior Management, 14: 55-75.
4. Hochschild, A. R. 1983. The managed heart. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
5. Kelley, S. W. 1992. Developing customer orientation among service employees. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 20: 27-36.
6. Rafaeli, A. 1989a. When clerks meet
customers: A test of variables related to emotional expression on the job. Journal of Applied Psychology, 74: 385-393.
7. Rafaeli, A. 1989b. When cashiers meet customers: An analysis of the role of supermarket cashier. Academy of Management Journal, 32: 245-273.
8. Rafaeli, A., & Sutton, R. I. 1987.
Expression of emotion as part of the work role. Academy of Management Review, 12: 23-37.
9. Rafaeli, A., & Sutton, R. I. 1989. The expression of emotion in organizational life. Research in Organizational Behavior, 11: 1-42.
10. Schneider, B., & Reichers, A. E. 1983.
On the etiology of climates. Personnel Psychology, 36: 19-39.
11. Schneider, B., Wheeler, J. K., & Cox, J.
F. 1992. A passion for service: Using content analysis to explicate service climate themes. Journal of Applied Psychology, 77: 705-716.
12. Schneider, B., White, S. S., & Paul, M.
C. 1998. Linking service climate and customer perceptions of service quality:
Test of a causal model. Journal of Applied Psychology, 83: 150-163.
13. Schoell, W. F., & Guiltinan, J. P. 1995.
Marketing: Contemporary concepts and practices (6th ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
14. Sutton, R. I. 1991. Maintaining norms about expressed emotions: The case of bill collectors. Administrative Science Quarterly, 36: 245-268.
