COSTS AND BENEFITS OF EMPLOYEE INTERACTION WITH THE PUBLIC: EXTENDING THE KNOWLEDGE ON THE TYPOLOGY, CONSEQUENCES, PROCESSES, AND CONTINGENCIES

Two areas of research approach employee interactions with the public in different ways; research on emotional labor and burnout describes it as solely harmful, while research on job design considers its merits. I propose that each area of the literature adopts a narrow perspective that creates these different views. This dissertation constructs and validates a framework based on valence (negative and positive) and content (affect-based and task-based) dimensions that identify four types of employee experiences with the public: mistreatment, gratitude, problematic demands, and cooperation. Then, I use these measures to predict employee well-being (i.e., emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction) and performance (i.e., prescribed task performance, proactive customer service, and incivility toward customers), the mechanisms that underlie these outcomes, and the boundary conditions. Based on multilevel analyses of 403 service employeesupervisor dyads from various organizations in Thailand, I found that both negative and positive interactions with the public contribute to employee well-being and performance. Moreover, I found that negative experiences with the public do not always cause deleterious effects on employees (e.g., poor proactive customer service and incivility toward customers). This paper systematically explores the patterns, mediating processes, and boundary conditions of the relationships between different types of interactions with the public and key work-related outcomes. These findings offer important implications for research and practice in the area of customer service performance. COSTS AND BENEFITS OF EMPLOYEE INTERACTION WITH THE PUBLIC: EXTENDING THE KNOWLEDGE ON THE TYPOLOGY, CONSEQUENCES, PROCESSES, AND CONTINGENCIES by Angsuthon Srisuthisa-ard B.A. Chulalongkorn University, 1999 M.S. Johns Hopkins University, 2007 Dissertation Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Business Administration Syracuse University May 2015 Copyright © Angsuthon Srisuthisa-ard 2015 All Rights Reserved Acknowledgements This dissertation would not have been possible without the support of many individuals. First and foremost, I thank my advisor, Dr Yitzhak Fried for his knowledge and invaluable guidance over the past four years in this program. I thank him for his kindness, encouragement, and time he spent with me on my research and scholarly development. He was always there for me when I needed advice, and he challenged me to be a better scholar. At every meeting, he would always tell me how the career as a researcher is enlightening and worth pursuing. I always admire him for his dedication and true passion for theory and research and I feel incredibly lucky to have him as my advisor. I would like to sincerely thank my dissertation committee, Dr. Kris Byron, Dr.Richard Gramzow, Dr. Denise Gregoire, and Dr. Laura VanderDrift. Dr. Kris Byron is an amazingly devoted, kind, caring, and effective mentor. She has also made possible for me to apply my knowledge to teaching, and I greatly appreciate everything that she has done to support my work and to enhance my career as a scholar. I would like to thank Dr. Denise Gregoire for his willingness to read everything I write, and his tremendous effort in finding numerous gaps in my work and offering suggestions for improving the clarity and contributions of my research. Further, I am indebted to Dr. Richard Gramzow for his knowledge, and his willingness to answer any question I had and to provide me with invaluable feedback. I would like to thank Dr. Laura VanderDrift for her energy and commitment to ask interesting questions and for inspiring me to improve my thinking and research. Additionally, I would like to thank Dr. Catherine Maritan who has served as a role model for building a meaningful network and for participating in academic communities. I am truly grateful for her knowledge and expertise which was instrumental in my development as a student and scholar.