Whatever happens, I'll support you: The effects of autonomy support during aggressive customer ...

215 Pages·2015·2.24 MB·English

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WHATEVER HAPPENS, I’LL SUPPORT YOU: THE EFFECTS OF AUTONOMY
SUPPORT DURING AGGRESSIVE CUSTOMER SERVICE INTERACTIONS

A Dissertation
Presented to
The Graduate Faculty of The University of Akron

In Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree
Doctor of Philosophy

Alison A. Benedetti
December, 2015
WHATEVER HAPPENS, I’LL SUPPORT YOU: THE EFFECTS OF AUTONOMY

SUPPORT DURING AGGRESSIVE CUSTOMER SERVICE INTERACTIONS

Alison A. Benedetti

Dissertation

Approved: Accepted:
_____________________________ ____________________________________
Advisor Department Chair
Dr. James M. Diefendorff Dr. Paul E. Levy

_____________________________ ____________________________________
Committee Member Dean of the College
Dr. Paul E. Levy Dr. Chand Midha

_____________________________ ____________________________________
Committee Member Dean of the Graduate School
Dr. Joelle D. Elicker Dr. Chand Midha

_____________________________ ____________________________________
Committee Member Date
Dr. Dennis Doverspike

_____________________________
Committee Member
Dr. Janette Dill
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ABSTRACT

Stemming from a tradition of self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985), an
abundance of support exists for implementing autonomy support as a tool in fostering
employee well-being and performance. In essence, autonomy supportive managers help
to satisfy basic psychological needs (e.g., autonomy, competence) of their employees, but
what is less clear is whether the beneficial effect of autonomy support will be seen under
challenging work conditions such as dealing with customer aggression. Working with
aggressive customers has been shown to decrease employee need satisfaction, leading to
burnout and impaired performance. Taken together, the current study sought to examine
the independent and interactive effects of managerial behavior and customer treatment
toward the employee on key outcomes such as reports of well-being and performance.
Through a call center simulation in which management style was experimentally
manipulated (autonomy supportive or controlled), participants received calls from
customers (aggressive or non-aggressive) and continuously recorded their need
satisfaction and affect immediately following the customer calls; also, observer ratings of
employee service performance were continuously recorded after data collection. In using
continuous rating assessments, this study sought to eliminate many of the limitations
traditionally found in self-report measures. Results show that the manager motivational
style had significant but limited effects: participants in the autonomy supportive manager
condition experienced more positive affect and vitality, on average, compared to the
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controlled manager, but the manager manipulation did not significantly influence
participant reports of average negative affect, emotional exhaustion, or third-party
performance ratings. The customer treatment toward the participant had strong, robust
effects on average well-being as well as trends and end-of-call ratings (i.e., ratings at the
concluding moment of the call) for need satisfaction and performance. However, the
managerial style and the customer treatment did not significantly interact to predict
employee outcomes as expected. Possible explanations for these findings as well as
implications for the advancement of theory and practical use of the findings are
discussed.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Briefly I would like to thank the people without whom I would not have had the support
and resources to persevere through my graduate career. My academic advisor, Dr. Jim
Diefendorff, has been a guiding force, shaping my writing and professional development.
I am incredibly privileged to have worked alongside him and to have been trained by as
great a mind as his. I am grateful to those who have spent countless hours assisting with
this project: Dan Krantz, Erik Zito, Devin Nakama, Garrett Sonntag, Michael Vale, and
Katya Lyuksyutova. My colleagues at school—Ernest Hoffman, Alex Zelin, Gina Seaton,
Matt Sloan, Boris Genzer, and Megan Nolan—thank you for helping me through many
obstacles and providing much-needed encouragement. To my parents and sister, you are
the reason I could pursue a doctorate degree and absolutely the reason I committed
myself to completing it. Your faith in me has been endless, and this has been nothing less
than a group effort all along. Lastly, I would like to thank my best friend and husband for
being the most encouraging person I have ever met—reminding me what is always most
important.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page

LIST OF TABLES ...............................................................................................................x
LIST OF FIGURES ......................................................................................................... xiii
CHAPTER
I. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM ..........................................................................1
II. LITERATURE REVIEW ...........................................................................................9
Basic Psychological Needs .................................................................................11
Managerial Style: The Importance of Autonomy Support .................................13
Mediating the Manager-Employee Relationship ................................................21
The Customer Service Context ...........................................................................22
Mediating the Customer-Employee Relationship ...............................................26
The Interactive Effects of Managerial Style and Customer Behavior ................27
Within-Episode Dynamics ..................................................................................29
III. METHOD .................................................................................................................45
Participants..........................................................................................................45
Procedure ............................................................................................................46
Experimental Conditions ....................................................................................49
Manager Motivational Style Manipulation .....................................................49
Customer Treatment Manipulation .................................................................50
Pre-Simulation Measures ....................................................................................51
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Dispositional Affect ........................................................................................52
Dispositional Need Satisfaction ......................................................................52
Simulation Measures...........................................................................................53
Autonomy Need Satisfaction ..........................................................................55
Competence Need Satisfaction .......................................................................56
Confounding Variables .......................................................................................58
Affect ..............................................................................................................58
Post-Simulation Measures ..................................................................................60
Manipulation Checks ......................................................................................60
Realism of the Call Center ..............................................................................61
Post-Simulation Dependent Variables ................................................................61
Psychological Vitality .....................................................................................61
Emotional Exhaustion .....................................................................................62
Momentary Affect ...........................................................................................62
Psychological Need Satisfaction .....................................................................63
Third-Party Customer Service Ratings ...........................................................63
Post-Simulation Confounding Variables ............................................................65
Perspective Taking ..........................................................................................65
Mental Workload ............................................................................................66
Analytic Approach ..............................................................................................66
IV. RESULTS .................................................................................................................68
Manipulation Checks ..........................................................................................75
Hypothesis 1 .......................................................................................................85
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Hypothesis 2 .......................................................................................................86
Hypothesis 3 .......................................................................................................87
Hypothesis 4 .......................................................................................................92
Hypothesis 5 .......................................................................................................92
Hypothesis 6 .......................................................................................................93
Hypothesis 7 .......................................................................................................97
Average Simulation Ratings as Predictors of Corresponding Post-
Simulation Ratings ..............................................................................................98

Hypothesis Testing Using Self-Reports Rather Than Manipulation as
Predictors ..........................................................................................................100

Within-Event Analyses .....................................................................................101
Hypothesis 8 .....................................................................................................108
Hypothesis 9 .....................................................................................................114
Hypothesis 10 ...................................................................................................115
Hypothesis 11 ...................................................................................................117
Supplemental Analyses .....................................................................................120
Stability over Time .......................................................................................120
Mean Squared Successive Difference ...........................................................128
Lagged Analyses to Tease Out the Causal Direction of Effects ...................129
V. SUMMARY ...........................................................................................................137
The Impact of Manager Motivational Style on Outcomes ...............................138
The Impact of Customer Treatment on Outcomes ............................................141
The Interactive Effects of Manager Style and Customer Treatment on
Outcomes ..........................................................................................................144

The Mediating Role of Psychological Need Satisfaction .................................145
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Implications for Self-Determination Theory ....................................................147
Practical Implications .......................................................................................152
Limitations and Future Directions ....................................................................154
Conclusion ........................................................................................................157
REFERENCES… ............................................................................................................158
APPENDICES .................................................................................................................172
APPENDIX A MEASURES ..................................................................................173
APPENDIX B. EXPERIMENTER SCRIPTS .......................................................179
APPENDIX C. CONFEDERATE SCRIPTS .........................................................183
APPENDIX D. POWERPOINT MANUAL ..........................................................189
APPENDIX E. POST-SIMULATION SCRIPT ....................................................294
APPENDIX F. INSTITUTIONAL REVIEW BOARD APPROVAL ...................195
APPENDIX G, MEAN SQUARED SUCCESSIVE DIFFERENCE
ANALYSIS ...................................................................................196

APPENDIX H. GROWTH CURVE MODELS REPRESENTING
INDIVIDUAL PARTICIPANT DATA FROM EACH
EXPERIMENTAL CONDITION ................................................198

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LIST OF TABLES

Table Page
1 Summary of Hypotheses ...........................................................................................43

2 Means, Standard Deviations, and Correlations for Person-Level data .....................70

3 Means, Standard Deviations, and Correlations for Autonomy Supportive-
Aggressive Condition ...............................................................................................71

4 Means, Standard Deviations, and Correlations for Autonomy Supportive
Nonaggressive Condition .........................................................................................72

5 Means, Standard Deviations, and Correlations for Controlling-Aggressive
Condition ..................................................................................................................72

6 Means, Standard Deviations, and Correlations for Controlling-Nonaggressive
Condition ..................................................................................................................73

7 Descriptive Statistics for Customer Manipulation Checks and Scale Split by
Condition ..................................................................................................................76

8 Descriptive Statistics for Manager Manipulation Checks and Scale Split by
Condition ..................................................................................................................79

9 Descriptive Statistics for Third-Party Ratings of Managerial Conditions Split by
Condition ..................................................................................................................81

10 Analysis of Variance Results Examining Confederate Effects ................................83

11 Analysis of Variance Results Examining Confederate Effects Split by Phase ........83

12 T-test Results Examining Counterbalancing Effects ................................................84

13 T-test Results Examining Counterbalancing Split by Phase ....................................85

14 Regression Results for Post-Simulation Well-Being and Average Performance .....86

15 Correlations Between Predictor, Mediator, and Outcome Variables .......................88
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