Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-6bf8c574d5-pdxrj Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-03-09T23:47:01.415Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

21 - The Service Encounter

from Part III - Workplace Affect and Interpersonal and Team-Level Processes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 June 2020

By
Vicente Martínez-Tur
Edited by
Liu-Qin Yang ,
Russell Cropanzano ,
Catherine S. Daus  and
Vicente Martínez-Tur
Liu-Qin Yang
Affiliation:
Portland State University
Russell Cropanzano
Affiliation:
University of Colorado
Catherine S. Daus
Affiliation:
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
Vicente Martínez-Tur
Affiliation:
Universitat de València, Spain
Get access

Summary

The service sector accounts for about two-thirds of the world’s output, it provides more than 50 percent of global employment, and its importance has increased in recent decades in every country (United Nations, 2018). Consequently, millions of service encounters take place every day around the world, with implications for organizations, employees, and customers. Emotions, or intense short-lived feelings associated with an object or target (Ekman, 1994), emerge in service encounters as a main facet that offers valuable insights into the interaction between employees and customers. Due to its complexity, the investigation of emotions in service encounters is carried out from different perspectives. The present chapter emphasizes three aspects. First, although this chapter is not exclusively focused on the display of emotions, I emphasize the outward expression of emotions (Diefendorff & Greguras, 2009) through a combination of facial expression, tone of voice, and spoken words (Rafaeli & Sutton, 1987). Expressed or displayed emotions are not necessarily equivalent to felt emotions. Humans learn to display appropriate emotions in different contexts. Norms, often called display rules, describe the appropriate expressions of emotions in a given social situation (Matsumoto, 1990), including emotions in the service encounter (Diefendorff, Morehart, & Gabriel, 2010; Grandey, Rafaeli, Ravid, Wirtz, & Steiner, 2010). Although expressed and felt emotions might coincide, displayed emotions are the ones that are essential in service encounters because they shape the customers’ evaluations of the social interaction and the service delivery (e.g. Pugh, 2001).

Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Workplace Affect , pp. 284 - 296
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Barger, P. B., & Grandey, A. A. (2006). Service with a smile and encounter satisfaction: Emotional contagion and appraisal mechanisms. Academy of Management Journal, 49, 1229–1238.Google Scholar
Baumeister, R. F., Bratslavsky, E., Finkenauer, C., & Vohs, K. D. (2001). Bad is stronger than good. Review of General Psychology, 5, 323–370.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beauchamp, M. B., & Barnes, D. C. (2015). Delighting baby boomers and millennials: Factors that matter most. Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, 23, 338–350.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blau, P. M. (1964). Exchange and power in social life. New York, NY: Wiley.Google Scholar
Brach, S., Walsh, G., Hennig-Thurau, T., & Groth, M. (2015). A dyadic model of customer orientation: Mediation and moderation effects. British Journal of Management, 26, 292–309.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dallimore, K. S., Sparks, B. A., & Butcher, K. (2007). The influence of angry customer outbursts on service providers’ facial displays and affective states. Journal of Service Research, 10, 78–92.Google Scholar
Daus, C. S., & Ashkanasy, N. M. (2005). The case for the ability-based model of emotional intelligence in organizational behavior. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 26, 453–466.Google Scholar
Diefendorff, J. M., & Greguras, G. J. (2009). Contextualizing emotional display rules: Examining the roles of targets and discrete emotions in shaping display rule perceptions. Journal of Management, 35, 880–898.Google Scholar
Diefendorff, J. M., Morehart, J., & Gabriel, A. S. (2010). The influence of power and solidarity on emotional display rules at work. Motivation and Emotion, 34, 120–132.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ekman, P. (1994). Moods, emotions and traits. In Ekman, P & Davidson, R. J. (Eds.), The nature of emotion (pp. 56–58). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Ekman, P., & Friesen, W. V. (1982). Felt, false, and miserable smiles. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 6, 238–252.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elfenbein, H. A., Marsh, A. A., & Ambady, N. (2002). Emotional intelligence and the recognition of emotion from facial expressions. In Feldman Barrett, L & Salovey, P (Eds.), The wisdom in feeling: Psychological processes in emotional intelligence (pp. 37–59). New York, NY: Guilford.Google Scholar
Forgas, J. P. (1995). Mood and judgment: The affect infusion model (AIM). Psychological Bulletin, 117, 39–66.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gabriel, A. S., Acosta, J. D., & Grandey, A. A. (2015). The value of a smile: Does emotional performance matter more in familiar or unfamiliar exchanges? Journal of Business and Psychology, 30, 37–50.Google Scholar
Gabriel, A. S., & Diefendorff, J. M. (2015). Emotional labor dynamics: A momentary approach. Academy of Management Journal, 58, 1804–1825.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gouldner, A. W. (1960). The norm of reciprocity: A preliminary statement. American Sociological Review, 25, 161–178.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grandey, A. A., Fisk, G. M., Mattila, A. S., Jansen, K. J., & Sideman, L. A. (2005). Is “service with a smile” enough? Authenticity of positive displays during service encounters. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 96, 38–55.Google Scholar
Grandey, A. A., Goldberg, L. S., & Pugh, S. D. (2011). Why and when do stores with satisfied employees have satisfied customers? The roles of responsiveness and store busyness. Journal of Service Research, 14, 397–409.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grandey, A. A., Rafaeli, A., Ravid, S., Wirtz, J., & Steiner, D. (2010). Emotion display rules at work in the global service economy: The special case of the customer. Journal of Service Management, 21, 388–412.Google Scholar
Groth, M., & Grandey, A. A. (2015). From bad to worse: Negative exchange spirals in employee–customer service interactions. Organizational Psychology Review, 2, 208–233.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Groth, M., Hennig-Thurau, T., & Walsh, G. (2009). Customer reactions to emotional labor: The roles of employee acting strategies and customer detection accuracy. Academy of Management Journal, 52, 958–974.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guo, L., Chen, C., & Xu, H. (2016). Forging relationships to coproduce: A consumer commitment model in an extended service encounter. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 31, 380–388.Google Scholar
Gutek, B. A., Bhappu, A. D., Liao-Troth, M. A., & Cherry, B. (1999). Distinguishing between service relationships and encounters. Journal of Applied Psychology, 84, 218–233.Google Scholar
Hatfield, E., Cacioppo, J., & Rapson, R. L. (1994). Emotional contagion. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hatfield, E., Rapson, R. L., & Le, Y. C. L. (2009). Emotional contagion and empathy. In Decety, J & Ickes, W (Eds.), The social neuroscience of empathy (pp. 19–30). Boston, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Hennig-Thurau, T., Groth, M., Paul, M., & Gremler, D. D. (2006). Are all smiles created equal? How emotional contagion and emotional labor affect service relationships. Journal of Marketing, 70, 58–73.Google Scholar
Hensel, J. M., Hensel, R. A., & Dewa, C. S. (2015). What motivates direct support providers to do the work they do? Journal of Intellectual & Developmental Disability, 40, 297–303.Google Scholar
Hobfoll, S. E. (1998). Stress, culture, and community. New York, NY: Plenum.Google Scholar
Hulsheger, U. R, & Schewe, A. F. (2011). On the costs and benefits of emotional labor: A meta-analysis of three decades of research. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 16, 361–389.Google Scholar
Kim, E., & Yoon, D. J. (2012). Why does service with a smile make employees happy? A social interaction model. Journal of Applied Psychology, 97, 1059–1067.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kumar, A., Olshavsky, R. W., & King, M. F. (2001). Exploring alternative antecedents of customer delight. Journal of Consumer Satisfaction, Dissatisfaction and Complaining Behavior, 14, 14–27.Google Scholar
Kumar, V., Rajan, B., Gupta, S., & Dalla Pozza, I. (2019). Customer engagement in service. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 47, 138–160.Google Scholar
Lastner, M. M., Folse, J. A. G., Mangus, S. M., & Fennell, P. (2016). The road to recovery: Overcoming service failures through positive emotions. Journal of Business Research, 69, 4278–4286.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ludwig, N. L., Heidenreich, S., Kraemer, T., & Gouthier, M. (2017). Customer delight: Universal remedy or a double-edged sword? Journal of Service Theory and Practice, 27, 23–46.Google Scholar
Martínez-Tur, V., Estreder, Y., Moliner, C., García-Buades, E., Ramos, J., & Peiró, J. M. (2017). Linking employees’ extra-role efforts to customer satisfaction. Social Psychology, 48, 104–112.Google Scholar
Martínez-Tur, V., Estreder, Y., Tomás, I., Ramos, J., & Luque, O. (2018). Interaction between functional and relational service quality: Hierarchy vs. compensation. Service Industries Journal, doi:10.1080/02642069.2018.1492562Google Scholar
Martínez-Tur, V., González, P., Juan, A., Molina, A., & Peñarroja, V. (2018). Bad news and quality reputation among users of public services. Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 34, 95–101.Google Scholar
Matsumoto, D. (1990). Cultural similarities and differences in display rules. Motivation and Emotion, 14, 195–214.Google Scholar
McGuire, W. J. (1983). A contextualist theory of knowledge: Its implications for innovation and reforms in psychological research. In Berkowitz, L (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (pp. 1–47). Orlando, FL: Academic.Google Scholar
Medler-Liraz, H. (2016). The role of service relationships in employees’ and customers’ emotional behavior, and customer-related outcomes. Journal of Services Marketing, 30, 437–448.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Molan, I., Martínez-Tur, V., Peñarroja, V., Moliner, C., & Gracia, E. (2018). Survey feedback improves service quality perceptions among employees of an NGO: An organizational-level positive intervention. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 27, 235–246.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Molina, A., Moliner, C., Martínez-Tur, V., Cropanzano, R., & Peiró, J. M. (2015). Unit-level fairness and quality within the health care industry: A justice–quality model. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 24, 627–644.Google Scholar
Oliver, R. L., Rust, R. T., & Varki, S. (1997). Customer delight: Foundations, findings, and managerial insight. Journal of Retailing, 73, 311–336.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pitariu, A. H., & Ployhart, R. E. (2010). Explaining change: Theorizing and testing dynamic mediated longitudinal relationships. Journal of Management, 36, 405–429.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pugh, S. D. (2001). Service with a smile: Emotional contagion in the service encounter. Academy of Management Journal, 44, 1018–1027.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rafaeli, A., Altman, D., Gremler, D. D., Huang, M. H., Grewal, D., Iyer, B., Parasuraman, A., & de Ruyter, K. (2017). The future of frontline research: Invited commentaries. Journal of Service Management, 20, 91–99.Google Scholar
Rafaeli, A., & Sutton, R. I. (1987). Expression of emotion as part of the work role. Academy of Management Review, 12, 23–37.Google Scholar
Rafaeli, A., & Sutton, R. I. (1989). The expression of emotion in organizational life. Research in Organizational Behavior, 11, 1–42.Google Scholar
Ramachandra, V., Depalma, N., & Lisiewski, S. (2009) The role of mirror neurons in processing vocal emotions: Evidence from psychophysiological data. International Journal of Neuroscience, 119, 681–691.Google Scholar
Ravid, S., Rafaeli, A., & Grandey, A. A. (2010). Expressions of anger in Israeli workplaces: The special place of customer interactions. Human Resource Management Review, 20, 224–234.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Söderlund, M., & Rosengren, S. (2010). The happy versus unhappy service worker in the service encounter: Assessing the impact on customer satisfaction. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 17, 161–169.Google Scholar
Tan, H. H., Foo, M. D., & Kwek, M. H. (2004). The effects of customer personality traits on the display of positive emotions. Academy of Management Journal, 47, 287–296.Google Scholar
Torres, E. N., & Ronzoni, G. (2018). The evolution of the customer delight construct: Prior research, current measurement, and directions for future research. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 30, 57–75.Google Scholar
Tsai, W. C. (2001). Determinants and consequences of employee displayed positive emotions. Journal of Management, 27, 497–512.Google Scholar
Tsai, W. C., & Chen, H. Y. (2017). A multilevel investigation of antecedents of employee positive affective displays: The roles of customer negative affective displays and employee perceived supervisory support. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 26, 385–398.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tsai, W. C., & Huang, Y. M. (2002). Mechanisms linking employee affective delivery and customer behavioral intentions. Journal of Applied Psychology, 87, 1001–1008.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
United Nations (2018). Trade in services and employment. Geneva, Switzerland: United Nations.Google Scholar
Van Kleef, G. A., De Dreu, C. K., & Manstead, A. S. (2004). The interpersonal effects of emotions in negotiations: A motivated information processing approach. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 87, 510–528.Google Scholar
Vargo, S. L., & Lusch, R. F. (2004). Service-dominant logic: Continuing the evolution. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 36, 1–10.Google Scholar
Wang, Z., Singh, S. N., Li, Y. J., Mishra, S., Ambrose, M., & Biernat, M. (2017). Effects of employees’ positive affective displays on customer loyalty intentions: An emotions-as-social-information perspective. Academy of Management Journal, 60, 109–129.Google Scholar
Zablah, A. R., Carlson, B. D., Donavan, D. T., Maxham, J. G., & Brown, T. J. (2016). A cross-lagged test of the association between customer satisfaction and employee job satisfaction in a relational context. Journal of Applied Psychology, 101, 743–755.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×