ILR Impact Brief - Employee Attributions about HR Practices Lead to Customer Satisfaction

Nishii, Lisa Hisae; Lepak, David P.; Schneider, Benjamin

ILR Impact Brief - Employee Attributions about HR Practices Lead to Customer Satisfaction

Abstract

[Excerpt] The perceived reasons why management chooses a set of HR practices are linked to employee satisfaction, commitment, and on-the-job behavior. Employees individually make their own attributions about the purposes behind the practices, which are, in turn, associated with employees’ attitudes: a perception that management cares about service (or product) quality and employee well-being is associated with positive attitudes, but a sense that management is intent on cost cutting or employee exploitation is associated with negative attitudes. Furthermore, individual attitudes are shared within work units and in their aggregate are associated with “organizational citizenship behaviors;” i.e., group-level satisfaction and commitment are associated with intra-unit helping behaviors, which are linked to enhanced unit performance and customer satisfaction.

Journal / Series

Impact Brief

Description

The ILR Impact Brief series highlights the research and project based work conducted by ILR faculty that is relevant to workplace issues and public policy. The Briefs are prepared by Maralyn Edid, Senior Extension Associate, ILR School.

Date Issued

2008-03-01

Keywords

human resource management; HR practices; customer satisfaction; performance; customer service

Related To

For a more in-depth analysis, please see: Nishii, L. N., Lepak, D. P. & Schneider, B. (2008). ““Employee attributions of the ‘why’ of HR practices: Their effects on employee attitudes and behaviors, and customer satisfaction”. Personnel Psychology (forthcoming).

Rights

Required Publisher Statement: Copyright by Cornell University.

Types

newsletter