Service-Sales Ambidexterity: A Multi-Level Analysis on the Underlying Processes of Its Influences on Satisfaction and Performance Outcomes for Employees and Customers

Abstract

With increased competition and market maturity in many service industries, service firms are under growing pressure to maximize revenue generation and improve service quality at the same time. As a result, frontline employees are increasingly expected to undertake the dual goals of providing excellent services while achieving escalating sales targets, which is referred to as service-sales ambidexterity. Yet, empirical evidence regarding the influences of employees’ ambidextrous behaviors on their psychological responses and performance outcomes are unclear, not to mention the impacts on their customers. Guided by the theory of role accumulation and interpersonal stereotype content, we predict that employees and customers can experience both psychological benefits and costs arising from service-sales ambidexterity, which in turn influence their performance outcomes (i.e., employees’ job satisfaction and performance, as well as customer satisfaction and purchase behaviors). To test our predictions, we conducted a field study with multi-level data collected from insurance institutions. We collected data from 250 agents across insurance companies with about 4 customers per agent. Results from analyses with hierarchical linear modelling (HLM) show that employees experience both benefits (i.e., self-efficacy) and costs (i.e., role overload) in respond to their ambidextrous job. Customers also respond to employees’ ambidextrous behaviors in a mixed way such that they perceive those employees who are more ambidextrous to be more competent but less warm. We further find that such proposed underlying mechanisms are conditional on organizational and individual factors. For instance, transformational leadership of supervisors actually backfires in that it weakens employees’ self-efficacy in respond to their service-sales ambidextrous behaviors. Finally, employees’ perceived benefits (costs) arising from ambidextrous tasks positively (negatively) influence their job satisfaction and performance. Similarly, customers’ perceived competence and warmth of the employees subsequently influence their satisfactions and purchase behaviors. This research represents the first attempt to explore the effect of service-sales ambidexterity from a dyadic and multi-level perspective. Our findings also shed new insights by demonstrating its double-edged effects on both employees and their corresponding customers. Understanding how to leverage the benefits and alleviate the costs associated with service-sales ambidexterity also offers firms valuable insights to help develop a successful dual service-sales strategy.