Putting the customer at the center: does store managers ethical leadership make a difference in authentic customer orientation?
The purpose of this article is to explore the mediating role of both the ethical climate and the frontline employees’ ethical intent on the relationship between store managers ethical leadership and the frontline employees’ customer orientation (FECO). The authors used original data on small- and me...
| Autores: | , , , |
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| Formato: | artículo |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2023 |
| País: | España |
| Recursos: | Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha |
| Repositorio: | RUIdeRA. Repositorio Institucional de la UCLM |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:ruidera.uclm.es:10578/43039 |
| Acesso em linha: | https://doi.org/10.1108/ARLA-11-2022-0201 https://hdl.handle.net/10578/43039 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palavra-chave: | Clima ético Customer orientatiom (FECO) Ethical leadership Frontline employees Intención ética Liderazgo ético Orientación al cliente de los empleados de primera línea Ethical climate Ethical intent |
| Resumo: | The purpose of this article is to explore the mediating role of both the ethical climate and the frontline employees’ ethical intent on the relationship between store managers ethical leadership and the frontline employees’ customer orientation (FECO). The authors used original data on small- and medium enterprises located in the Mexican retail industry. A survey provided a sample of 332 frontline employees. To test the hypotheses, the authors conducted a partial least squares (PLS) analysis. The results show how the positive effect of ethical leadership is mainly direct. This can be explained primarily through the mechanisms of social exchange theory. Additionally, the results showed that ethical climate and ethical intent act as essential partial mediators. Although the ethical leadership of managers usually exercises a direct and positive influence on employees’ work performance, the path linking the ethical leadership of the upper echelons to this outcome has not been frequently studied, especially in terms of its impact on meeting customers’ needs (i.e., the frontline employees’ customer orientation, or FECO). This study expands on existing knowledge by considering that a true FECO is necessarily linked to being ‘oriented to others’, which is fostered by the perception that moral values (i.e., honesty) are embedded in the organization’s culture. |
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