Enhancing customer service: Perspective taking in a call centre

European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology

Volumn 16, Issue 2, 2007, Pages 141-168

  Axtell, Carolyn M ^a   Parker, Sharon K ^a   Holman, David ^a   Totterdell, Peter ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 34250666652     PISSN: 1359432X     EISSN: 14640643     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/13594320600989583     Document Type: Article

References (60)

1. Bakker, A. B., Schaufeli, W. B., Sixma, H. J., Bosveld, W. and van Dierendonck, D. (2000) Patient demands, lack of reciprocity, and burnout: A five-year longitudinal study among general practitioners. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 21, pp. 425-441.
2. Batson, C. D. (1991) The altruism question: Towards a social-psychological answer, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Hillsdale, NJ
3. Batson, C. D. and Coke, J. (1981) Empathy: A source of altruistic motivation for helping. Altruism and helping behavior, pp. 167-187. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Hillsdale, NJ
4. Bentler, P. M. (1990) Latent variable structural models for separating specific from general effects. Research methodology: Strengthening causal interpretations of non-experimental data, pp. 61-83. US Department of Health and Human Services, Washington, DC
5. Betancourt, H. (1990) An attribution-empathy model of helping behavior: Behavioural intentions and judgements of help-giving. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 16, pp. 573-591.
6. Blader, S. L. and Tyler, T. R. (2000) Beyond reciprocity: The role of relationship orientation in explaining cooperative organizational behavior. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology New Orleans, LA, USA
7. Blau, P. M. (1964) Exchange and power in social life, Wiley, New York
8. Borman, W. C., Penner, L. A., Allen, T. D. and Motowidlo, S. J. (2001) Personality predictors of citizenship performance. International Journal of Selection and Assessment, 9, pp. 52-69.
9. Brickson, S. (2000) The impact of identity orientation on individual and organizational outcomes in demographically diverse settings. Academy of Management Review, 25, pp. 82-101.
10. Brief, A. P. and Motowidlo, S. J. (1986) Prosocial organizational behaviors. Academy of Management Review, 11, pp. 710-725.
11. Coke, J. S., Batson, D. and McDavis, K. (1978) Empathic mediation of helping: A two-stage model. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 36, pp. 752-766.
12. Coyle-Shapiro, J. A. M. and Kessler, I. (2000) Exploring employee reciprocity through the lens of the psychological contract. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology New Orleans, LA, USA
13. Coyle-Shapiro, J. A. M. and Neuman, J. H. (2004) The psychological contract and individual differences: The role of exchange and creditor ideologies. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 64, pp. 150-164.
14. Cummings, T. and Blumberg, M. (1987) Advanced manufacturing technology and work design. The human side of advanced manufacturing technology, pp. 37-60. Wiley, Chichester, UK
15. Davis, M. H. (1983) Measuring individual differences in empathy: Evidence for a multidimensional approach. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 44, pp. 113-126.
16. Devine, P. G. (1989) Over-attribution effect: The role of confidence and attributional complexity. Social Psychology Quarterly, 52, pp. 149-158.
17. Dougherty, D. (1992) Interpretive barriers to successful product innovation in large firms. Organization Science, 3, pp. 179-202.
18. Dreman, S. B. (1976) Sharing behaviour in Israeli school children: Cognitive and social learning factors. Child Development, 47, pp. 186-194.
19. Duan, C. and Hill, C. E. (1996) The current state of empathy research. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 43, pp. 261-274.
20. Gay, P. Du (1996) Consumption and identity at work, Sage, London
21. Egan, G. (1990) The skilled helper: A systematic approach to effective helping, Brooks Cole, Pacific Grove, CA
22. Eisenberg, N. (2000) Emotion, regulation and moral development. Annual Review of Psychology, 51, pp. 665-697.
23. Eisenberg, N. and Fabes, R. A. (1991) Prosocial behavior and empathy: A multi-method, developmental perspective. Review of personality and social psychology, 12, pp. 34-61. Sage, Newbury Park, CA
24. Eisenberg, N. and Lennon, R. (1983) Sex differences in empathy and related capacities. Psychological Bulletin, 94, pp. 100-131.
25. Eisenberg, N. and Miller, P. A. (1987) The relation of empathy to prosocial behavior. Psychological Bulletin, 101:1, pp. 91-119.
26. Galinsky, A. D. and Moskowitz, G. B. (2000) Perspective-taking: Decreasing stereotype expression, stereotype accessibility, and in-group favoritism. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78, pp. 708-724.
27. Gouldner, A. W. (1960) The norm of reciprocity: A preliminary statement. American Sociological Review, 25, pp. 161-178.
28. Grebner, S., Semmer, N. K., Faso, L. Lo, Gut, S., Kälin, W. and Elfering, A. (2003) Working conditions, well-being, and job-related attitudes among call centre agents. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 12, pp. 341-365.
29. Harris, M. M. and Schaubroeck, J. (1988) A meta-analysis of self-supervisor, self-peer, and peer-supervisor ratings. Personnel Psychology, 41, pp. 43-62.
30. Heskett, J., Sasser, W. Earl and Hart, C. (1990) Service breakthroughs: Changing the rules of the game, Free Press, New York
31. Hinds, P. and Weisband, S. (2003) Knowledge sharing and shared understanding in virtual teams. Virtual teams that work: Creating conditions for virtual team effectiveness, pp. 21-36. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco
32. Hoffman, M. L. (1982) Development of prosocial motivation: Empathy and guilt. The development of prosocial behavior, pp. 281-313. Academic Press, New York
33. Holman, D. (2005) Call centres. Essentials of the new workplace: A guide to the human impact of modern working practices, pp. 111-132. Wiley, Chichester, UK
34. Hu, L. and Bentler, P. M. (1998) Fit indices in covariance structure modelling: Sensitivity to underparameterized model misspecification. Psychological Methods, 3, pp. 424-453.
35. Ickes, W., Bissonnett, V., Garcia, S. and Stinson, L. (1990) Implementing and using the dyadic interaction paradignm. Review of personality and social psychology: Vol. 11. Research methods in personality and social psychology, pp. 16-44. Sage, Newbury Park, CA
36. James, L. R. and Brett, J. M. (1984) Mediators, moderators and test for mediation. Journal of Applied Psychology, 69, pp. 307-321.
37. Joreskog, K. G. and Sorbom, D. (1993) LISREL VIII: User's reference and guide, Scientific Software, Mooresville, IN
38. Karinol, R. and Shromroni, D. (1999) What being empathetic means: Applying the transformational rule approach to individual differences in predicting the thoughts and feelings of prototypic and non-prototypic others. European Journal of Social Psychology, 29, pp. 147-160.
39. Kelly, J. R. and Barsade, S. G. (2001) Mood and emotions in small groups and work teams. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 86, pp. 99-130.
40. Lopes, P. N., Salovey, P., Cote, S. and Beers, M. (2005) Emotion regulation abilities and the quality of social interaction. Emotion, 5, pp. 113-118.
41. Motowidlo, S. J. and van Scotter, J. R. (1994) Evidence that task performance should be distinguished from contextual performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 79, pp. 475-490.
42. Muthén, L. K. and Muthén, B. O. (2004) Mplus: Statistical analysis with latent variables. Users guide, Authors, Los Angeles, CA
43. Okun, M. A., Shepard, S. A. and Eisenberg, N. (2000) The relations of emotionality and regulation to dispositional empathy-related responding among volunteers-in-training. Personality and Individual Differences, 28, pp. 367-382.
44. Parker, S. K. and Axtell, C. M. (2001) Seeing another view point: Antecedents and outcomes of employee perspective taking activity. Academy of Management Journal, 44, pp. 1085-1101.
45. Parker, S. K., Wall, T. D. and Jackson, P. R. (1997) "That's not my job": Developing flexible employee work orientations. Academy of Management Journal, 40, pp. 899-929.
46. Peccei, R. and Rosenthal, P. (2000) Front-line responses to customer role orientation programmes: A theoretical and empirical analysis. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 11, pp. 562-590.
47. Piaget, J. (1932) The moral judgement of the child, Kegan Paul, London
48. Podsakoff, P. M., MacKenzie, S. B., Moorman, R. H. and Fetter, R. (1990) Transformational leader behaviours and their effects on followers' trust in leader, satisfaction, and organizational citizenship behaviours. Leadership Quarterly, 1, pp. 107-142.
49. Schneider, B. and Bowen, D. (1995) Winning the service game, Harvard Business School Press, Cambridge, MA
50. Sproull, L. and Keisler, S. (1986) Reducing social-context cues: Electronic mail in organizational communication. Management Science, 32, pp. 1492-1512.
51. Staub, E. and Sherk, L. (1970) Need for approval, children's sharing behavior and reciprocity in sharing. Child Development, 41, pp. 243-252.
52. Stiff, J. B., Dillard, J. P., Somera, L., Kim, H. and Sleight, C. (1988) Empathy, communication and prosocial behavior. Communication Monographs, 55, pp. 198-213.
53. Strug, D., Ottman, R., Kaye, J., Saltzberg, S., Walker, J. and Mendez, H. (2003) Client satisfaction and staff empathy at pediatric HIV/AIDS programs. Social Service Research, 29, pp. 1-22.
54. Sutton, R. I. (1991) Maintaining norms about expressed emotions: The case of bill collectors. Administrative Science Quarterly, 36, pp. 245-268.
55. Toi, M. and Batson, C. D. (1982) More evidence that empathy is a source of altruistic motivation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 43, pp. 281-292.
56. Totterdell, P. and Holman, D. (2003) Emotion regulation in customer service roles: Testing a model of emotional labor. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 8, pp. 55-73.
57. Underwood, B. and Moore, B. (1982) Perspective-taking and altruism. Psychological Bulletin, 91, pp. 143-173.
58. Witkowski, T. H. and Wolfinbarger, M. F. (2002) Comparative service quality: German and American ratings across service settings. Journal of Business Research, 55, pp. 875-881.
59. Zapf, D., Isic, A., Bechtoldt, M. and Blau, P. (2003) What is typical for call centre jobs? Job characteristics and service interactions in different call centres. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 12, pp. 311-340.
60. Zapf, D., Vogt, C., Seifert, C., Mertini, H. and Isic, A. (1999) Emotion work as a source of stress: The concept and development of an instrument. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 8, pp. 371-400.