Conflicts in the work-family interface: Links to job stress, customer service employee performance, and customer purchase intent

Because customer service employees often represent the sole contact a customer has with a firm, it is important to examine job-related factors that affect customer service employee performance and customer evaluations. In two diverse customer settings, the authors capture matched responses from service employees, supervisors, and customers. The authors use the data to examine the potential chain of effects from customer service employee work-family conflict and family-work conflict, to job stress and job performance, to customer purchase intent (CPI). The results show direct (and indirect) effects of work-family conflict and family-work conflict on service employee customer-directed extra-role performance (CDERP). The results also show direct effects of job stress on service employee in-role performance (IRP) and CDERP and on CPI. Furthermore, the findings show that job stress has a more pronounced effect on IRP than on CDERP and that CDERP has a greater effect on CPI than does IRP. The authors conclude with a discussion of managerial and theoretical implications.