| Summary: | 博士 === 中國文化大學 === 國際企業管理研究所 === 92 === Customer participation could raise organizational productivity and efficiency. In addition, it has positive effects on service quality perception and customer satisfaction. However, when customers participate in the service production and delivery process, the service providers perform a boundary-spanning role which serves as the interface between the firm and the customer. Empirical data indicated that the two parties will create a high role conflict and role ambiguity. For another, customer participation can be a way of customer organizational socialization. It allows customers to learn specific organizational values, gain the knowledge necessary to interact with employees while service transactions. Such move might help lower employee role conflict and role ambiguity. Given the above reasoning, the effect of customer participation on service providers’ role conflict and role ambiguity is a subject that is ambiguous and that the relationship has not been analyzed empirically. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine the effect of customer participation on service providers’ role conflict and role ambiguity.
This research collected data by means of questionnaire survey conducted on frontline service employees in multiple foodservices. A total of 555 questionnaires were distributed to 111 restaurants in Taiwan and 313 questionnaires were returned. Of which 20 surveys were unusable, with usable questionnaires totaling 293. The response rate is 56.39 percent.
The results indicate that customer participation is positively related to service providers’ role conflict, and negatively related to service providers’ role ambiguity. When customers participate in the service delivery process, employees are not only in a position to respond to customers, but also to management demands. It is likely for service providers to encounter incompatible job demands or expectations from both customers and management, resulting in a rise of role conflict. On the other hand, the higher the degree of customer participation, customers could act as substitutes for leadership in service encounters. That is, customers can take the place of superiors in providing service providers the task guidance and social support they require, which will result in a decrease of service providers’ role ambiguity. Finally, implications of these findings for managing customer participation as well as future research directions are subsequently discussed.
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