Promoting boundary-spanning behavior among service personnel

Purpose – The purpose of this model is to explain how person – organization fit (P – O fit) and competitive intensity, conceptualized as a job resource and a job demand, respectively, ultimately affect the development of frontline employee boundary-spanning behavior (BSB). Design/methodology/approach – A survey methodology was used in collecting data from a sample of bank employees in South Korea. To analyze the data, a structural equation model procedure using LISREL 8.5 was used (Jöreskog and Sörbom, 1996). Findings – Results suggest that a frontline employee’s P – O fit decreases emotional exhaustion and increases achievement-striving motivation. Competitive intensity significantly reduces achievement-striving motivation. Results also show that competitive intensity significantly attenuates the positive relationship between P – O fit and employee achievement-striving motivation, highlighting the importance of contextual industry stressors upon internal organizational behaviors. Both emotional exhaustion and achievement-striving motivation are found to ultimately affect BSBs except for the link between emotional exhaustion and service delivery. Originality/value – The current study applies the job-demands resources model to demonstrate how both an externally initiated job demand (competitive intensity) and an internally oriented job resource (person – organization fit) influence employee experience of emotional exhaustion and achievement-striving motivation. Interaction effects of P – O fit and competitive intensity on employee’s psychological states (emotional exhaustion and achievement-striving motivation) are also examined. Further, it is demonstrated that both emotional exhaustion and achievement-striving motivation will directly influence service employee boundary-spanning behaviors, but in differential manners. This highlights the importance of exhaustion and motivation as mediators for the ultimate effect of a job resource (P – O fit), answering a call for such understanding of the developmental process for BSBs (Podsakoff et al. , 2000). This is the first empirical study to link both internal and external elements to illuminate the process for developing job demands and resources, as well as boundary spanning behaviors.