Effects of co-worker support and customer cooperation on service employee attitudes and behaviour: Empirical evidence from the airline industry

The service marketing literature promotes the importance of customers and co-workers in providing excellent service delivery. Using a sample of 335 cabin service attendants of a major flag-carrier airline, we examine structural effects of support received from customers and co-workers on service employees' attitudes and behaviours. In support of our hypotheses, we identify that the relationships between customer cooperation and external representation (i.e. the willingness of employees to promote the organization to outsiders), and the relationship between co-worker support and internal influence (i.e. employees' involvement in recommending service improvements) are fully mediated by job satisfaction and organizational commitment. However, the data did not support two of our hypotheses, namely the effect of organisational commitment on internal influence, and the effect of customer cooperation on organisational commitment. It is possible that these non significant findings are a consequence of our respondents' collectivistic values along with their differentiating between the organization and customers.