Service climate and organizational commitment: The importance of customer linkages

Service employees are simultaneously concerned with their own and their customers' well-being. Managing these dual concerns is of strategic importance in a customer-oriented service firm. This research tests a model comparing overall and customer-linked antecedents and consequences of employee affective organizational commitment. The study determines (a) how service climate variables influence both overall and customer-linked job satisfaction, (b) the contribution of both job satisfaction measures to commitment, (c) the relationship between commitment and both overall citizenship behaviors and customer-linked behaviors, and (d) the influence of commitment with regard to employee intentions to recommend the organization to prospective employees and customers. Co-worker support and the perception of fair treatment are precursors of customer-linked job satisfaction (not overall job satisfaction). Customer-linked job satisfaction is more related to organizational commitment than is overall job satisfaction. Organizational commitment influences both overall citizenship behaviors and customer-linked behaviors as well as intentions to recommend the organization.