Motivation of travel agents' customer service behavior and organizational citizenship behavior: The role of leader-member exchange and internal marketing orientation

Travel agents' customer service behavior (CSB) and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) are pivotal to the success of a retail travel agency. According to social exchange theory, these behaviors can be motivated by leader-member exchange (LMX, exchange between travel agents and their supervisors) and internal marketing orientation (IMO, exchange between travel agents and their organizations). In addition, the two exchange relationships are interdependent. Data from a two-phase survey of 288 travel agents working in Hong Kong were analyzed through hierarchical linear modeling. The findings indicate that leader-member exchange is positively associated with travel agents' organizational citizenship behavior, whereas internal marketing orientation is positively associated with travel agents' customer service behavior only when leader-member exchange is low. Moreover, the quality of one exchange relationship affects the salience of the other relationship. The manuscript concludes with implications for theory and practice.