Understanding the relationship between frontline employee boreout and customer orientation

Customer-oriented behavior provides an important means to achieve satisfied and loyal customers and thus sustainable competitive advantages. Although a rich stream of research has examined enablers of customer-oriented behaviors, its impediments, such as a lack of challenges at the customer interface, have been neglected. Relying on a qualitative study with 37 frontline employees (FLEs) and on conservation of resources theory, this research examines FLEs' individual responses to boreout at the service encounter. Boreout is a negative psychological state of low work-related arousal, manifested in three main forms: job boredom, a crisis of meaning at work, and crisis of growth at work. This study examines the effect of these individual responses on customer-oriented behavior, using data from 147 FLEs and a validation study with customers. The results indicate that all three boreout dimensions consistently harm customer-oriented behavior; job autonomy, whether induced by the firm or customers, moderates these relationships differently though.