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Do leader expectations shape employee service performance? Enhancing self-expectations and internalization in employee role identity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 January 2018

Galy Binyamin
Galy Binyamin*
Affiliation:
Department of Economics and Business Administration, Ariel University, Israel
*
Corresponding author: galy.binyamin@gmail.com
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Abstract

This paper expands the Theory of Planned Behavior to explore the role of leaders’ normative expectations in driving employees’ service performance. Two quantitative studies in the context of retailing indicate that leaders’ normative expectations for high-quality service are related to employee service performance, through employee self-expectations for quality service (Study 1; N=75), and service role identity (Study 2; N=226). Both studies apply Kelman’s Theory of Social Influence by exploring how leaders influence employees’ expectations and corresponding behaviors, through the three processes of social influence: compliance, identification, and internalization. Leaders’ normative expectations for high-quality service enhances employee service performance not only by adjusting self-expectations to comply with an authority figure’s expectations or by identification with the leader as a role model, but rather as a deep-rooted process where the leader’s normative expectations are internalized into employee’s role identity. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Keywords

employee service performanceexpectationssubjective normsrole identitysocial influenceleadership
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Management & Organization , Volume 26 , Issue 4 , July 2020 , pp. 536 - 554
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press and Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management 2018

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