How and when does service performance improve positive emotions? an employee–customer social exchange perspective

Service performance is a key consideration in both the service industry and other industries. However, the consequences of employee service performance for the actors themselves remain largely unexplored. To shed light on this issue, we draw on social exchange theory to address how and when employee service performance increases employee positive emotions. We propose that employee service performance is positively related to positive customer treatment, which is consequently positively related to employee positive emotions. Furthermore, we argue that higher job autonomy enhances the effect of employee service performance on positive customer treatment via facilitating customer internal attribution. To test our theoretical model, we collected daily survey data from 104 employees of a commercial bank located in northern China (Study 1) and dyadic survey data from 306 employee–customer dyads in a high-tech service company in southern China (Study 2). These two studies together supported our hypotheses. Theoretical contributions and practical implications are discussed.