How to achieve an upward spiral of customer orientation

What is it about?

What do Facebook and The Ritz-Carlton Hotels have in common? They both rely on the pride of their employees in order to achieve outstanding organizational performance. While previous studies have demonstrated that organizational pride enhances frontline employees’ customer orientation, there is no research on the dynamics of this relationship. This study shows how this gap can be closed by elaborating on a theory of spirals positing that the extent of customer-oriented behavior depends not only on current levels of pride but also on how pride has developed in the past. Results show that increases in organizational pride repeatedly amplify customer-oriented behavior and trigger an upward spiral leading to higher employee performance.

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Why is it important?

We show how upward spirals of employees' motivation and performance can be triggered. However, we also pinpoint the boundaries of such spirals and warn that eroding organizational pride puts employees on a downward trajectory resulting in lower customer orientation.