Server emotional experiences and affective service delivery: Mechanisms linking climate for service and customer outcomes

A conceptual model is presented that proposes servers' emotional experiences and affective service delivery are mediating mechanisms through which climate for service leads to favorable customer outcomes. Four mechanisms through which organizations with a strong climate for service help their servers to provide a positive affective service delivery are proposed, motivation, capability, carryover, and compensation. Specifically, it is suggested that a strong climate for service gives rise to servers' positive emotional experiences at work. Such positive emotional experiences provide the impetus for them to put more effort into affective service delivery (i.e., motivation) and be more capable of doing so (i.e., capability); these positive emotions may also be carried over to the service encounter (i.e., carryover). It is also suggested that in a strong service climate, servers are better able to recharge their emotional energy through organizational and social support (i.e., compensation). Model implications and suggestions for future research are discussed. © Copyright (c) by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.