Gender Differences in responding to Management Supports, Work Engagement, and Service Recovery Performance: A Test of Moderated Mediation Model

Abstract

This study investigates the moderating role of gender in the relationship between management supportiveness and service recovery performance mediated by work engagement. Little attention has been given to understand the work engagement on service recovery performance and the influence of individual differences; therefore, the study responded to the call for additional research to improve service behavior. The data set was analyzed based on 1,232 call centers from three service companies, located in Bangkok, Thailand. The results showed that work engagement mediates the relationship between management supports and service recovery performance for both males and female differently. Particularly, the results reveal that work engagement fully mediated the relationship between management supports (high performance work practices and perceived supervisory support) and service recovery performance for male, unlike for female. As to the implication, the study contributes to the boundary condition that may influence the manifestation of management supports and work engagement on employee behavior through the inclusion of gender as a moderator of the exchange relationship between management and employees. Thus, managers should take into account on both work engagement and management supports by providing supportive people policies and emotional support to improve employee service delivery. Especially for male employees, management should ensure that necessary level of resources is being made available for the implementation of all HR practices. This should go along with the emotion support by supervisor and is delivered synthetically in order to enhance employees’ work engagement that provides the highest benefit to the process of recovery service failures.