Doctoral thesis: Commitment and social skills are crucial for how motivated employees are to meet a company’s promises to its customers

The employee's motivation is of crucial importance in order to ensure that the company's promises to its customers will be able to be fulfilled in a customer service situation, states Helena Liewendahl in her doctoral thesis "What Motivates Employees to Live Up to Value Promises - An Employee Discourse".

"A company's promises to their customers is a key factor in the battle for customers. Unfortunately, the promises are rarely fulfilled in the actual real-world interaction between customer and company, and psychological contracts, such as value, brand name, and service promises are often broken", observes Liewendahl.

According to Liewendahl, the traditional customer interaction also represents as a determining factor in how well the company manages to live up to their promises. In these interactions, the human factor plays a significant role and Liewendahl has identified a number of factors which influence a lack of motivation on the part of the employee in situations where interaction with customers occur. These include abstract strategies and marketing ideas, vague promises as well as a patronising and objectifying attitude towards employees by management, for instance.

Based on the identified motivational factors, Liewendahl presents an alternative service logic, referred to as a Human Service Logic, which reflects the employees' views concerning motivation. According to this model, the employees' opportunity to participate in shaping the company's promises and how the internal meetings are arranged is of crucial importance for the motivation of the individual employee.

"Even the social skills is also of immense importance, as this plays a crucial role in the company's internal interactions, which in turn lays the groundwork for the actual work with the customer. The interpersonal social skills of the employees, as well as senior management, are therefore of crucial importance, both directly and indirectly, for how well the company manages to live up to their promises", comments Liewendahl.

M.Sc. Helena Liewendahl will defend her doctoral thesis in marketing with the title: "What Motivates Employees to Live up to Value Promises - An Employee Discourse" on Friday 22 August 2014.

Time: 22 August 2014, at 12 noon

Place: Hanken Svenska handelshögskolan, Helsinki 

Opponent: Professor Ethel Brundin, Jönköping International Business School, Jönköping University, Sweden

Custos: Professor Tore Strandvik, Hanken School of Economics, Helsinki

For further information please contact:
Helena
Liewendahl
+358 (0)40 581 2580
helena.liewendahl@hanken.fi Opens in new window

A copy of the thesis can be downloaded here Opens in new window .