Converting service encounters into cross-selling opportunities : Does faith in supervisor ability help or hinder service-sales ambidexterity?

Purpose – This paper aims to examine how the motivation and ability of individual employees to sell influences their units’ capability to align their service delivery with sales in a way that satisfies customers. It also addresses the potential influence of employees’ confidence in their supervisor’s ability to sell, such that they predict a joint influence of personal and proxy agency. Design/methodology/approach – This study uses hierarchical linear modeling to address the research issues. Findings – Employees’ learning orientation has a positive influence on service-sales ambidexterity, but the impact of a performance-avoidance goal orientation is negative, and a performance-prove orientation has no influence. Proxy efficacy enhances the positive impact of learning orientations due to the manager’s ability to lead by example, facilitate knowledge sharing and provide advice. However, it attenuates the impact of self-efficacy on service-sales ambidexterity, because skilled supervisors tend to take over and eliminate opportunities for employees to build their own skills. It also confirms the positive influence of service-sales ambidexterity on branch performance. Originality/value – To examine the emerging service-sales ambidexterity issues raised in frontline service units, this study adopts a motivation and capability paradigm. It is among the first studies to address service-sales ambidexterity issues by considering both individual and branch contextual factors.