Empowerment in service recovery : the role of self-regulation process of frontline employee

Purpose: In accordance with the commitment–trust theory, employee attitudes and behaviours mediate the impact of empowerment on service recovery performance. The purpose of this paper is to extend the self-regulating process model and develop a structural framework that combines empowerment, self-regulation mechanisms (service recovery awareness, job engagement and emotional exhaustion) and post-recovery satisfaction. This framework explores how empowerment can lead to action of frontline employees (FLEs) in service recovery. Design/methodology/approach: The authors test the hypotheses by investigating 290 pairs of FLEs and customers, who have service failure experience in the express mail industry, using structure equation modelling. Findings: The findings show that empowerment enhances both service recovery awareness and job engagement. On the one hand, service recovery awareness has a positive impact on emotional exhaustion, which has a negative impact on post-recovery satisfaction. On the other hand, job engagement has a positive impact on performance. These results provide the whole picture of the double-edged effects of empowerment on FLEs in service recovery. Practical implications: This paper indicates that managers should re-consider approaches to empowerment based on self-regulation process to enhance performance following service failure. Originality/value: This study explores the dark side of empowerment in service recovery from a self-regulation perspective.