Responsiveness: Emotion and information dynamics in dyadic service interactions

What is the value of emotional and informational responsiveness in service interactions and what are their antecedents? This dissertation examines variations in emotional and informational responsiveness by service representatives in telephone service interactions in retail banking. Emotional responsiveness is found to be detrimental to organizational and customer outcomes, while informational responsiveness is found to be beneficial for complex calls. Emotional responsiveness is influenced by individual differences, in-group membership and managerial influence. Informational responsiveness is affected by call complexity and service representative gender. The research design is multi-method and field-based. The data include transcribed and coded audio recordings of the service interactions, as well as surveys and standardized tests of individual service representatives. In addition to the recordings, organizational and customer evaluations of the interactions are used to answer the research questions. Participant observation and focus groups are used to get a richer sense of the nature of the work in general, and of the emotional and informational labor performed.