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RESE RCH NOTES

ND COMMUNIC TIONS

TOM J. BRO WN , JOHN C. MO WEN , D. TODD DONAVAN, and JANE W . LICATA*

Prior research indicates that market orientation is associated with pos-

itive outcomes for firms. For service organizations,

a

market orien tation

is

implemented largely through individual service workers.

The

authors

investigate the mediational role

of

customer orientation

in a

hierarchical

model

of

the influence

of

personality traits on self-rated and supervisor-

rated performance. The results support

a

partially mediated hierarchical

model. Three basic personality traits (emo tional stability, agreeability, and

the need for activity) account for 39 of the variance in the custom er ori-

entation

of

employees.

nturn,the

customer orientation measure

and

conscientiousn ess account for 26 of the variance in self-rated perform -

ance. The customer orientation measure, along with the direct effects

of

conscientiousness and agreeability, account

for

12

of

the variance

in

manager ratings. The authors discuss the results and their implications

for marketing researchers and managers.

The Customer Orientation of Service

Workers: Personality Trait Effects on Self-

and Supervisor Performance Ratings

Marketers who espouse

the

marketing conc ept believe

that organizations ultimately achieve successbysatisfying

customer needs (Desphande, Farley, andW ebster1993;

Kotler 1997). As described by Day (1994),

a

growing body

of literature indicates that the market orientation of the firm

is positively associated with thesuperior performanceof

*Toin J Brown is Associate Professor of Marketing (e-mail;

tomb@okstate.edu). andJohn C Mowen is Noble Chair of Marketing

Strategy (e-mail: jcmmk t@okstate.edu). Collegeof Business Administra-

tion, Oklahoma Stale University. D. Todd Donavan is Assistant Professor of

Marketing. Collegeof Business Administration, Kansas State University

(e-mail: tdonavan@ksu.edu). Jane W. Licata is Associate Professor of Mar-

keting. EJ. Ourso CollegeofBusiness, Louisiana State University (e-mail:

jlicala@lsu.edu).

The

authors thank Robert Hurley,

the MR

Kevin Tarr. and Cristy Morrison for their contributions to the project.

that firm. For example, the market orientation of the firm

is

positively related to profitability (Narver and Slater 1990) as

well as employee commitment and esprit de corps (Jaworski

and Kohli 1993).

For most typesofservice organ izations, individual serv

ice workers are direct participants in implementing the mar-

keting concept. Rust, Zahorik, andKeiningham (1996,p

391) note that the personal interaction compo nent

of

serv

ices is oftenaprimary determinant of the customer's overal

satisfaction. In our research, we investigate whatwe

believe is animportant but heretofore underex amined trai

of service employeestheir degree of customer orientation,

or disposition

to

meet custome rs' needs. Customer orienta

tion is an individual-level con struct that we b elieve is central

toaservice organization's ability to be market oriented. We

have two goals in examining the construct. First, we seek to

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ustome r Orientation of Service Worke rs

111

identify its basic personality trait determinants so that we

can obtain an improved understanding of factors that lead

some employees to be more customer oriented than others.

Second, we investigate the effects of customer orientation

and the more basic traits on overall service performance

evaluations

s

judged by the service workers themselves and

the workers' supervisors.

CUSTOMER ORIENT TION

Despite the apparent importance of employees' customer

orientation to the implementation of the marketing concept

in the market-driven company, research on the construct has

been limited. The first attempt to directly measure customer

orientation at the individual level was performed by Saxe

and Weitz (1982). They developed a 24-item scale with two

dimensions (i.e., 12 positively phrased customer orientation

items and 12 negatively phrased selling orientation items) to

measure the extent to which a salesperson seeks to increase

long-term customer satisfaction. Although their research

indicates that customer orientation is related to sales per-

formance, neither Saxe and Weitz (1982) nor researchers

conducting follow-up studies (i.e., Michaels and Day 1985;

Tadepalli 1995) have investigated the possible determinants

of customer orientation.

In our research, we define customer orientation as an

employee's tendency or predisposition to meet customer

needs in an on-the-job context. Furthermore, we propose

that customer orientation in a service setting is composed of

two dimensions. The needs dimension represents employ-

ees'

beliefs about their ability to satisfy customer needs and

is based on Saxe and Weitz's (1982) conceptualization of

customer orientation. The enjoyment dimension represents

the degree to which interacting with and serving customers

is inherently enjoyable for an employee. We believe that

both components are necessary to fully understand a service

worker's ability and motivation to serve customers by meet-

ing their needs.

Personality Trait Determinants and Performance Outcomes

of Customer Orientation

Several researchers have investigated employee personal-

ity and performance in various contexts. Spivey, Munson,

and Locander (1979) find that an outgoing personality is

predictive of sales success in retail sales. Hog an, Hogan, and

Busch (1984) define service orientation as a combination of

three basic personality traits (i.e., adjustment, sociability,

and ag reeableness) and find that these traits are predictive of

supervisor service performance ratings. Day and Silverman

(1989) find that work orientation and interpersonal orienta-

tion are predictive of client relations. More recently. Hurley

(1998a) has found that extroversion and agreeableness are

positively associated with workers' service performance rat-

ings that are provided by managers. These investigations

assess the direct relationship between basic personality

traits (e.g., extroversion, agreeability) and manager evalua-

tions, ratings by colleagues, or actual measures of perform-

ance.

In a meta-analysis of

this

literature, Frei and McD aniel

(1998) find that the personality traits agreeableness, emo-

tional stability, and conscientiousness are predictive of

supervisory ratings of job performance.

Hurley (1998a) notes (and his results confirm) that meas-

ures of basic personality traits do not seem to account for a

particularly sizable proportion of variance in ratings of

employee service performance. We believe that part of the

difficulty stems from an omitted variable problem: None of

the prior studies attempted to account for a construct that

directly measures a service employee's disposition to be

customer oriented.

Hierarchical Model of Customer Orientation

In our work, we employ a hierarchical model of the

effects of personality on behavior. Many theorists and

researchers have argued that personality traits exist at vari-

ous levels of abstraction (e.g., Allport 1961; Eysenck 1947;

Lastovicka 1982; Mowen and Spears 1999; Paunonen

1998). Consistent with Mowen and Spears (1999), we

employ a hierarchical model in which basic personality

traits (i.e., introversion, emotional stability, conscientious-

ness,

agreeability, openness to experience, and need for

activity) combine with a specific context for performance

(i.e.,

the role of the service worker) to produce surface traits

(i.e.,customer orientation) or enduring dispositions, inclina-

tions, or tendencies to behave w ithin the context. It is impor-

tant to include surface traits in the m odel, because basic per-

sonality traits may be too far removed from focal service

behaviors to be able to predict service worker performance

well. The surface trait (i.e., customer orientation) is closer in

the personality hierarchy to the specific behaviors needed to

achieve high performance and therefore should enhance the

prediction of specific behaviors and performance ratings.

Allport (1961) first used the term surface trait to

describe summaries of surface behaviors (as opposed to

specific focal behaviors). Working from this viewpoint,

Mowen and Spears (1999) define a surface trait as an endur-

ing disposition to behave within a specific situational con-

text. They propose that the press of the situation, such as the

role demand s of a jo b as a server in a restaurant, exerts pres-

sures to behave in specific w ays. These situational pressures

combine with more basic personality traits to create the sur-

face traits.' Surface traits are contextual, because a given

person's general disposition to perform behaviors may

diverge in different aspects of life (e.g,, the service worker

who is attuned to the needs of customers when at work yet

is seemingly insensitive to the needs of family members

when at home). They are classified as traits because they

represent an enduring tendency to behave, albeit within par-

ticular situational contexts. These ideas are consistent with

those of theorists who have noted that situations interact

with dispositions to influence behavior (e.g.. Bowers 1973;

Endler and Rosenstein 1997; Mischel 1968). Because our

interest is in understanding service worker customer orien-

tation, we limit our research to the context in which it oper-

ates (i.e., the employee's degree of customer orientation in

a service setting).

In our research, we distinguish four types of constructs:

basic traits, surface traits, specific service behaviors, and per-

formance evaluations. First, basic traits (e.g., agreeability)

are enduring dispositions to behave across diverse situational

contexts. Second, surface traits (e.g., customer orientation)

are enduring dispositions to behave within specific situa-

Other examples of surface trails within the marketing literature include

comp ulsive buying (Faber and O Guinn 1989) and coupon proneness

(Lichtenstein, Netemeyer, and Burton 1990), In each case, the trait

describes individual differences that influence behavior within the context

of a speciflc consumption situation.

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JOURNAL

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MARKETING RESEARCH FEBRUARY 200

tional contexts. Surface traits differ from basic traits because

they are context specific and result from theinteractionof

basic traits

and

the situational context. Third, specific service

behaviorsare on-the-job actions,themeasurementofwhich

entails the recording

of

theactions of the service worker (e.g.,

numberofsmiles, mistaken orders, timetorespond). TTiese

specific actions might

be

considered

in

part behavioral

out-

comesofon eormore surface traits; again, surface traits rep-

resent dispositions, inclinations,

or

tendencies

to

behave

in

certain waysincertain situationsand aremore abstract than

concrete beh aviors. Fourth, performance evaluations, regard-

lessof their source (e.g.,self, supervisor, consumer, peers),

refer to evaluative judgm ents of em ployees' behavior in

a

par-

ticular context. Performance evaluations differ from basic

traits, surface traits,

and

specific service behavior because

of

their appraisal, or valencing, component (e.g., good/bad,

positive/negative). Specifically,

for our

research, customer

orientationis aself-assessmentof nemploye e's tendencyto

try

to

meet customer needs

and

the degree

to

which

he or she

enjoys doingso,rather thanam easureof the service actions

of the service worker

or an

evaluation

of

the em ployee's

on-

the-job performance.

We hypothesizeandtest relationships among basic traits,

customer orientation, and overall performance ratings of

service providers within the food service industry. Consis-

tent with thehierarchical model,weanticipate thatthe dis-

position toserve customers (i.e., customer orientation) will

mediate the relationships between basic personality traits

and performance evaluations. Furthermore, we expect that

this mediational model will account for more variance in

performance ratings than willamodel that doesnotinclude

customer orientation. On the basis of these ideas, we

developourfirst propositions:

P|:

Customer orientation will m ediate the relationships between

basic personality traits and performance ratings,

P2:

The hierarchical model, with the customer orientation medi-

ation variable, will account

for a

greater proportion

of

vari-

anceinperformance ratings than will direct model withno

mediation,

asic Personality raitDeterminants

Scholars have long studied basic personality traits as pre-

dictors of human behavior (Wiggins 1996). Researchers

such as Costa and McCrae (1985), Goldberg (1992),and

Saucier (1994) have generally supported the existence of

five basic dimensions of personality. Mowen and Spears

(1999) employ structural equation modeling to investigate

the five-factor dimensions developed by Saucier (1994).

Descriptionsof the traits are 1)extraversion or introver-

sion),

representingthedegreetowhichaperson isoutgoing

or shy; 2) (in)stability, which captures the evenness or

steadiness of a person's general emotional makeup; 3)

agreeability, or general warmth of feelings toward others;

(4) conscientiousness, representing the degree of orderli-

ness,organization,andprecision;and 5)opennesstoexpe-

rience orcreativity), which represents the person's degree

of imaginationor originality.

Previous work investigating customer service behaviors

primarily has focused on investigating the relationship

between five-factor model traitsand thecriterion variableof

managerial ratings

of

service performance. Although results

differ across studies, the traits of conscientiousness,emo-

tional stability, and agreeability (Frei andMcDaniel 1998

as well as extroversion (Hogan, Hogan, and Busch 1984

Hurley 1998a; Spivey, Munson, andLocander 1979)hav

been foundto bepredictiveof service worker performanc

ratings. Using our hierarchical model, we investigate th

degreetowhich these effects may befullyorpartially m ed

ated through customer orientation.

As Hurley's (1998a)andSpivey, M unson,andLocander

(1979) findings suggest, service workers

who are

high

i

introversioncan beexpected to reveal lower customerori

entation levels. Such employ ees

may not

enjoy customers

o

wanttowork with them long enoughtoidentify and satisf

their needs. Accordingly,

we

expect introversion

to

exert

negative influence on customer orientation:

P3: Introversion will exert a negative influence on custome

orientation.

Emotional stability,or thedegree towhich the worker

emotions vary widely, isalso expectedto be related to th

worker's customer orientation (Hogan, Hogan, and Busc

1984), Emotional instability may result in a fluctuatin

desire

to

serve customers

and

meet their needs.

The

incon

sistencyofemotionmay be associated with weakened abi

ity and/or motivation toserve customers well,

P4:

Instability will exert a negative influence on customer orien

tation.

Consistent with Hogan, Hogan,and Busch's (1984)an

Hurley's (1998a) finding, employees high

in

agreeabilit

may naturally feelanempathy with their customersand po

sess

a

desire

to

solve their problem s through

the

service the

provide. Such employeesmay well derive personal satisfac

tion from being able

to

help others satisfy needs. Therefo re

P5:Agreeability will exert a positive influence on custome

orientation.

Conscientiousness,asnoted previously, representsa ten

dency toward precisionandorganization.In asense, consc

entiousnessmayreflect a task orientation,or a needon th

partofthe service workerto getthe job done correctly (i.e

satisfy thecustomer).In addition, consistent with Freian

McDaniel's (1998) meta-analytic findings, we expect tha

the behavioral resultsofconscientiousness (e.g., precisioni

order taking, showing up for work on time) are relativel

concreteand canreadilybeobservedbysupervisorsand th

employees themselves, which leads toapositive relationshi

between conscientiousness

and

both supervisor ratings

an

self-ratings of performance.

P^: Conscientiousness will exert

a

positive influence

on cus

tomer orientation,

P7:

Conscientiousness will exert a positive influenceon sel

and supervisor ratingsofperformance.

Although we do not develop propositions with respect t

openness to experience, we include a measure of the con

struct in our empirical analysis because of its presence i

big five modelsofp ersonality.

A central issue in research on personality involve

whether the fundamental factors that delin eate individua

differences among humansarelimitedtofive constructs.Fo

example,

in

personal communications

to

Goldberg (1993

the respected psychologist

R.B.

Cattell argues that m an

more than five factors make up human personality. Sim

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ustomer Orientation of Service Workers

1 13

larly, in a critical analysis of the five-factor approach, Block

(1995,p, 187) notes that five factors may em erge because of

u nrecognized constraints on the variable sets analyzed, Of

particular interest for the present study is another personal-

ity variable, need for activity. Buss (1988) proposes that

variations in activity levels represent a primary trait among

people, on the basis of individual differences in chronic lev-

els of activity found in mammals. People with a high need

for activity will tend to complete more tasks and do more

things in everyday life. Although we find no prior em pirical

research on need for activity, we believe that this desire to

keep busy and stay active is an important predictor of cus-

tomer orientation in a services context. Service workers with

low need for activity are less likely to be motivated to work

at meeting custom er needs in a context that requires a degree

of activity,

Pg:

The need for activity will exert a positive influence on cus-

tomer orientation.

Performance Rating Outcomes

We expect that customer orientation leads service

employees to perform service behaviors that meet customer

needs and that both supervisors and the service workers

themselves will evaluate these behaviors positively.

Accordingly, overall evaluations (by both employees and

supervisors) of employee performance should be positively

associated with customer orientation,

g Customer orientation will exert a positive influence on self

and supervisor ratings of overall performance,

METHO

We tested our propositions in a field study of service

workers in the food services industry. Specifically, respon-

dents were frontline employees and their supervisors work-

ing in restaurants that were located in a midsize community

dominated by a large university, A research assistant con-

tacted managers in 35 of the largest restaurants (by number

of employees, including both full-service restaurants and

fast-food operations) to solicit participation in a study of

employee motivation. The local Chamber of Commerce

assisted our efforts by writing a letter of support on our

behalf.

Ultimately, we received matched employee/supervi-

sor responses from 27 firms. The number of matched

responses per firm ranged from 2 to 42, with a mean of 10,4

per company,2

Employees completed a questionnaire in which the basic

personality traits, customer orientation, and self-ratings of

performance were assessed on multi-item scales. To maxi-

mize privacy and minimize bias, employees placed com-

pleted surveys in sealed envelopes that were gathered and

returned to us. Supervisors rated employees on the same

performance scales as were completed by employees. We

received a total of 280 matched cases; of these, 29 were

unusable because of unacceptable levels of missing data,

and 2 cases were identified and eliminated as outliers (on the

^To ensure that our results were not overly driven by the employees of

any particular company, we repeated our primary analyses after excluding

(independently) the responses of employees for the two companies that had

each provided more than 10% of the r esponses. In each case, the results

were similar to thosereporte n our Results section.

basis of a series of preliminary multiple regression analy-

ses), which left 249 cases for analysis.

The median age of the employees in our analysis sample

was 22 years. Median length of time on the job was 11

months. Furthermore, 63% were women, 31% worked in

some type of supervisory capacity, and 43% were full-time

employees.

Measures

Measures for the basic personality traits, introversion,

instability, agreeability, conscientiousness, and openness,

were identical to those used by Mowen and Spears (1999)

and are reported along with their estimates of reliability in

the Appendix, Because the construct validity of each of

these scales had been established previously, we created an

index score (i,e,, mean across items) to represent each con-

struct. We used the index scores as single-item indicants in

structural equations models by fixing the path coefficients

and error variances on the basis of estimated reliabilities and

variances of the index scores (Hair et al, 1998), We devel-

oped a measure for the activity personality trait on the basis

of Buss's (1988) ideas; preliminary factor and reliability

analyses and substantive review of items resulted in a three-

item measure of activity (see the Appendix; a = ,79), To be

consistent with procedures used with other basic personality

traits, we again created an index score and used it in the

structural equations models,^

The customer orientation surface trait was conceptual-

ized as having a needs dimension and an enjoyment dimen-

sion. To measure the needs component, we adapted a six-

item Likert-type scale from the measures developed by

Saxe and Weitz (1982) by taking the six items with the

highest factor loadings on the customer orientation dimen-

sion in their research (see the Appendix), Coefficient alpha

for this measure of customer orientation was ,87,** We

measured the enjoyment component of customer orienta-

tion (i,e,, the degree to which service workers enjoy pro-

viding service to customers) using a six-item Likert-type

measure developed on the basis of discussions with practi-

tioners in the banking and hospitality industries (see the

Appendix; a = ,88), In these discussions, we asked partic-

ipants to describe the distinguishing characteristics of

high- and low-performing service employees. Their

responses indicated that customer-oriented service

employees enjoyed several different aspects of meeting

customer needs. Their responses guided the development

of the items that were intended to tap the enjoyment

dimension, A principle components factor analysis with

oblique rotation of the 12 items (i,e,, 6 needs and 6 enjoy-

ment items) indicated a two-factor solution, with all items

^As a check on the appropriateness of using the index scores for the six

basic personality traits in our model, we conducted a principle components

factor analysis with oblique rotation across all items that formed the six

measures, A six-factor solution emerged based on the eigenvalue rule; each

item loaded significantly on its appropriate factor, and there were no sig-

nificant cross-loadings based on the standards suggested by Hair and col-

leagues (1998). Furthermore, the absolute value interfactor correlations

ranged from .01 to .36 with a mean of .13,

Saxe and Weitz (198 2) used both customer orientation items and se lling

orientation items in their measure. Because the customer orientation and

selling orientation items split into separate dimensions when factor ana-

lyzed (in both their original research and our current rese arch ), we elec ted

to use only customer orientation items for our measure of the needs com-

ponent of customer orientation.

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JOURNAL OF MARKETING RESEAR CH FEBRUARY 200

Table

1

DESCR IPTIVE ST TISTICS ND BIV RI TE CORREL TIONS

Variable

Introversion

Instability

Agreeability

Conscientiousness

Openness

Activity

Enjoyment

Needs

Self1

Self2

Supervisor1

Supervisor

2

X,)

X 2)

( X J )

X 4)

X5)

Xfi)

(Y,)

(Y2)

(Y3)

Y 4)

(Y5)

(Y6)

Number

of Items

3

5

3

4

5

3

6

6

1

1

1

1

Coefficient

Alpha

.86

.88

.85

.73

.83

.79

.88

.87

N.A.

N.A.

N.A.

N.A.

X

3.39

3.90

7.04

6.52

6.20

5.71

6.87

7.06

5.64

5.79

5.41

5.39

Standard

Deviation

(

.82

.79

.51

.35

.53

.80

.47

.33

.02

).96

.23

.27

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Customer Orientation of Service Workers

11 5

Figure

BASIC MODELS TESTED IN STUDY

A: Ful l Media t ion Model

I Introversion

I Instabi l i ty

Agreeability

Conscientiousness

Openness

Activity

Customer

Orientation

Performance

Ratings

(Supervisor)

B: Partial Mediation Model

Performance

Ratings

SelO

Performance

Rat ings

Superv i sor)

lar the inclusion of the customer orientation surface trait, is

appropriate and that the hierarchical model enhances the

predictive power of personality on performance, especially

for self-rated performance.

Determinants and Consequences of Customer Orientation

Consistent with prior research on the effects of personal-

ity variables on perform ance, we predict in P3 that introver-

sion is negatively related to customer orientation. Though

directionally appropriate, the results do not support this

proposition (t - -1.24, p > .10). The results support P4,

which states that instability is negatively related to customer

orientation (standardized path coefficient = -.18 ; t = -2.21 ,

p