The effect of job-related demands and resources on service employees’ willingness to report complaints

Service employees’ willingness to report complaints (WRC) is an important determinant of firms’ long-term growth. Despite its importance, we know little about the factors that drive or hinder employees’ WRC. Drawing on the job demands-resources (JDR) model, we propose job resources (supervisor support and employee empowerment) and job demands (perceived customer unfriendliness and workload) as antecedents of WRC. We also examine the mediational role of organizational commitment and customer orientation, and the moderating role of country, in the effect of JDR variables on WRC. Using data from German and Chinese service employees, we show that supervisor support and workload positively affect WRC, whereas employee empowerment and customer unfriendliness negatively affect it. Thus, contradictory to the prevailing assumption that job resources help employees achieve work goals and that job demands inhibit their achievement, we show job resources (supervisor support) and demands (workload) can enhance WRC, whereas other job resources (employee empowerment) and demands (customer unfriendliness) have inhibiting effects. Organizational commitment and customer orientation mediate the impact of all JDR variables on WRC except empowerment. Furthermore, supervisor support has a more positive, while empowerment and customer unfriendliness have a more negative effect for German than for Chinese service employees. Service managers may influence WRC by managing job resources, job demands, and employee-company and employee-customer interfaces. Besides, employees from individualistic countries (Germany) are more sensitive to the JDR environment than those from collectivistic countries (China). Thus, managing job resources and demands may reap more benefits in the form of enhanced WRC in individualistic than in collectivistic countries.