Empowerment and role stress in the human interface between the firm and its markets

Front-line employees constitute one of the key interfaces that service organisations have with their markets. Many strategies to enhance the ability of these employees to satisfy the needs of customers have been proposed. Amongst these, empowering employees has been suggested to enhance the customer orientation of the firm and consequently its effectiveness in serving the market. However, the impact of empowerment in service organisations remains somewhat contentious. This paper examines the role of empowerment as an organisational service strategy, and identifies its consequences for role stress, job satisfaction and the willingness of service employees to serve their customers.