Tactics Used by Customer‐contact Workers: Effects of Role Stress, Boundary Spanning and Control

Presents two studies: a qualitative study that uncovered the tactics used by high customer‐contact service workers to deal with perceived role conflict and stress; and a quantitative study that looked at the relationship between role conflict, job satisfaction, and the coping tactics used by these workers. The tactics used are based on (1) the use of (more) effort to satisfy demands of customers and management; (2) negotiating to alter role demands; (3) pre‐empting tactics to avoid sent roles; and (4) avoiding tactics to avoid received roles. Results indicate that customer‐contact workers use a variety of “tricks of the trade” to control their work environment. In contrast to previous studies that have not supported a relationship between performance and job satisfaction (studies done mostly in non‐services environments), the research indicates a link between job satisfaction and attributes of performance based on these tactics for frontline customer‐contact workers.