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Prior service climate research predominantly uses only employees as raters of service climate, this paper includes leaders as another source of service climate perceptions and looks at the perceptual congruence between leaders and employees. Data from employees, leaders, customers and census in Chinese restaurants show that leader perceptions and employee perceptions have positive direct influence on customer satisfaction. Furthermore, they interactively influence customer satisfaction. This research indicates the importance of including leaders as raters of service climate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the representation of women in top management positions has increased in recent years, there remains a gender imbalance at upper levels in organizations (U.S. Department of Labor, 2009). Past research revealed that this gender gap can be explained through a biased evaluation of female leaders such that when exhibiting the same behavior as male leaders, female leaders are less favorably evaluated than their male counterparts (Heilman, 2001). In this symposium, we include five papers that explore factors influencing this biased evaluation, namely leader emergence (Presentation 1), individuating information about and positions of leaders (Presentation 2), leader role-based behavior (Presentation 3), leader body posture and gender (Presentation 4), and degree of match of individuals' Implicit Leadership Theories (ILT) with their own leader identity (Presentation 5). Following the presentations, Lynn Shore will serve as the discussant to highlight both theoretical and practical implications and lead an interactive group discussion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The causal direction between employee attitudes and customer satisfaction remains unclear in the literature. In this study, we simultaneously examined the causality of two store-level employee attitudes-customer satisfaction relationships, i.e., the relationship between service climate and customer satisfaction and the relationship between job satisfaction and customer satisfaction. Data were collected at multiple points in time over a six-year period from employees and customers of 341 stores of a specialty retail chain. We analyzed the data using a cross-lagged model via structural equation modeling. Results revealed reciprocal causal effects between service climate and customer satisfaction and between job satisfaction and customer satisfaction. Specifically, service climate predicts concurrent customer satisfaction, whereas job satisfaction predicts subsequent customer satisfaction. Further, customer satisfaction predicts subsequent service climate and subsequent job satisfaction. Interpretations of the findings and theoretical and practical implications of this study were discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]