Index of Paper Presentations for the Parallel Sessions - Academy of ...

transactional theory,we draw upon two important organizational variables, empowerment andprofessional development, and investigate the moderating impact of these variables on the role stress – OCrelationships, as perceived by FLEs, thus addressing a crucial gap in literature.In the past few decades, scholars and practitioners have shown increasing interest in work placeempowerment, a managerial strategy that endorses the sharing of power and control between managersand subordinates (Bowen and Lawler 1992; Conger and Kanungo 1988; Koberg et al.1999).Empowerment refers to situations in which the manager gives team members the discretion to make dayto-daydecisions about job-related activities (Hartline and Ferrell 1996). In a service context, empoweredFLEs have been found to experience more positive job attitudes like increased organisationalcommitment, display higher levels of self-efficacy, respond better to customer needs and wants, andexperience reduced role stress (Bowen and Lawler 1992; Koberg et al. 1999; Singh 1993, 2000; Wetzels,de Ruyter and Bloemer 2000).Professional development refers to professional growth that can occur when employees areprovided with professional development opportunities, which match their particular needs and interests(Hart 1994). Developing one‘s professional skills in order to further one‘s career and/or avoid becomingobsolete in the work force has become imperative (Koonce 1998). In services, it is crucial to provide FLEswith professional development opportunities to develop customer interaction skills (Zeithaml and Bitner2003). Past research suggests that professional development activities such as induction programs affectjob attitudes, especially organizational commitment, positively, as such activities help to reduce anxietythereby improving role clarity (Bowen and Waldman 1999). Professional development activities are alsoperceived as a sign of management commitment towards its employees (Kinicki, Carson and Bohlander1992).Thus, empowerment and professional development are consequently hypothesized to moderate therole stress - OC relationships.H 3 : a) Empowerment and b) professional development moderate the influence of role ambiguityon AC, NC and CC