A contingency model for empowering customer-contact services employees

A great deal has been written on the subject of empowerment of employees in the manufacturing industries, yet its application in the services area is relatively under-developed. Any rigorous examination of the literature shows that empowerment is not suitable for all occasions or all types of employees as it can have both positive and negative consequences for employees and the organization. This paper outlines a contingency framework for the empowerment of contact service employees. It is argued that the appropriate levels and the types of empowerment given to employees depends on a combination of the complexity or variability of customer needs, and the degree of task complexity or variability involved in delivering the customer needs. It is also argued that in any empowerment framework it is essential for the degree and the type of empowerment to be included. The paper also outlines the implications of empowerment for the type and style of managerial control exercised by managers and the implications for recruitment of customer contact service employees.