Retaining the authentic self in the workplace: Authenticity and work engagement in the mass-service industries

Sharp, Lisa Karen Peden

Retaining the authentic self in the workplace: Authenticity and work engagement in the mass-service industries

dc.contributor.advisor	Roche, Maree A.
dc.contributor.advisor	Cable, Donald Alfred James
dc.contributor.author	Sharp, Lisa Karen Peden
dc.date.accessioned	2015-06-09T02:18:19Z
dc.date.available	2015-06-09T02:18:19Z
dc.date.issued	2015
dc.date.updated	2015-03-18T22:57:29Z
dc.description.abstract	This research explored the association between authenticity and work engagement within the customer service context of mass-service industries. Authenticity in customer service workers is usually considered detrimental to organisational aims for a consistent standard of good service. However, research which finds that acting the service-persona is associated with emotional exhaustion and cynicism in workers (Brotheridge & Lee, 2002), while authenticity is related to positive customer-outcomes (Bujisic, Wu, Mattila, & Bilgihan, 2014), suggests that authenticity may enhance the experience of service for workers, and their customers, to provide for sustained competitive advantage. In the present research, I sought to examine the relationship between the degree of authenticity that employees use in their interaction with customers, and their experience of work engagement. Mass-service refers to a sector of the service industry modelled on mass-production. Contrary to principles for work engagement, workers in customer service roles within mass-service, usually repeat a small range of tasks with very little variation or autonomy. One hundred and forty service employees in petrol stations, fast food outlets, supermarkets, and in general retail responded to a survey measuring the extent to which they felt authentic, used surface acting and deep acting, their state of self-efficacy, feelings of personal accomplishment, and work engagement. Results revealed a positive relationship between authenticity and work engagement. Surface acting emerged as a less authentic approach to service than deep acting, however, deep acting was not strongly related to authenticity. Personal accomplishment strongly moderated associations with work engagement. Overall, results suggest that an authentic approach to interaction with customers and a sense of personal accomplishment are important to work engagement in mass-service workers. Findings support the promotion of authenticity in the workplace, as well as providing opportunities for workers to obtain a sense of accomplishment. Practical implications for the integration of authenticity into the customer service context, such as greater job autonomy and training customer service employees in the beneficial use of personality within the service-role, are discussed.
dc.format.mimetype	application/pdf
dc.identifier.citation	Sharp, L. K. P. (2015). Retaining the authentic self in the workplace: Authenticity and work engagement in the mass-service industries (Thesis, Master of Applied Psychology (MAppPsy)). University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10289/9369	en
dc.identifier.uri	https://hdl.handle.net/10289/9369
dc.language.iso	en
dc.publisher	University of Waikato
dc.rights	All items in Research Commons are provided for private study and research purposes and are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated.
dc.subject	authenticity
dc.subject	work engagement
dc.subject	emotional labor
dc.subject	self-efficacy
dc.subject	personal accomplishment
dc.subject	surface acting
dc.subject	deep acting
dc.subject	mass-service
dc.subject	standardisation
dc.subject	meaningfulness
dc.title	Retaining the authentic self in the workplace: Authenticity and work engagement in the mass-service industries
dc.type	Thesis
pubs.place-of-publication	Hamilton, New Zealand	en_NZ
thesis.degree.grantor	University of Waikato
thesis.degree.level	Masters
thesis.degree.name	Master of Applied Psychology (MAppPsy)