Won-Moo Hur

High turnover rates in the service sector (i.e. approximately 40%; Abo-Murad & AL-Khrabsheh, 2019) are attributable to frontline service employees (FSEs)’ job stressors, which include extended work...

1. Over the past few decades, advances in digital technology and automation have significantly transformed the organization and performance of service jobs. A key driver of this transformation is t...

Purpose: This research aims to examine the role of digital selling climate − an informal organizational influence − in promoting social selling and enhancing sales performance within the financial service sector. It also evaluates how formal sales control mechanisms, specifically outcome- and behavior-based systems, influence these relationships. Design/methodology/approach: Grounded in organizational control theory, this study constructs and tests a moderated mediation model using survey responses from 277 insurance sales professionals in South Korea. The analysis was conducted via structural equation modeling and moderation-mediation techniques. Findings: Results demonstrate that digital selling climate contributes to improved sales performance by stimulating social selling behaviors. This effect is strengthened when behavior-based controls are present but weakened under outcome-based controls, highlighting the need for synergy between informal climates and formal control structures in digitally evolving sales contexts. Originality/value: This study expands the conceptual understanding of informal control by framing digital selling climate as a critical behavioral enabler in service sales transformation. It distinguishes between the effects of behavior- and outcome-based systems, offering fresh insight into their complementary or conflicting roles. Importantly, it provides practical guidance for service managers: to drive successful digital selling adoption, organizations should prioritize control systems that reinforce digital engagement behaviors rather than solely focusing on performance outcomes.

Research background: Progress in artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics is reshaping the service landscape and driving technological innovation. Service robots are increasingly introduced to improve performance and support frontline employees in mitigating emotional and physical strains. However, evidence remains limited on whether service robots truly protect employees from stressors such as customer incivility. Drawing on the conservation of resources (COR) theory, this study addresses this gap by conceptualizing service robots as context-dependent technological resources and examines how their efficacy depends on organizational support and employee knowledge in robot-enabled environments. Purpose of the article: This study examined how customer incivility depletes frontline employees’ resources and when these adverse effects can be mitigated in human–robot contexts. We assessed the mediating role of work engagement between customer incivility and in-role service performance and customer-helping behavior, and the moderating effects of service robot support and robot knowledge. Methods: We collected data from 200 frontline employees in South Korea, a region with rapid service robot integration. We utilized a two-wave survey design with a two-month interval to minimize common method variance. Hypotheses were tested via path analysis in Mplus using bootstrapping (N = 5,000). Findings & value added: Work engagement mediated the negative relationships between customer incivility and both in-role service performance and customer-helping behavior. We observed a significant three-way interaction among customer incivility, service robot support, and service robot knowledge on work engagement. When both service robot support and robot knowledge were high, the negative effects of customer incivility on work engagement and indirect outcomes were weakest. This study advances research on technology-enabled work by demonstrating that service robots function as context-dependent technological resources. Our findings highlight the importance of robot support and employee robot-related knowledge in buffering resource depletion and enhancing resilience in robot-enabled environments.

Purpose: This study investigated the mediating relationship between service employees' insomnia, resilience, and job performance, as well as the moderating role of organizational health climate on this relationship. Design/methodology/approach: Three-wave data were collected from 318 South Korean employees in various service sectors. Findings: As predicted, the insomnia experienced by service employees was negatively associated with their subsequent job performance, and resilience played a mediating role in this association. Furthermore, organizational health climate mitigated the negative relationship between insomnia and resilience and strengthened the positive relationship between resilience and job performance. Research limitations/implications: This study examined only resilience and organizational health climate as the mediator and moderator, respectively. However, other psychological or contextual variables may also play a role in the relationship between insomnia and job performance. Given the emerging links between organizational health climate and health-oriented leadership, their combined roles warrant further investigation. Practical implications: The findings highlight the role of organizational health climate in alleviating the negative relationship between insomnia and service performance. Organizations should implement practices that promote service employees' well-being, such as sleep hygiene, workload adjustments, flexible scheduling, and mindfulness training. Originality/value: This study advances the literature on organizational health by identifying the association between insomnia and job performance and demonstrating the buffering role of organizational health climate through the lens of the conservation of resources theory.

Purpose: The aim of this study is to examine the effects of perceived organizational health climate (POHC) and perceived organizational safety climate (POSC) on work engagement and turnover intention among frontline service employees (FLEs). Specifically, this research explores how POHC and POSC, individually and interactively, influence their turnover intention through work engagement. This study addresses the gap in the literature by highlighting the importance of integrated health and safety climates on service outcomes in the service industry, aligning with the Total Worker Health movement, which has not yet been explored in the service industry. Design/methodology/approach: The study employed two-wave data collection to separate independent variables (POSC and POHC) and a mediator (work engagement) from a dependent variable (turnover intention). Participants were working for diverse service organizations in South Korea. Among 635 full-time FLEs, 301 finished both T1 and T2 surveys. Findings: POHC reduced turnover intention among FLEs through work engagement, while POSC was non-significant in the proposed relationship. However, POSC was shown to strengthen the positive effect of POHC on work engagement and the indirect negative effect of POHC on turnover intention via work engagement, verifying the significance of Total Worker Health in the service industry. Originality/value: This study explored the effects of POSC and POHC, and total health on FLE work motivation and turnover intention – topics that have thus far been neglected in the service literature.

Research background: The rapid diffusion of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) is transforming how employees perform and redesign their work. However, limited research has examined the psychological and contextual mechanisms through which perceived technological support translates into proactive job adaptation. This study draws on the conservation of resources (COR) theory, and social cognitive theory (SCT), to investigate how perceived GenAI support fosters job crafting. It focuses on self-efficacy toward GenAI as a mediating psychological resource and GenAI usage as a boundary condition that shapes this process. Purpose of the article: This study examines the mediating role of self-efficacy toward GenAI in the relationship between perceived GenAI support and job crafting, as well as the moderating effect of GenAI usage on this relationship. Methods: A two-wave, time-lagged survey was conducted with South Korean employees who had experience using GenAI at work. Path modeling with bootstrapping was used to test the mediation, moderation, and moderated mediation effects while controlling for demographic variables, industry, and affectivity. Findings & value added: Perceived GenAI support was positively associated with job crafting through self-efficacy toward GenAI. Furthermore, GenAI usage strengthened the effect of perceived GenAI support on self-efficacy and the indirect effect of perceived support on job crafting through self-efficacy. This study advances the literature by clarifying how external technological support is internalized into psychological resources and activated through usage to promote proactive work redesign. The findings provide a refined theoretical explanation for adaptive employee behavior in AI-enabled workplaces by extending COR theory and SCT to human–AI collaboration contexts and highlighting the central role of domain-specific self-efficacy.

Purpose: This study aims to examine how the awareness of smart technology, artificial intelligence, robotics and algorithms (STARA) affects service employees' turnover intentions and when this relationship can be buffered. We assessed the mediating relationship between STARA awareness, job insecurity and turnover intention and the moderating effects of mindfulness and self-efficacy. Design/methodology/approach: To reduce common method variance and make stronger causal inferences, we administered surveys to 318 South Korean service employees in three waves, each spaced three months apart. We tested our hypotheses using Mplus macro and bootstrapping (N = 5,000). Findings: As predicted, we found a mediating relationship between STARA awareness, job insecurity and turnover intention. We observed a three-way interaction effect of STARA awareness, mindfulness and self-efficacy on job insecurity. When mindfulness and self-efficacy were high, the positive association between STARA awareness and job insecurity and the positive effect of STARA awareness on turnover intention through job insecurity were the least pronounced. Originality/value: Our study elucidates the buffering roles of personal traits in the context of STARA by demonstrating mindfulness and self-efficacy as synergistic psychological resources that mitigate the deleterious effects of STARA on job insecurity and turnover intention.

Purpose: Despite mounting research on green human resource management (GHRM) and pro-environmental behavior, the work-home spillover of pro-environmental behavior has received scant attention from scholars. To bridge this gap, we aimed to uncover the mediating mechanisms between GHRM and home pro-environmental behavior. Grounded in the work-home resources model, we propose that GHRM promotes work pro-environmental behavior, which positively affects home pro-environmental behavior through a gain in a personal resource (i.e. prosocial motivation). Design/methodology/approach: To test a serial mediation (GHRM → Work pro-environmental behavior → Prosocial motivation → Home pro-environmental behavior), we administered two-wave surveys to 355 South Korean employees three months apart. The proposed serial mediation model was tested through path modeling using PROCESS Macro (Model 6), with Mplus employed for statistical analyses. Findings: We found a positive relationship between employees' perceptions of GHRM and home pro-environmental behavior measured three months later. This relationship was mediated by prosocial motivation and was serially mediated by work pro-environmental behavior and prosocial motivation. Originality/value: Our study provides novel insights into pro-environmental behavior by taking the work-home interface approach. Our findings advance research on GHRM and pro-environmental behavior by elucidating the mediating mechanism through which the positive effect of GHRM spills over to the home domain.