Humanitarian Crises: The (Un)Certainty of Servicescapes and Their Impact on Frontline Actors

Abstract

Prior works discuss servicescapes as a stable environment but abstain from examining servicescapes in crisis situations and how they impact frontline employees (FLEs). This paper investigates servicescapes as something other than static and planned, and it accounts for the uncertainty often present in servicescapes. Specifically, we conceptualize servicescapes in crisis situations on a continuum that takes into account the landscape’s (in)stability and the processes’ (un)predictability. In so doing, we provide a more nuanced understanding of FLE experience and job satisfaction in crisis servicescapes, such as humanitarian contexts. Our research on these rarely surveyed but highly important service-providing circumstances identifies how FLEs need to reconcile the dynamic contextual facets and the variables likely to influence their job satisfaction. Across two studies of humanitarian aid contexts, including one with the United Nations, we show that servicescape processes and/or landscapes are often dynamic. We further show that organizational value’s congruence, pleasantness, and convenience have a positive impact on FLE job satisfaction in crisis servicescapes by decreasing their perceived level of uncertainty.