Employees play an integral part in how consumers rate service quality. As such,
it is very important to be able to quantify the interpersonal skills required by employees in service positions. One instrument-the self-monitoring scale-has the potential to identify certain interpersonal skills ofan employee. Using two separate surveys to test this self-monitoring scale in the hospitality industry, this study examined the self- monitoring and job performance tendencies of hospitality employees to help identify and compare service attentiveness and suggestive selling skills between the high and low self-monitor. Differences were found between the high and low self-monitor in howeach approached the service encounter. As the trend toward employeeempow erment gains momentum in the1990s,researchers, as well as industry, need to continue identifying and developing better measures of the service provider'sinterpersonal skills.
Bitner, M.J. (1990). Evaluating service encounters: The effects of physical surroundings and employee responses. Journal of Marketing , 54, 69-82.
2.
Bitner, M., Booms, B.H., & Tetreault, M.S. (1990). The service encounter: Diagnosing favorable and unfavorable incidents. Joumal of Marketing, 54, 71-84.
3.
Caldwell, D.F., & O'Reilly, C.A. (1982). Boundary spanning and individual performance: The impact of self-monitoring. Joumal of Applied Psychology, 64, 72-76.
4.
Cook, T.D., & Campbell, D.T. (1979). Quasi-experimentation: Design & analysis issues for field settings. Boston : Houghton Mifflin Company.
5.
Gay, L.R. (1987). Educational research: Competencies for analysis and application (3rd ed.). Columbus : Merrill Publishing.
6.
George, W.R., & Berry, L.L. (1981, July/August). Guidelines for the advertising of services. Business Horizon, 407-410.
7.
Goldsmith, R.E. (1987). Self-monitoring and innovativeness. Psychological Reports, 60, 1017-1018.
8.
Heskett, J.L. (1986). Managing in the service economy. Boston: Harvard Business School.
9.
Hogan, J., Hogan, R., & Busch, C.M. (1984). How to measure service orientation. Journal of Applied Psychology, 69, 167-173.
10.
Mars, G., & Nicod, M. (1984). The world of waiters. London : George Allen & Unwin.
11.
McMillan, J.H., & Schumacher, S. (1989). Research in education: A conceptual introduction. Glenview, IL: Scott, Foresman and Company.
12.
Mill, R.C. (1986). Managing the service encounter. Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, 27(4), 39-45.
13.
Miller, M.L., & Thayer, J.F. (1989). On the existence of discrete classes in personality: Is self-monitoring the correct joint to carve? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57, 143-155.
Paxson, M.C. (in press). Using the total design method to increase response rates in mail surveys of hospitality industry business. Industrial Marketing Management.
16.
Samenfink, W.H. (1992a). Identifying the service potential of an employee through the use of the self-monitoring scale. Hospitality Research Journal, 15(2), 1 -10.
17.
Samenfink, W.H. (1992b). Identifying the service potential of an employee through the use of the self-monitoring scale. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington.
18.
Shavelson, R.J. (1988). Statistical reasoning for the behavioral sciences (2nd ed.). Boston: Allyn and Bacon, Inc.
19.
Shostack, G.L. (1977). Breaking free from product marketing. Journal of Marketing, 41,73-80.
20.
Snyder, M. (1974). Self-monitoring of expressive behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 30, 526-537.
21.
Snyder, M. (1987). Public appearances private realities: The psychology of self-monitoring. New York: W. H. Freeman.
22.
Snyder, M., & Gangestad, S. (1986). On the nature of self-monitoring: Matters of assessment, matters of validity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , 51, 125-139.
23.
Solomon, M.R., Surprenant, C., Czepiel, J.A., & Gutman, E.G. (1985). A role theory perspective on dyadic interactions: The service encounter. Journal of Marketing, 49, 99-111.
24.
Surprenant, C.F., & Solomon, M.R. (1987). Predictability and personalization in the service encounter. Journal of Marketing, 51, 86-96.
25.
Tansik, D.A. (1990). Managing human resources issues for high contact service personnel. In D. Bowen, R. B. Chase, et al. (Eds.), Service Management Effectiveness. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass .
