Prior research indicates that market orientation is associated with positive outcomes for firms. For service organizations, a market orientation is implemented largely through individual service workers. The authors investigate the mediational role of customer orientation in a hierarchical model of the influence of personality traits on self-rated and supervisor-rated performance. The results support a partially mediated hierarchical model. Three basic personality traits (emotional stability, agreeability, and the need for activity) account for 39% of the variance in the customer orientation of employees. In turn, the customer orientation measure and conscientiousness account for 26% of the variance in self-rated performance. The customer orientation measure, along with the direct effects of conscientiousness and agreeability, account for 12% of the variance in manager ratings. The authors discuss the results and their implications for marketing researchers and managers.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AllportGordon W. (1961), Pattern and Growth in Personality.New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston.
2.
BlockJack (1995), “A Contrarian View of the Five-Factor Approach to Personality Description,”Psychological Bulletin, 117(March), 187–215.
3.
BowersKenneth S. (1973), “Situationism in Psychology: An Analysis and a Critique,”Psychological Review, 80(September), 307–36.
4.
BrownSteven P., CronWilliam L., and SlocumJohn W.Jr. (1998), “Effects of Trait Competitiveness and Perceived Intraorganizational Competition on Salesperson Goal Setting and Performance,”Journal of Marketing, 62(October), 88–98.
5.
BussDavid M. (1988), “Evolutionary Personality Psychology,”Annual Review of Psychology, 42, 459–91.
6.
CostaPaul T.Jr., and McCraeRobert R.R. (1985), The NEO Personality Inventory Manual.Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources.
7.
DayDavid V., and SilvermanStanley B. (1989), “Personality and Job Performance: Evidence of Incremental Validity,”Personnel Psychology, 42(Spring), 25–36.
8.
DayGeorge S. (1994), “The Capabilities of Market-Driven Organizations,”Journal of Marketing, 58(October), 37–52.
9.
DeshpandeRohit, FarleyJohn U., and WebsterFrederick E.Jr. (1993), “Corporate Culture, Customer Orientation, and Innovativeness in Japanese Firms: A Quadrad Analysis,”Journal of Marketing, 57(January), 23–37.
10.
EndlerNorman S., and RosensteinAlvin J. (1997), “Evolution of the Personality Construct in Marketing and Its Applicability to Contemporary Personality Research,”Journal of Consumer Psychology, 6(1), 55–66.
11.
EysenckHans J. (1947), Dimensions of Personality.London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
12.
FaberRonald J., and O'GuinnThomas C. (1989), “Classifying Compulsive Consumers: Advances in the Development of a Diagnostic Tool,” in Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 16, SrullT.K., ed. Provo, UT: Association for Consumer Research, 738–44.
13.
FreiRichard L., and McDanielMichael A. (1998), “Validity of Customer Service Measures in Personnel Selection: A Review of Criterion and Construct Evidence,”Human Performance, 11(1), 1–27.
14.
GoldbergLewis R. (1992), “The Development of Markers for the Big-Five Factor Structure,”Psychological Assessment, 4(1), 26–42.
15.
GoldbergLewis R. (1993), “The Structure of Phenotypic Personality Traits,”American Psychologist, 48(January), 26–34.
16.
HairJoseph F.Jr., AndersonRolph E., TathamRonald L., and BlackWilliam C. (1998), Multivariate Data Analysis, 5th ed.Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
17.
HoganJoyce, HoganRobert, and BuschCatherine (1984), “How to Measure Service Orientation,”Journal of Applied Psychology, 69(February), 167–73.
18.
HurleyRobert F. (1998a), “A Customer Service Behavior in Retail Settings: A Study of the Effect of Service Provider Personality,”Journal of the Academy of Marketing Sciences, 26(2), 115–227.
19.
HurleyRobert F. (1998b), “Service Disposition and Personality: A Review and a Classification Scheme for Understanding Where Service Disposition Has an Effect on Customers,”Advances in Services Marketing and Management, 7, 159–91.
20.
JaworskiBernard J., and KohliAjay K. (1993), “Market Orientation: Antecedents and Consequences,”Journal of Marketing, 57(July), 53–70.
21.
JöreskogKarl G., and SörbomDag (1993), LISREL 8.Chicago: Scientific Software International.
LastovickaJohn L. (1982), “On the Validation of Lifestyle Traits: A Review and Illustration,”Journal of Marketing Research, 19(February), 126–38.
24.
LichtensteinDonald R., NetemeyerRichard G., and BurtonScot (1990), “Distinguishing Coupon Proneness from Value Consciousness: An Acquisition-Transaction Utility Theory Perspective,”Journal of Marketing, 54(July), 54–67.
25.
MichaelsRonald E., and DayRalph L. (1985), “Measuring Customer Orientation of Salespeople: A Replication with Industrial Buyers,”Journal of Marketing Research, 22(November), 443–46.
26.
MischelWalter (1968), Personality and Assessment.New York: John Wiley & Sons.
27.
MowenJohn C., and SpearsNancy (1999), “A Hierarchical Model Approach to Understanding Compulsive Buying Among College Students,”Journal of Consumer Psychology, 8(4), 407–30.
28.
NarverJohn C., and SlaterStanley F. (1990), “The Effect of a Market Orientation on Business Profitability,”Journal of Marketing, 54(October), 20–35.
29.
PaunonenSampo V. (1998), “Hierarchical Organization of Personality and Prediction of Behavior,”Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74(2), 538–56.
30.
RustRoland T., ZahorikAnthony J., and KeininghamTimothy L. (1996), Service Marketing.New York: HarperCollins.
31.
SaucierGerard (1994), “Mini-Markers: A Brief Version of Goldberg's Unipolar Big-Five Markers,”Journal of Personality Assessment, 63(3), 506–16.
32.
SaxeRobert, and WeitzBarton A. (1982), “The SOCO Scale: A Measure of the Customer Orientation of Salespeople,”Journal of Marketing Research, 19(August), 343–51.
33.
SpiveyW. Austin, Michael MunsonJ., and LocanderWilliam B. (1979), “Meeting Retail Staffing Needs via Improved Selection,”Journal of Retailing, 55(4), 3–19.
34.
TadepalliRaghu (1995), “Measuring Customer Orientation of a Salesperson: Modifications of the SOCO Scale,”Psychology and Marketing, 12(May), 177–87.
35.
VenkatramanMeera P., and PriceLinda L. (1990), “Differentiating Between Cognitive and Sensory Innovativeness: Concepts, Measurement, and Implications,”Journal of Business Research, 20(June), 293–315.
36.
WigginsJerry S. (1996), The Five-Factor Model of Personality.New York: Guilford Press.
