Influence of the Work Relationship Between Frontline Employees and Their Immediate Supervisor on Customers' Service Experience

The primary purpose of this study is to develop and test a research model that links the work relationship between subordinates and their immediate supervisor (i.e., leader-member exchange [LMX]) to customers' evaluation on their dining experience through job satisfaction. This study utilized an employee-customer matched sample drawn from 14 restaurants with customer-contact employees (n = 426) and their customers (n = 1,212) in the United States. In order to test research hypotheses, we used the structural equation modeling (SEM) using LISREL 8.8. The results indicate that LMX is not directly related to customer responses to service directly; however, the relationship is fully mediated by employees' satisfaction with their job. Our study offers theoretical and managerial insights into the importance of quality of leadership and how it is perceived by customers during the employee-customer interaction, and further, calls for future research that links employees' contribution to customers' perceptions of service experience.