Perceived Corporate Reputation and Pride as Drivers of Frontline Employees’ Reputation Impact Awareness: Mediating Role of Job Satisfaction

Purpose – Service employees play a crucial role in creating and sustaining the reputation of service fi rms. Their attitudes and commitment to the fi rm are refl ected in customers’ perceptions of quality and loyalty, which ultimately improve corporate performance. The aim of this study is to better understand what contributes to raising frontline employees’ awareness of their role in building and sustaining the corporate reputation of service fi rms. Design/methodology/approach – We adapt Helm’s (2011) conceptual framework based on a work-related social identity theory and test the adapted model through an empirical study on 544 service fi rms’ frontline employees. Findings – Our fi ndings show that job satisfaction of frontline employees is a signifi cant determinant of their reputation impact awareness, as well as a mediator of Sažetak Svrha – Zaposlenici uslužnih poduzeća imaju ključnu ulogu u stvaranju i održavanju reputacije poduzeća. Stavovi zaposlenih i njihova posvećenost poduzeću odražavaju se u percepcijama korisnika o kvaliteti usluge i lojalnosti, što u konačnici unapređuje performanse poduzeća. Svrha rada jest bolje razumjeti što doprinosi podizanju svijesti kontaktnoga osoblja uslužnih poduzeća o njihovoj ulozi u izgradnji i održavanju korporativne reputacije. Metodološki pristup – Prilagođen je konceptualni okvir koji je razvila Helm (2011), a koji je temeljen na teoriji društvenog identiteta vezanoga uz posao. Prilagođeni je model empirijski testiran na uzorku 544 zaposlenika kontaktne osobe iz uslužnih poduzeća. Rezultati i implikacije – Rezultati istraživanja pokazuju da je zadovoljstvo poslom kontaktnog osoblja značajna odrednica njihove svjesnosti o utjecaju reputacije, kao i Market-Tržište Vol. 31, No. 2, 2019, pp. 171-185 UDK 331.101.32:316.64/.65:658:005.336.6 DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.22598/mt/2019.31.2.171 Original scientifi c paper Vesna Babić-Hodović, Maja Arslanagić-Kalajdžić 172 Vo l. 31 , N o. 2 , 2 01 9, p p. 1 71 -1 85 the eff ects that pride and perceived corporate reputation have on corporate reputation impact awareness. Limitations – Possible existence of other dimensions of perceived corporate reputation, when it comes to internal stakeholders – the employees, present a limitation of this study and should certainly be considered in future research. Originality/value – We compare and contrast our fi ndings with previous studies and shed more light on internal marketing possibilities targeted towards frontline employees.