How could leader inspire front-line employee's trust and service performance in service team: Evidence from China

Conference Name:International Conference on Management and Service Science, MASS 2011. Conference Address: Wuhan, China. Time:August 12, 2011 - August 14, 2011.IEEE Wuhan Section; Wuhan University; Nankai University; Fuzhou University; University of Science and Technology BeijingBased on leader character-based and relationship-based perspectives, this paper explores the mechanisms that how team leader could inspire front-line employee's trust and service performance. Using 280 paired samples from 11 service teams, we found that team leader could enhance team member's service performance by leader honesty (character-based perspective) and leader-member exchange (relationship-based approach), which are mediated by follower's trust in their team leader. Implications for service team and HRM in leader training are discussed in the end. ? 2011 IEEE