ABSTRACT
At work, employees interact with coworkers, supervisors, and subordinates to perform their jobs. The exchange and relationships among peers and in leader–follower dyads has been the focus of much organizational research. Less attention, however, has been paid to the interactions between employees and a third group of constituents: customers. This is an oversight, because now 79% of the labor force in the United States is employed in the service sector to provide customers with services such as health care, education, financial, legal, hospitality, real estate, and retail sales services (CIA, 2009). Service industries now account for 60% of the world gross domestic product (GDP) and dominate the economy in most nations and regions (Cia). Therefore, a better understanding of the exchange relationship between employees and customers in service interactions is warranted.
