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Powerlessness following service failure and its implications for service recovery

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Abstract

This research examines whether service failure in hospitality settings reduces situational power and whether feelings of powerlessness have implications for service recovery efforts. Three studies demonstrated that service failure reduced consumers’ situational power, but only among those with high dispositional power motivation (studies 1 and 2). Moreover, those with high dispositional power motivation evinced greater satisfaction with service recovery efforts that involved status-enhancing compensation as opposed to utility-enhancing compensation (study 2), and when status-enhancing compensation was presented in public as opposed to in private (study 3). These findings suggest that consumers with high dispositional power motivation prefer service recovery attempts that counteract the feelings of powerlessness they experience from service failure. Service managers can benefit from these findings by understanding how feelings of power interact with service recovery efforts.

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Notes

  1. We screened the data for duplicated IP addresses and removed responses made by participants who had completed the survey multiple times.

  2. Participants were specifically instructed to “recall a service encounter in which you were treated (un)favorably by the service person. Please think about typical hospitality service situations such as when you were on vacation, in a resort, hotel, restaurant, or traveling for leisure.” A review of participants’ descriptions revealed that all participants wrote about hospitality-related service encounters.

  3. Participants in the favorable service condition reported their demographic information and ended their study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Marketing, Caulfield Campus, Monash University, 26 Sir John Monash Drive, Caulfield East, Victoria, 3145, Australia

    Jimmy Wong

  2. Office of the Pro Vice Chancellor, Faculty of Business and Law, Deakin University, 221 Burwood Highway, Burwood, 3125, Victoria, Australia

    Joshua D. Newton

  3. Department of Marketing, Peninsula Campus, Monash University, McMahons Road, Frankston, Victoria, 3199, Australia

    Fiona J. Newton

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  1. Jimmy Wong
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  2. Joshua D. Newton
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  3. Fiona J. Newton
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Correspondence to Joshua D. Newton.

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Wong, J., Newton, J.D. & Newton, F.J. Powerlessness following service failure and its implications for service recovery. Mark Lett 27, 63–75 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11002-014-9303-4

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