Monetary incentives, motivational orientation and affective commitment in contact centers. A multilevel mediation model

Abstract

High quality contact and customer relationships are key services for all types of firms. To achieve this high quality performance standard, companies need highly motivated and committed em- ployees, and human resources managers are responsible for designing and implementing prac- tices capable of satisfying both economic exchanges and social exchanges in employee-organi- zation relationships. The aim of this study is to analyze the relationships between monetary incentive expectation and affective commitment, in addition to the mediating role of motivation orientation in this relationship, in contact center employees. In particular, based on the social exchange theory (Blau, 1964), the social exchange model of Cropanzano and Mitchell (2005), and the self-determination theory (Deci, Olafsen, & Ryan, 2017), our study adopts a multilevel perspective to examine these relationships in a sample of 2367 contact center employees from 297 teams (3 or more members). The results showed that the level of performance-contingent rewards (team-level) guides the team’s autonomous motivation (team-level), which, in turn, fosters employees’ affective commitment (individual-level). The results have practical implica- tions for human resource managers and for interventions aimed to promote contact center em- ployees’ affective commitment, taking performance-contingent rewards into account.