When it is relevant, I feel grateful: relevant organizational support drives employee customer orientation

Purpose Providing organizational support to employees is often recommended as an effective strategy for achieving positive employee outcomes, such as enhanced customer orientation and increased job satisfaction. However, support alone does not ensure success. This research investigates whether and how the personal relevance of organizational support affects its effectiveness in fostering customer orientation among front-line service employees. Design/methodology/approach Two studies (a survey and an experiment) were conducted with front-line service employees to test the moderation and moderated mediation hypotheses. Findings Our results indicate that the personal relevance of organizational support moderates its impact on employees’ customer orientation. Specifically, organizational support enhances employee customer orientation only when employees perceive the support as relevant rather than irrelevant to them. Additionally, we demonstrate that employee gratitude mediates this relationship. Practical implications Our findings suggest that managers should assess employee needs and interests before implementing organizational support initiatives. The support provided should be tailored to the individual. Originality/value This study responds to longstanding calls (Eisenberger et al., 2020; Farrell and Oczkowski, 2009) to explore the conditions under which organizational support programs fail to enhance employees’ customer orientation. Our findings offer a more nuanced understanding of the effects of organizational support by highlighting the moderating role of support relevance and illustrating how it influences employee customer orientation in the service sector.