title: A field experiment testing frontline opinion leaders as change agents.
abstract: On the basis of previous studies of source credibility and opinion leadership, the authors hypothesized that opinion leaders would serve as effective agents to promote positive attitudes toward a service-quality initiative and increase service-quality effectiveness. The service effectiveness of tellers before and after a service-quality leadership training program was rated by customers, supervisors, and the tellers themselves across 3 matched bank branches. Service effectiveness was rated significantly higher in a branch using opinion leaders as service-quality leaders compared with a branch using randomly selected frontline leaders. Tellers in the latter branch showed greater improvements in service effectiveness than did counterparts in a branch using no frontline service quality leaders. This difference between types of leaders appeared to be mediated by tellers' behavioral beliefs about the service-quality program.
authors: School of Business, University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong. simonlam@business.hku.hk
authors: S S
authors: SS
authors: Lam
authors: J
authors: J
authors: Schaubroeck
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001290:Attitude; D003132:Commerce; D005260:Female; D006723:Hong Kong; D006801:Humans; D007857:Leadership; D008297:Male; D009936:Organizational Innovation; D010559:Personnel Management; D017749:Total Quality Management