The Costs of Store Sales for Retail Workers
In the context of economic stagnation and recession, retailers face fierce competition and experience enormous pressure to increase their sales. In this study, we focus on the potential costs of higher store sales for retail workers by examining its effect on work engagement. Drawing on work intensi...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2020-11-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Psychology |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.536970/full |
| _version_ | 1818341963555930112 |
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| author | Paul van der Laken Susanne Beijer Sanne Nijs Marc van Veldhoven Jaap Paauwe |
| author_facet | Paul van der Laken Susanne Beijer Sanne Nijs Marc van Veldhoven Jaap Paauwe |
| author_sort | Paul van der Laken |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | In the context of economic stagnation and recession, retailers face fierce competition and experience enormous pressure to increase their sales. In this study, we focus on the potential costs of higher store sales for retail workers by examining its effect on work engagement. Drawing on work intensification literature and the job demand-resources model, we study how job variety and workload, two job characteristics, mediate the relationship between store sales and engagement. Store revenue data and survey data of 525 sales employees, embedded in 110 stores of a large Dutch retail organization were used, to perform mixed models analyses. The analyses demonstrate that store sales is negatively related to job variety and positively related to workload. In turn, job variety positively affects work engagement, while workload negatively affects work engagement. Based on multi-source, multilevel data it is thus shown that there are negative effects of store sales in retail. More insight is created into the job characteristics that explain the negative link between store sales and engagement. As it is empirically demonstrated that there are indeed costs associated with improved performance in retail, it is crucial that organizations ensure investments in maintaining resourceful work environments. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-13T16:07:09Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-8f742031c1794408a7d890eaf458041c |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-1078 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-13T16:07:09Z |
| publishDate | 2020-11-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychology |
| spelling | doaj.art-8f742031c1794408a7d890eaf458041c2022-12-21T23:39:02ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782020-11-011110.3389/fpsyg.2020.536970536970The Costs of Store Sales for Retail WorkersPaul van der Laken0Susanne Beijer1Sanne Nijs2Marc van Veldhoven3Jaap Paauwe4Vereniging Achmea, Zeist, NetherlandsDepartment of Management and Organization, School of Business and Economics, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, NetherlandsDepartment of Human Resource Studies, Tilburg School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Tilburg University, Tilburg, NetherlandsDepartment of Human Resource Studies, Tilburg School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Tilburg University, Tilburg, NetherlandsDepartment of Human Resource Studies, Tilburg School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Tilburg University, Tilburg, NetherlandsIn the context of economic stagnation and recession, retailers face fierce competition and experience enormous pressure to increase their sales. In this study, we focus on the potential costs of higher store sales for retail workers by examining its effect on work engagement. Drawing on work intensification literature and the job demand-resources model, we study how job variety and workload, two job characteristics, mediate the relationship between store sales and engagement. Store revenue data and survey data of 525 sales employees, embedded in 110 stores of a large Dutch retail organization were used, to perform mixed models analyses. The analyses demonstrate that store sales is negatively related to job variety and positively related to workload. In turn, job variety positively affects work engagement, while workload negatively affects work engagement. Based on multi-source, multilevel data it is thus shown that there are negative effects of store sales in retail. More insight is created into the job characteristics that explain the negative link between store sales and engagement. As it is empirically demonstrated that there are indeed costs associated with improved performance in retail, it is crucial that organizations ensure investments in maintaining resourceful work environments.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.536970/fullwork engagementjob characteristicsmultilevel analysisretailstore sales |
| spellingShingle | Paul van der Laken Susanne Beijer Sanne Nijs Marc van Veldhoven Jaap Paauwe The Costs of Store Sales for Retail Workers Frontiers in Psychology work engagement job characteristics multilevel analysis retail store sales |
| title | The Costs of Store Sales for Retail Workers |
| title_full | The Costs of Store Sales for Retail Workers |
| title_fullStr | The Costs of Store Sales for Retail Workers |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Costs of Store Sales for Retail Workers |
| title_short | The Costs of Store Sales for Retail Workers |
| title_sort | costs of store sales for retail workers |
| topic | work engagement job characteristics multilevel analysis retail store sales |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.536970/full |
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