Journal of Services Marketing

The effects of relationship bonds on emotional exhaustion and turnover intentions in frontline employees
Edward Shih-Tse Wang
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Edward Shih-Tse Wang , (2014),"The effects of relationship bonds on emotional exhaustion and turnover intentions in frontline
employees", Journal of Services Marketing, Vol. 28 Iss 4 pp. 319 - 330
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 The effects of relationship bonds on
emotional exhaustion and turnover intentions
in frontline employees
Edward Shih-Tse Wang
Graduate Institute of Bio-Industry Management, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung, Taiwan

Abstract
Purpose – This paper aims to extend the relationship marketing concept to examine which relationship bonds (social, structural and financial bonds)
have different effects on employee affective (want to stay), normative (ought to stay) and continuance commitment (have to stay). Preventing
emotional exhaustion in frontline employees and helping them stay on the job is an important topic for emotional labor research. The research also
investigates which types of commitment influence emotional exhaustion and turnover intentions significantly.
Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected through a self-reported questionnaire administered to 401 restaurant service industry
frontline workers.
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Findings – The findings support the hypothesis that whereas social and financial bonds influence affective commitment, structural and financial
bonds influence continuance commitment. Furthermore, affective commitment is a crucial factor for preventing emotional exhaustion and turnover
intentions, whereas continuance commitment positively affects emotional exhaustion.
Originality/value – This research offers academic and managerial insights into the various types of relationship bonds and controls these bonds
for facilitating employee organizational commitment, which consequently affects emotional exhaustion and turnover intention.
Keywords Organizational commitment, Turnover intention, Emotional exhaustion, Relationship bonds
Paper type Research paper

An executive summary for managers and executive
readers can be found at the end of this issue.
1. Introduction
Emotional labor is a person’s effort to manage his/her feelings to
create a publicly observable facial and bodily display
(Hochschild, 1983) and to present organizationally desired
emotions during service transactions (Meier et al., 2006). Thus,
emotional labor jobs require the workers, such as frontline
employees, to have face-to-face contact with the consumer and
require the worker to control his/her personal emotions and
display appropriate job-related emotions (e.g. smiling) to induce
positive customer responses (Smith et al., 2009). Based on
service management literature, emotional labor is particularly
relevant to service encounters because frontline service personnel
are situated at the organization– customer interface, have
face-to-face interaction and represent the organization to
customers (Ashforth and Humphrey, 1993).
In the past decade, an increasing number of research studies
on service employees focused on the effects of emotional labor
on consumer reactions (Grayson, 1998; Hennig-Thurau et al.,
2006; Groth et al., 2009) or job outcomes of employees
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/0887-6045.htm
(Ashforth and Humphrey, 1993; Morris and Feldman, 1996;
Van Dijk and Brown, 2006). For instance, scholars
acknowledge that the positive emotion displayed by frontline
employees has a significant positive influence on a consumer’s
evaluation of service quality (Pugh, 2001), repatronage
intentions (Wang, 2009) and positive word-of-mouth
advertising (Tsai, 2001). Although emotional labor can result
in positive outcomes, it is also associated with negative
outcomes such as employee stress, increased sick leave and a
higher turnover (Hatzinikolakis and Crossman, 2010).
When contact personnel express positive emotion to match an
organization’s emotional display rules, but in contrast to their
personal feelings, higher emotional exhaustion and turnover
intentions were found among emotional laborers (Seery and
Corrigall, 2009; Chau et al., 2009). Thus, affective delivery
demands can be laborious and are related to general emotional
exhaustion (Trougakos et al., 2008). Working in emotional labor
that demands more emotional resources is associated with higher
levels of emotional exhaustion (Smith et al., 2009). Although
there is now an increasing amount of research that acknowledges
this phenomenon (Van Dijk and Brown, 2006; Seery and
Corrigall, 2009), few have considered how to control and reduce
such negative outcomes. If they neglect the stress of frontline
employees, managers could be placing the organization at risk for
greater physical and/or mental exhaustion of employees resulting
in greater turnover and diminished organizational commitment
(Huang and Dai, 2010).

Journal of Services Marketing

28/4 (2014) 319 –330 Received 8 November 2012
© Emerald Group Publishing Limited [ISSN 0887-6045] Revised 3 May 2013
[DOI 10.1108/JSM-11-2012-0217] Accepted 2 June 2013

319
 Effects of relationship bonds
Edward Shih-Tse Wang
From an organizational behavior perspective, employees have
been considered internal customers (Vasconcelos, 2008; Kaur
et al., 2010). Internal relationship marketing focuses on achieving
effective internal relational exchanges between the organization
and its employee groups (George, 1990). Because of the belief
that organizations with committed employees achieve superior
performance, organizational managers and researchers focus on
employees’ relationship commitment toward the organization
(Fu et al., 2009). However, services businesses have not paid
close attention to creating organization– employee relationships
(Herington et al., 2006). Although relationship bonds are critical
for establishing committed customers (Dash et al., 2009) and
scholars have investigated the different effects of various
relationship bonds on satisfaction, commitment and loyalty
(Hennig-Thurau et al., 2002), the question of causality between
different relationship bonds and types of employee relationship
commitments remains unclear. Because emotional labor is
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positively associated with emotional exhaustion, which
consequently causes high job turnover (Moon et al., 2013), by
developing an empirical model from a relationship marketing
perspective, this study examines the impact of relationship bonds
on relationship commitment, emotional exhaustion and turnover
intention. Specifically, this study explores the relationship among
different types of relationship bonds (financial, social and
structural bonds), three types of organizational commitment
(affective, normative and continuance commitment), emotional
exhaustion and turnover intentions. This study explores whether
different types of relationship bonds might have different effects
on emotional exhaustion and turnover intentions through
organizational commitment. Understanding the impact of
various relationship bonds on three facets of relationship
commitment, on emotional exhaustion and on turnover
intentions can help a firm develop an effective internal
relationship marketing strategy to increase organizational
commitment and reduce emotional labor worker emotional
exhaustion and turnover intentions.
2. Literature review and hypotheses
Hunt et al. (2006) indicated that Berry (1983, p. 25) first
defined the “relationship marketing” term in service literature
as attracting, maintaining and (in multi-service organizations)
enhancing customer relationships. Relationship marketing is
related to all marketing activities directed toward establishing,
developing and maintaining successful relational exchanges
(Morgan and Hunt, 1994). Relationship marketing has been
heralded as an effective strategy to attract, maintain and
enhance customer relationships (Ward and Dagger, 2007),
and has received increasing attention in both marketing theory
and practice (Huang, 2008). The initial objective of
relationship marketing is to maintain a committed relationship
between a customer and a business (Hsieh et al., 2005). In
addition, the academic relationship marketing literature also
highlights internal relationships (i.e. organization– employee)
as having an important impact on business– consumer
relationships (Herington et al., 2006; Liang and Chen, 2009).
Thus, although the original applications of relationship
marketing theory focused on the context of
business– consumer relationships (Hsieh et al., 2005), the
theory has been extended to help explain behavior in settings
of business– business (Kim and Michell, 1999;
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Journal of Services Marketing
Volume 28 · Number 4 · 2014 · 319 –330
Athanassopoulou, 2006) and organization– employee
relationships (Bartels et al., 2006).
A review of the relationship and services literature indicates
that consumers who have developed a relationship with a
service provider not only expect to receive satisfactory delivery
of core service performance, but also expect to receive
relationship benefits (Gwinner et al., 1998). Relationship
benefits act as bonds that tie customers to the service provider
by making it unattractive to switch providers (Liljander and
Roos, 2002). Relationship-bonding strategies are therefore
crucial for establishing committed customers (Dash et al.,
2009). Other researchers have also suggested three types of
consumer-relationship benefits, including confidence
(representing psychological benefits), social and
special-treatment benefits (representing customization and
economic benefits) that consumers receive as a consequence
of engaging in long-term relational exchanges with service
providers (Gwinner et al., 1998). Based on the literature of
relationship marketing, bonds are the economic,
psychological, emotional or physical attachments in a
relationship that are built through interaction and that tie
parties together in a relational exchange (Liang and Wang,
2005). Various relationship bonds exist between parties and
are classified under three broad categories: financial, social
and structural bonding (Kandampully and Duddy, 1999;
Harrison-Walker and Neeley, 2004; Liang and Chen, 2009;
White et al., 2010).
A good relational interaction generally engenders
commitment, a primary variable that makes relationship
marketing successful (Liang and Chen, 2009). Furthermore,
researchers have confirmed the positive relationship between
relationship bonds and commitment (Lin et al., 2003).
Further studies concerning three types of organizational
commitment (affective, normative and continuance
commitment) create a distinction (Fu et al., 2009; Landry
et al., 2010; Dwivedula and Bredillet, 2010; Williams et al.,
2012). Affective organizational commitment refers to
employee emotional attachment to the organization.
Normative organizational commitment refers to employee
feelings of obligation to remain with the organization (Simosi
and Xenikou, 2010). Finally, continuance organizational
commitment refers to the perceived cost of leaving an
organization because of accumulated investment (Ansari,
2011) and is based on rational motives and economic
considerations (Marshall, 2010).
2.1 The impact of social bonds on organizational
commitment
Social bonds refer to positive interpersonal relationships and
are an important part of building a business relationship
(Kuenzel and Krolikowska, 2008). Social bonds are personal
ties, the degree of personal friendship and liking shared by
both parties involved, forged during interpersonal interaction
(Liang and Wang, 2005). Kuenzel and Krolikowska’s (2008)
research on an auditor– client relationship found social bonds
to be an antecedent of commitment. Affective commitment is
an affective state of mind an individual has toward a
relationship with another partner (Wetzels et al., 1998).
Affective commitment, or the “want to stay” component,
refers to an employee who is emotionally attached and
 Effects of relationship bonds
Edward Shih-Tse Wang
identifies with the organization (Meyer et al., 1999). A
previous study has indicated the interpersonal interaction
factor as the strongest predictor of the emotional relationships
that people form with a place (Alexandris et al., 2006).
Researchers have further suggested that a person’s social
support can allow them to obtain emotional support, resulting
in an emotional attachment between a person and a place
(Rosenbaum et al., 2007). Affective commitment represents
an emotional attachment to the organization (Landry et al.,
2010), and social bond strategies provide emotional and
psychological benefits to parties (Liang and Chen, 2009). This
leads to the following:
H1. Social bonds have a positive influence on affective
commitment.
Normative commitment refers to employees who are
committed to their organization because they feel they are
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obliged to be (Furtmueller et al., 2011). Social interaction
increases a person’s awareness of the effect of social norms on
behavior (van den Putte et al., 2005). Previous studies have
suggested that everyday social interaction affects peer
perceptions of collective norms (Paluck and Shepherd, 2012).
Therefore, it is reasonable to expect that social interactions in
employees of the organization that are favorable might induce
high levels of normative commitment to the organization.
Thus, employees with strong social bonds might feel that they
ought to remain with the organization. Thus, this study
proposes the following hypothesis:
H2: Social bonds have a positive influence on normative
commitment.
2.2 The effect of structural bonds on organizational
commitment
From the service marketing perspective, Chiu et al. (2007)
argued that structural bonds create value on industry and
product customization to the customer. In this study,
structural bonds are company efforts to stimulate employee
work satisfaction using value-added programs contained in the
organization system. This includes customized job design
policies and procedures, such as a policy that enables
employees to customize their own work time and arrange their
own work schedule for maximum efficiency and comfort. A
recent study has suggested the exchange of organizational
commitment in flexible work arrangements (Brittany and
MacDonnell, 2012). Jacobsen (2000) suggested that
employees who are given the option to arrange their own work
schedule might view the arrangements as an additional
benefit. Flexible schedules also represent an organizational
mechanism that supports employee work–life balance (Virick
et al., 2007). Because employees require work–life balance,
they may feel that flexible working hours are an indication that
the organization “cares” (Giannikis and Mihail, 2008).
Winkelmann-Gleed (2009) further indicated that employees
might express normative commitment to the organization if
they have previously received support. Thus, employees who
believe that flexible work arrangements indicate an
organization that cares about them might develop a feeling of
responsibility and obligation to the organization. This study
thus proposes the following hypothesis:
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Journal of Services Marketing
Volume 28 · Number 4 · 2014 · 319 –330
H3. Structural bonds have a positive influence on normative
commitment.
Structural bonds are an organization enhances employee
relationships by designing the solution to employee problems
into organizational systems. An organization may provide a
customized organizational system with its employee aimed at
retaining relationships. Designing work schedule flexibility
may cause an employee to perceive switching costs as high,
given the anticipated scarce alternatives. These solutions offer
employees value-added benefits that are not readily available
elsewhere (Liang and Chen, 2009). This raises employees’
perceived costs for switching to a competitor. Continuance
commitment is based on employee analysis of the costs
associated with leaving the organization and is the “must stay”
component (Meyer et al., 1999). Continuance commitment
focuses on switching costs that employees associate with
leaving the organization (N’Goala, 2007), when an employee
intends to continue the relationship because other viable
alternatives are scarce (Nusair et al., 2010). Thus, this study
hypothesizes that:
H4. Structural bonds have a positive influence on
continuance commitment.
2.3 The effect of financial bonds on organizational
commitment
Economic ties are associated with economic dependence
(Young and Denize, 1995). This study defines financial bonds
as company effort to stimulate employee financial satisfaction
using financial incentives such as wages or salaries. Monetary
incentives affect behavior in “emotional trigger” aspects
(Read, 2005). Money is the most extrinsic motivation
(Melancon et al., 2011) and employees are likely to be
sensitive to pay inequity (Newman and Sheikh, 2012). A
consumer researcher recommended using a loyalty program to
provide economic incentives for creating consumer affective
commitment (Verhoef, 2003). Previous work has established a
positive link between pay satisfaction and the affective
commitment of employees (Melancon et al., 2011). Newman
and Sheikh (2012) further indicated the significant relation
between pay satisfaction and affective commitment. Thus, this
study proposes the following hypothesis:
H5. Financial bonds have a positive influence on affective
commitment.
Decisions to engage in a particular behavior might depend in
part on others in the work environment. Normative
commitment is marked by feelings of guilt or unease in leaving
an organization and is an obligation-based attachment to the
organization (Melancon et al., 2011). Statistical data also
reveal a significant positive relationship between financial
incentives and normative commitment (Joanna et al., 2011).
This may be because people who are satisfied with the
economic rewards an organization provides might feel guilty if
they leave the organization. Therefore, this study proposes the
following hypothesis:
H6. Financial bonds have a positive influence on normative
commitment.
 Effects of relationship bonds
Edward Shih-Tse Wang
Researchers have also argued that one motivation for
employees to engage in a work role is to obtain economic
benefits (D’Ivoire et al., 2010). Continuance commitment is
the employee’s desire to remain in a relationship with an
organization because the employee accrues certain financial
benefits by working for the organization (SamGnanakkan,
2010). Melancon et al. (2011) further suggested that
economic rewards are likely to lead to continuance
commitment. Researchers have found evidence of a positive
relationship between economic exchange and continuance
commitment (O’Donnell et al., 2012). Thus, employees who
maintain strong continuance commitment continue to work
for an organization because they feel they can receive financial
benefits. This study thus proposes the following hypothesis:
H7. Financial bond strategies have a positive influence on
continuance commitment.
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2.4 The impact of affective commitment on emotional
exhaustion and turnover intentions
Feelings of being emotionally overextended characterize
emotional exhaustion (Grayson, 1998). Emotional exhaustion
is a lack of energy and the depletion of an individual’s
emotional resources (Karl and Peluchette, 2006), and is an
important factor that hinders willingness to expand effort
(Baba et al., 2009). Affective commitment is characterized by
a desire-based emotional attachment of the person to an
organization (Marshall, 2010). Affective commitment
represents an involvement in, identification with (Landry
et al., 2010) and emotional attachment to (Rousseau and
Aubé, 2010) the employing organization. Previous studies
have indicated that a strong emotional attachment to an
organization relates negatively to emotional exhaustion
(Tepper, 2000; Seery and Corrigall, 2009). Employees who
feel more emotionally attached to their firm (i.e. higher
affective commitment) experience less emotional exhaustion
from their work (Herda and Lavelle, 2012). Thus, service
employee’s high level of affective commitment to their
organization implies more perceived emotional attachment
toward the employing organization and a lower feeling of
emotional exhaustion, thereby leading to the following:
H8. Affective commitment has a negative influence on
emotional exhaustion.
A high level of affective commitment is also characterized by
feelings of belonging, loyalty and remaining with the
organization (Rousseau and Aubé, 2010). Research has
indicated that affective commitment negatively relates to
intent to leave (Landry et al., 2010). In addition, affective
commitment was found to be an antecedent variable of
employee turnover intentions (Stinglhamber and
Vandenbergh, 2003; Vandenberghe and Tremblay, 2008;
Rafferty and Restubog, 2010), and an important predictor of
turnover intentions (Wasti, 2003). Thus,
H9. Affective commitment has a negative influence on
turnover intentions.
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Journal of Services Marketing
Volume 28 · Number 4 · 2014 · 319 –330
2.5 The impact of normative commitment on
emotional exhaustion and turnover intentions
Emotional exhaustion indicates a person’s stress reaction to
social demands at the workplace (Paulsen et al., 2005).
Normative commitment is an employee’s response to
organizations that are perceived to provide support as part of
the psychological contract with employees (Ansari, 2011).
Prior study has supported a significant negative relationship
between normative commitment and emotional exhaustion
(Tepper, 2000). Researchers have further suggested that
perceived organizational support and psychological contract
reduce employee stress (Aselage and Eisenberger, 2003). This
leads to the following hypothesis:
H10. Normative commitment has a negative influence on
emotional exhaustion.
People who experience belonging to an organization perceive
that they would make a heavy personal sacrifice if they left the
organization (García-Cabrera and García-Soto, 2012).
Employees who experience a greater sense of moral obligation
toward a company are less likely to entertain thoughts about
leaving the company, compared with employees who feel little
obligation toward a company (Landry et al., 2010). A previous
study further indicated that normative commitment leads to
socially valuable behavior and sacrificial behavior; thus, people
who are normatively committed forego attractive alternatives
for staying with an organization (Melancon et al., 2011).
Bloemer and Odekerken-Schröder (2006) concluded that
employees who are normatively committed likely intend to
stay with their current organization. Thus, this study proposes
the following hypothesis:
H11. Normative commitment has a negative influence on
turnover intention.
2.6 Effect of continuance commitment on emotional
exhaustion and turnover intention
Continuance commitment is an attachment derived from a
recognition of switching costs, sacrifice, lack of choice and
dependence (Fullerton, 2005). Previous studies have
suggested that having no alternative options may increase the
risk of stress-related disorders and have confirmed that the
lack of alternatives is positively related to emotional
exhaustion (Landry et al., 2010). For instance, considering
career opportunities within the organization or labor market as
limited or absent, but still needing a current job, may evoke
emotional exhaustion. Because continuance commitment is
based on perceived switching costs and alternatives, it seems
reasonable to expect that employees who are not willing but
have to remain in a work role because of a belief that they
could not find a better alternative, increases emotional
exhaustion. The following hypothesis is therefore proposed:
H12. Continuance commitment has a positive influence on
emotional exhaustion.
2.7 The impact of emotional exhaustion on turnover
intentions
According to Baba et al. (2009), individuals who experience
high emotional exhaustion are more likely to see their
 Effects of relationship bonds Journal of Services Marketing
Edward Shih-Tse Wang Volume 28 · Number 4 · 2014 · 319 –330

individual performance weaken and decrease their resources Table I Profile of respondents (N ⫽ 401)
to respond to job demands, thereby provoking higher levels of Characteristics of
emotional exhaustion and consequently affecting respondents Frequency Per cent
performance. Employees experiencing emotional exhaustion
may evoke a turnover reaction to cope with the status (Yavas Gender
et al., 2008; Sawyerr et al., 2009). Thus, employees Male 142 35.4
experiencing high levels of emotional exhaustion should be Female 259 64.6
more likely to leave their organizations. Modes of job
Full-time 158 39.4
H13. Emotional exhaustion has a positive influence on Part-time 243 60.6
turnover intentions. Age (years)
< 20 108 26.9
3. Research methodology 20-24 168 41.9
25-29 61 15.2
3.1 Sample and data collection
Using non-probability convenience sampling, this study was > 29 64 16.0
conducted in 36 restaurant service organizations located in a Length of service in the company (years)
medium-sized metropolitan area in Central Taiwan. The < 0.5 66 16.5
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restaurant industry was chosen because of its notable contact 0.5-0.9 95 23.7
personnel emotional displays, compared to other service 1.0-1.4 90 22.4
industries such as banking and car washing. Data were 1.5-2.4 50 12.5
collected in 2011 from frontline employees interacting directly 2.5-3.4 43 10.7
with customers on a regular basis. The survey used > 3.4 57 14.2
self-completed questionnaires distributed at various service Frontline employee at workplace
locations. In total, 704 questionnaires were distributed to the <5 49 12.2
fields. All participants received the questionnaire from a 5-9 99 24.7
supervisor of a research team and returned the completed 10-19 95 23.7
questionnaire to the research team. Respondents were asked 20-29 46 11.5
to assess the status of the relationship bonds of the employing 30-39 73 18.2
organization, and their own attitude toward the organization > 39 39 9.7
(commitment and turnover intention). They also completed a
self-evaluation of their own level of emotional exhaustion. To
control for social desirability bias, the research team also part-time employees (61 per cent), whereas 158 (39 per cent)
informed respondents that their answers were anonymous and of the respondents were full-time employees. Most
the research team did not collect respondents’ name or other respondents were between the ages of 20 and 24 (42 per cent)
personal information. Participants received a two-page survey years, followed by ⬍ 20 years (27 per cent). Nearly 40 per cent
with multi-item scales of variables. Respondents’ of respondents had worked in the company less than one year.
demographic information (gender, age and work experience) Table II shows the mean, standard deviation and
was also collected. A total of 401 questionnaires were returned correlation among the seven constructs. Scale reliability and
completed, producing a response rate of 57 per cent. validity were analyzed through the use of confirmatory factor
analysis using LISREL statistical software. Reliability and
3.2 Measurement validity of the scale items were assessed using composite
Items in the survey questionnaire were based on prior studies reliability (CR) and average variance extracted (AVE), as
and were modified to fit the research context. A pilot test of 12 suggested in the literature (Sabiote and Román, 2009; Coelho
conveniently selected subjects was conducted to ensure the et al., 2011; Yang and Guy, 2011). The CR should be greater
survey questionnaire was clear to interviewees. Relationship than 0.70 and AVE should exceed 0.50 (Hair et al., 1998; Lee
bonds (including financial, social and structural bonds) used a and Shim, 2006). Construct reliability estimates ranged from
ten-item scale adapted from Peltier et al.’s (2006) study, and 0.74 to 0.92 and AVE estimates ranged from 0.51 to 0.75,
nine-item scales for the three organizational commitment which is satisfactory (Table III). These results indicate that
dimensions (affective, normative and continuance measurement items have high reliability. AVE was also used to
commitment) were adapted from Fu et al. (2009). The evaluate discriminant validity of the constructs. To satisfy the
four-item scale for emotional exhaustion was modified from discriminant validity requirements, the square root of AVE by
Wilk and Moynihan’s (2005) study. Turnover intention was the measure of each construct should exceed the correlation of
measured using a five-item scale developed by Jaramillo et al. that construct’s measure with all measures of other constructs
(2009). All items in the questionnaire employed a 7-point (Garcia and Kandemir, 2006). Table II shows that these
Likert scale and were anchored by a strong agree/disagree values suggest all constructs possess strong discriminant
combination. validity.

3.3 Data analysis 3.4 Results of hypotheses tests

The respondents consisted of women (65 per cent) and men The model was tested using LISREL 8.70. The framework
(35 per cent) (Table I). Most respondents in this study were depicted in Figure 1 involves the hypotheses tested using

323
 Effects of relationship bonds Journal of Services Marketing
Edward Shih-Tse Wang Volume 28 · Number 4 · 2014 · 319 –330

Table II Correlation between research constructs

Correlation
Research constructs Mean SD SocB StrB FB AC NC CC EE TI
Social bonds (SocB) 5.55 1.05 0.82
Structural bond (StrB) 4.14 1.52 0.32 0.80
Financial bonds (FB) 4.60 1.29 0.51 0.50 0.86
Affective commitment (AC) 5.03 1.15 0.61 0.39 0.64 0.87
Normative commitment (NC) 4.38 1.30 0.32 0.34 0.50 0.49 0.71
Continuance commitment (CC) 3.75 1.45 0.20 0.33 0.35 0.27 0.53 0.77
Emotional exhaustion (EE) 3.40 1.40 ⫺0.36 ⫺0.11 ⫺0.31 ⫺0.41 ⫺0.26 ⫺0.05 0.85
Turnover intentions (TI) 3.47 1.43 ⫺0.38 ⫺0.23 ⫺0.41 ⫺0.47 ⫺0.35 ⫺0.13 0.73 0.83
Notes: The square root of average variance extracted (AVE) for each construct (on the diagonal); Scores: 1–strongly disagree; 4 –neutral; 7–strongly
agree

Table III Summary of the scales of the research constructs

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Research constructs Measurement items C.R. values AVE values

Social bonds (SocB)
Structural bond (StrB)
Financial bonds (FB)
Affective commitment (AC)
Normative commitment (NC)
Continuance commitment (CC)
Emotional exhaustion (EE)
Turnover intentions (TI)
I communicate well with my colleagues 0.89 0.68
I maintain good relations with my colleagues
I maintain good relations with my supervisor
I communicate well with my supervisor
I am satisfied with my ability to determine how much overtime I work 0.84 0.64
I am satisfied with the freedom to decide the number of hours I work each shift
I am satisfied with the work schedule flexibility
I am satisfied with my total income earned 0.90 0.74
I am satisfied with the hourly wage that I receive
I am satisfied with the amount of recognition that I receive
I feel like “part of the family” at Company XYZ 0.92 0.75
I feel “emotionally attached” to Company XYZ
Company XYZ has a great deal of personal meaning for me
I feel a strong sense of belonging to Company XYZ
Jumping from organization to organization does seem at all unethical to me 0.76 0.51
I believe that loyalty is important and therefore feel a sense of moral obligation
to remain
If I got another offer for a better job elsewhere, I would not feel it was right to
leave Company XYZ
I feel that I have too few options to consider leaving Company XYZ
One of the few serious consequences of leaving Company XYZ would be the 74 0.59
scarcity of available alternatives
I feel burned out from my work 0.91 0.73
I feel fatigued when I get up in the morning and have to face another day on
the job
I feel frustrated with my job
I feel tired at work
I do not think I will spend my entire career with this organization 0.92 0.69
I intend to leave this organization within a short period of time
I have decided to quit this organization
I am looking at other jobs now
If I do not get promoted soon, I will look for a job elsewhere

structural equation modeling. Results for the conceptual
model indicated that the model fits the data well, the
chi-square (1356.32) to degrees-of-freedom ratio (334) at
4.06 falls in the range between 1.0 and 5.0 (Epitropaki and
Martin, 2005), and the root mean square error of
approximation value (0.087) is within 0.1 (Tarafdar et al.,
2010), indicating an adequate model fit to the data. Normed
fit index at 0.94, comparative fit index at 0.95, incremental fit
index at 0.95, relative fit index at 0.93 and goodness-of-fit
index at 0.81 are all within the accepted thresholds, as
suggested in the literature (Randall et al., 2009).
Figure 1 shows that all paths in the research model are
supported. H1-H7 predict the effect of bond type on
commitment type. H1 and H2 predict that social bonds have

324
 Effects of relationship bonds
Edward Shih-Tse Wang
Figure 1 Conceptual framework and research results
H1(+)
ξ1 γ11 = + 0.43***
Social bonds η1
Affective
commitment
H2(+)
γ21 = + 0.13* R2 = 0.58
β51 = − 0.14**
H3(+) η2
Normative
ξ2 γ22 = + 0.14*
commitment
Structural bonds R2 = 0.40
H4(+)
γ32 = + 0.25***
H5(+) η3
γ13 = + 0.44*** Continuance
H6(+) commitment
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γ23 = + 0.47*** R2 = 0.24
ξ3
Financial bonds H7(+)
γ33 = + 0.31***
Notes: p < 0.05 = *; p < 0.01 = **; p < 0.001 = ***
a positive influence on affective commitment and normative
commitment, respectively. The results support these
predictions (H1: ␥ ⫽ 0.43, p ⬍ 0.001; H2: ␥ ⫽ 0.13, p ⬍
0.05), indicating that social bonds are positively related to
affective and normative commitment. H3 and H4 predict that
structural bonds have a positive influence on normative
commitment and continuance commitment, respectively. The
results indicate a significant relationship between structural
bonds and normative commitment (␥ ⫽ 0.14, p ⬍ 0.05).
Structural bonds are also related to continuance commitment
(␥ ⫽ 0.25, p ⬍ 0.001). Hence, H3 and H4 are supported.
H5-H7 predict that financial bonds are positively related to
affective (H5), normative (H6) and continuance (H7)
commitment. These results support the hypotheses (H5: ␥ ⫽
0.44, p ⬍ 0.001; H6: ␥ ⫽ 0.47, p ⬍ 0.001; H7: ␥ ⫽ 0.31, p ⬍
0.001). H8-H12 predict the effect of commitment type on
emotional exhaustion and turnover intentions. H8 and H9
predict that affective commitment has a negative influence on
emotional exhaustion (H8) and turnover intentions (H9). The
results show support for the negative influence of affective
commitment on emotional exhaustion (H8: ␤ ⫽ ⫺0.39, p ⬍
0.001) and turnover intentions (H9: ␤ ⫽ ⫺0.14, p ⬍ 0.005).
H10 and H11 are also supported (H10: ␤ ⫽ ⫺0.20, p ⬍ 0.005;
H11: ␤ ⫽ ⫺0.10, p ⬍ 0.05) because normative commitment is
related to emotional exhaustion (H10) and turnover intentions
(H11). H12 predicts that continuance commitment has a
positive influence on emotional exhaustion (H12) and the
results support the hypothesis (␤ ⫽ 0.018, p ⬍ 0.005). Finally,
the results also show a significant effect of emotional
exhaustion on turnover intentions (␤ ⫽ 0.69, p ⬍ 0.001),
indicating that emotional exhaustion is positively related to
turnover intentions, supporting H13. The explained variances
by predicting constructs were 58 per cent (affective
commitment), 40 per cent (normative commitment), 24 per
cent (continuance commitment), 23 per cent (emotional
exhaustion) and 65 per cent (turnover intention).
325
Journal of Services Marketing
Volume 28 · Number 4 · 2014 · 319 –330
H8 (−)
β41 = − 0.39***
η4
Emotional
H9 (−) exhaustion
R2 = 0.23
H10 (−) H13(+)
β42 = − 0.20** β54 = + 0.69***
H11 (−) ηH5 12(+)
β52 = − 0.20* Turnover
intentions
H12 (+) R2 = 0.65
β 43 = + 0.18***
3.5 Alternative model testing
After confirming the hypothesized model, it was compared
with an alternative model. In this study, the hypothesized
model is a complete mediation model and hypothesizes that
three types of relationship bond (financial, social and
structural bonds) indirectly influence emotional exhaustion
and turnover intention through affective, normative and
continuance commitment. This study tested an alternative
model to the proposed model: partial mediation, in which the
direct and indirect effects (through affective, normative and
continuance commitment) of financial, social and structural
bonds on emotional exhaustion and turnover intention are
posited. To test the partial mediation model, the direct
impacts of the three types of relationship bond on emotional
exhaustion and turnover intention were estimated by linking
six direct causal paths from the three types of relationship
bond on emotional exhaustion and turnover intention. The
results show that five of the six added paths in the alternative
model are non-significant. Only the social bonds are
negatively related to emotional exhaustion (␥ ⫽⫺0.11, p ⬍
0.05). A previous study has suggested that the consistent
Akaike information criterion (CAIC) is appropriate for model
comparison and a smaller value of the criteria indicates a
better fit of the model (Hennig-Thurau et al., 2002). In the
case of the hypothesized model, the CAIC is 1,859.88 and the
value for the alternative model is 1,878.55. In comparing the
alternative model with the hypothesized model, significant
differences emerged (⌬␹ 2 ⫽ 23.3, ⌬df ⫽ 6, p ⬍ 0.001). Based
on the criteria of CAIC indices and chi-square difference, the
proposed mediation model significantly fits better than the
partial mediation model.
4. Discussion
Because the frontline employee is critical to the success of
numerous service industries, and simultaneously faces the
 Effects of relationship bonds
Edward Shih-Tse Wang
continuing problem of employee emotional exhaustion and
high turnover rates (Lv et al., 2012), understanding how to
prevent emotional exhaustion and retain employees has
become a crucial topic in service industries. Accordingly, this
paper is the first study to clarify whether the three types of
relationship bonds (social, structural and financial bonds)
influence employee responses to affective, normative and
continuance commitments. The effects of types of
commitments on employee emotional exhaustion and
turnover intentions are also examined. Analysis of the results
reveals that emotional exhaustion and turnover intentions are
directly affected by organizational commitments (e.g.
affective, normative and continuance commitments) and
preceded by social, structural and financial bonds. The
findings show that financial bonding affects three types of
commitments. Whereas social bonds positively influence
affective and normative commitment, structural bonds
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positively affect normative and continuance commitment. The
results further show that affective commitment has a negative
influence on employee emotional exhaustion and turnover
intention. Normative commitment also has a negative effect
on emotional exhaustion and turnover intention. Continuance
commitment, however, has a positive effect on emotional
exhaustion. The findings also show that emotional exhaustion
is a vital indicator of turnover intention. In sum, these findings
show affective commitment as a critical factor in preventing
emotional exhaustion.
4.1 Theoretical and practical implications
This research focuses on various relationship bonds that might
have different effects on three types of organizational
commitments, which consequently have effects on emotional
exhaustion and turnover intention. The results are in line with
previous studies, which have argued that affective
commitment influences employee turnover intention
(Stinglhamber and Vandenbergh, 2003; Vandenberghe and
Tremblay, 2008; Rafferty and Restubog, 2010). The results
are also consistent with the suggestions of Melancon et al.
(2011), that employee normative commitment affects
turnover intention. Because of a lack of clarity on the
relationship between different relationship bonds and types of
employee relationship commitment, this study examines the
effects of social, structural and financial bonds on the three
forms of commitment. The author further explores the effect
of the three types of commitment on emotional exhaustion
and turnover intention. This finding contributes to the
relationship marketing field by showing how various types of
relationship bond influence commitment types, and how
various types of relationship commitment influence emotional
exhaustion and withdrawal intentions. These findings offer
insight into factors contributing to the emotional labor
literature from the relationship marketing perspective.
These findings can help service organizations prevent
employee emotional exhaustion and lower turnover intention
by using relationship bond strategies. An understanding of
how relationship bonds influence the three facets of
commitments could enable service operators to more clearly
understand how to enhance employee commitment.
Furthermore, service organizations must focus on making
relationship bonds efficient. Relationship bonds should not be
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Volume 28 · Number 4 · 2014 · 319 –330
applied indiscriminately, but should focus on effectively
preventing emotional exhaustion and the departure of
emotional labor workers. In particular, understanding the
different effects of relationship bonds on employee response
could aid in developing a more effective relationship
marketing strategy. The findings indicate that enhancing
affective commitment leads to lower emotional exhaustion,
which is an important antecedent of turnover intention.
Therefore, inducing employees to feel like a part of the
organization, be emotionally attached and have a sense of
belonging to an organization is all helpful for employees to
prevent emotional exhaustion and reduce turnover intention.
The finding that social and financial bonds are critical
factors influencing affective commitment suggests that service
providers should focus on maintaining interpersonal
relationships and high-quality communication from employee
to employee and from supervisor to employee to develop a
sense of affective attachment in employees. A service firm
should also offer a satisfactory financial incentive for frontline
employees to create positive associations with the workplace.
In sum, while different relationship bonds can affect or vary
perceptions of commitment, and different types of
commitment can affect emotional exhaustion and turnover
intentions, different bonding strategies should be used.
Service managers can apply this study’s findings in adopting
appropriate relationship bonds to increase the organizational
commitment of emotional labor workers and, in turn, lessen
the likelihood of emotional exhaustion and turnover
intentions.
4.2 Conclusion, limitations and further research
Because emotional labor significantly influences employee
emotional exhaustion and intentions to quit, service marketers
must know how to retard these organizational negative
outcomes. Service managers understanding the specific
drivers of commitment, emotional exhaustion and turnover
intentions based on various relationship bonds perceptions
held by employees is particularly useful for allocating
resources to ease both emotional exhaustion and intention to
quit. This study provides a clear understanding of the
influence of relationship bonds, and the findings can help
service marketers gain organization commitment from
frontline employees and move on to prevent frontline
employee emotional exhaustion and turnover intentions. The
finding assists service organizations in creating effective
employee retention policies and practices to prevent
employees from leaving their jobs.
Despite these contributions, this study has limitations, and
further research should address the following issues. First,
although the context of the restaurant service setting was
relevant to emotional labor and allowed the research to control
for industry effect, it potentially limits generalizability of the
results to other service sectors. To provide evidence of
generalizability, future research must replicate these findings
in other service industry settings. A second limitation of this
study is that it was conducted in Taiwan only. In international
service settings, culture affects how people understand
emotions and emotional events (Salman and Uygur, 2010).
Hofstede (1994) indicated that whereas individualism prevails
in Western countries, Eastern countries are more collective.
 Effects of relationship bonds
Edward Shih-Tse Wang
Researchers have further suggested that Taiwanese society is
social relationship-oriented because interpersonal relationships
play a critical role in the development and maintenance of
successful relationships (Chen and Gatfield, 2011). Therefore, it
is possible that social factors have a stronger effect among
Taiwanese participants than would be found in Western
countries. Future studies, therefore, must focus on employees
belonging to different cultures to determine the generalizability of
the results reported here. Third, the data used were
cross-sectional and thus clearly limited the degree to which the
researcher can make causal inferences. Replications and
extensions of the current study findings are therefore needed,
using experimental and longitudinal designs. The increasing
importance of the service industry and the increase in emotional
labor workers has rendered understanding the effect of emotional
labor from the management perspective crucial.
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Corresponding author
Edward Shih-Tse Wang can be contacted at: shihtse.
wang@msa.hinet.net