# Understanding frontline employees’ fuzzy request behavior based on image theory

## TL;DR

This study explores why frontline employees make vague requests during service by using image theory to understand the underlying factors influencing such behavior.

## Contribution

It is the first study to use image theory to explain the emergence of frontline employees' fuzzy request behavior.

## Key findings

- Normative legitimacy, role confidence, expected responsiveness, and expected technical quality positively impact fuzzy request behavior.
- Service rule commitment negatively affects fuzzy request behavior.
- Trajectory image mediates the relationship between value image and request behavior.

## Abstract

While frontline employees (FLEs) often make fuzzy requests (made during the service process and are outside of service policy or FLEs’ job descriptions or are not addressed by service providers, but are not unacceptable), there is no research explaining how such requests emerge. This research pioneers in using image theory to elucidate the underlying dynamics that propel the mechanism behind FLEs’ fuzzy request behavior.

The hypotheses were examined by using data from 324 FLEs who asked customers to share tables in restaurants.

The results show that normative legitimacy, role confidence, expected responsiveness, and expected technical quality have significantly positive impacts on request behavior, whereas service rule commitment has a significantly negative impact. Meanwhile, trajectory image (represented by expected responsiveness and expected technical quality) mediates the relationship between value image (represented by normative legitimacy and role confidence) and request behavior. Additionally, habit moderates the relationship between expected responsiveness and request behavior while service rule commitment moderates the relationship between expected technical quality and request behavior.

This study is the first to demonstrate the mechanism of FLEs’ fuzzy requests’ emergence and provides vital managerial implications to manage request behavior.