Can employees be delighted?
Can employees be delighted?
Índice
Purpose: This paper proposes employee delight as a concept not yet considered in the study of remarkable experiences at work, which is different from other concepts that, until now, have been the focus of research. Thus, the study presents two main goals: (I) to adapt the concept of delight to the context of organisational behaviour; and (II) to propose a model on the antecedents and consequences of employee delight, building on the Cognitive Appraisal Theory (CAT) and the Affective Events Theory (AET).
Design/methodology/approach: This is a theoretical paper. The theoretical background is based on the customer delight literature, the cognitive appraisal theory and the affective events theory.
Findings: The paper extends the concept of delight, initially developed in the field of consumer behaviour, to the field of organisational behaviour; and presents a new employee delight conceptual model that includes the affective events and cognitive evaluations that may precede it, as well as its potential impact on employee behaviour.
Research limitations and implications: Despite its contributions, the present research also presents some limitations that can be understood as a new opportunity for further research. The main limitation remains in the fact that this paper is a theoretical proposal that will require empirical validation.
Originality/Value: the conceptualisation of employee delight and the analyses of its antecedents it’s the main value of the present research.
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employee delight, employee satisfaction, cognitive affect theory