Fleadapt scale: A new tool to measure frontline employee adaptability in power sector

Abstract

An adaptable Frontline employee (FLE) would be an asset for the organization, customer and to other constituents, external to the organization. Previous research by the same authors conceptualizes frontline employee adaptability in the power sector, using grounded theory as a multidimensional construct (Sony and Nandakumar, 2014). This research furthers by developing a new scale to measure the FLE adaptability. The research is conducted in various phases to build up a new 41 item self reported scale to measure adaptability of frontline employees using structural equation modelling on data obtained from a FLE working in Power sector in India. The finding of the paper is valid FLEADAPT scale which can be used for measuring adaptability of frontline employees. Although this study has provided relevant and interesting insights into the understanding of FLE Adaptability, it is important to recognize its limitations. First, data in this study were obtained from firms in Western India. Although it can be said that the two samples represent a cross-section of a large number of businesses, it would be useful to obtain a broader and wider sampling frame from other countries. Since respondents' perceptions, attitudes, and behaviour are influenced by their cultures, it would be useful to test whether the existing FLE Adaptability scale can be generalized to situations in other countries. Frontline employee adaptability is identified as a key process in Job performance, and hence the scale will become an important managerial assessment tool. Despite the increasing research attention paid to the concept of frontline employees, to date, there has been no valid and comprehensive operational measure of FLE adaptability. To our best knowledge, this is the first study to provide a comprehensive, psychometrically sound, and operationally valid measure of a frontline employee's adaptability.