Taking Matters into One’s Own Hands? Addressing the Relational Nature of FLE Autonomy

Frontline autonomy, commonly defined as decision-making power distributed to frontline employees (FLEs), has received an increasing amount of attention from scholars and practitioners alike. Despite the many fruitful efforts within this longstanding field of study, the literature is divided on the proper conceptualization of FLE autonomy. One way to integrate extant insights may be to see FLE autonomy as a relational phenomenon. Hence, the present study suggests that research on FLE autonomy should examine the dynamic and relational interplay among management, FLEs, and customers. In this paper, I address this issue by reviewing the extant literature in order to develop a relational model of FLE autonomy.