The effects of relationship bonds on bank employees’ psychological responses and boundary-spanning behaviors An empirical examination of the JD–R model Myoung-Soung Lee Department of Food Franchise Business, Kyungnam University, Changwon, South Korea, and Sang-Lin Han School of Business, Hanyang University, Seoul, South Korea Abstract Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of relationship bonds on the psychological response and behavior of bank employees based on the job demands–resources theory. Specifically, it examines the effects of relationship bonds in terms of person–job (P–J) fit, emotional exhaustion, job satisfaction and boundary-spanning behaviors, all of which comprise the behavioral dimensions of bank employees. In addition, the study examines how the resiliency of bank employees influences their emotional exhaustion and determines whether a moderating effect related to emotional exhaustion exists. Design/methodology/approach – To achieve this aim, data were collected from 365 customer-facing banking employees in South Korea. Reliability, validity and the hypotheses were verified through structural equation modeling; any moderating effects were identified using the bootstrap method and the process model. Findings – Study results showed that financial, structural, internal social and external social bonds – the bonds pertaining to relationship elements – have positive effects on P–J fit. P–J fit influenced emotional exhaustion negatively and job satisfaction positively. Furthermore, emotional exhaustion negatively influenced job satisfaction. Job satisfaction had positive effects on service delivery, external representation and internal influence, the elements comprising boundary-spanning behavior. Finally, resiliency was shown to lower emotional exhaustion but revealed no moderating effect. Originality/value – First, this study examined relationship bonds, which reference relationship marketing when introducing organizational resources that influence the psychological and behavioral responses of bank employees. Second, this study introduced resiliency as a personal resource and clarified the way it applies to an individual’s psychological response. Third, existing literature has been limited to conducting fragmented research of the psychological factors that intervene in predisposing factors and job outcomes. This study makes a unique contribution by establishing a psychological response process. Keywords P–J fit, Job satisfaction, Emotional exhaustion, JD–R model, Boundary-spanning behaviour, Relationship bonds Paper type Research paper 1. Introduction Over the last decade, one major interest in the research field of the banking and financial industry has been an examination of employee perceptions and attitudes. Bank employees serve as boundary spanners, in that they connect the organization and its customers (Sengupta et al., 2015), and their responses to customers determine the quality of the service that is perceived by customers (Yoo and Jung, 2019). Thus, all bank organizations should understand the perceptions and attitudes of employees from the level of accomplishing management goals and provide support to ensure that employees can play this role effectively (Kaur, 2015). For this reason, an investigation into employees’ perceptions from the perspective of the general bank environment is necessary (Yoo and Jung, 2019). International Journal of Bank Marketing Vol. 38 No. 3, 2020 pp. 578-599 © Emerald Publishing Limited 0265-2323 DOI 10.1108/IJBM-12-2018-0358 Received 31 December 2018 Revised 23 July 2019 20 September 2019 Accepted 29 September 2019 The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at: www.emeraldinsight.com/0265-2323.htm 578 IJBM 38,3