Team and organizational attitudes as a lens and mirror impacting customer satisfaction: an empirical test in self-managed teams

Abstract

This study examined an organization that had restructured to self-managed teams in order to improve their overall customer satisfaction. Past research has described employees as the lens through which customers perceive their service providers and that customers often mirror the attitudes of these employees. In this research, we examined whether there were attitudinal differences, at both the team and organizational levels, between members of teams whose customers were more or less satisfied with the level of service received. Our results indicated that members of teams with satisfied customers were more satisfied with their teams and organizations, were committed to their teams, and perceived their teams to be procedurally just as compared to members of teams with less satisfied customers. Additionally, individuals who judged their organizational rewards to be fair were also on teams who had satisfied customers. Implications of these findings for customer satisfaction in team-based organizations are discussed.