Journal of Quality Management最新文献

Two field studies examined the role of procedural justice in the delivery of services. Waiting time and waiting procedures, two dimensions of procedural justice, and their effects on customers' reactions, were studied. In Study 1, 135 customers of two fast-food restaurants were surveyed about their service experience and perceptions of justice. The restaurants used two different types of waiting procedures, single-line systems and multiple-line systems. Study 2 consisted of a field experiment in which 102 customers of a bookstore filled out a survey regarding their service experience. The line system was switched systematically between a single-line and a multiple-line system. Although no differences in actual wait time existed, results of both studies show that customers in a single-line system perceived wait time to be shorter. Furthermore, perceived wait time and perceptions of the waiting procedures predicted customers' reactions to the waiting experience. An interaction between the two procedural justice dimensions was observed in Study 2, indicating that customers' reactions to the wait were more positive when perceived wait time was short and the waiting procedures were perceived as adequate. Results are discussed from the perspectives of organizational justice and waiting expectations.

Is employee satisfaction linked to organizational performance and customer satisfaction? Satisfaction data from 12,842 employees at 60 airport stations and performance data of those stations were used to explore the relationship between satisfaction levels and airport station performance. Results indicate that traffic volume and some dimensions of employee satisfaction are related to performance, and that traffic volume and employee affective commitment interact in accounting for customer satisfaction.

An increasingly service-oriented economy requires organizations to attract and retain customers to ensure a sustainable competitive advantage. To achieve this objective, organizations must focus their efforts on developing and sustaining an organizational culture that emphasizes internal customer well-being as a means to attract and retain external customer patronage. This rationale is based on the notion that to the external customer, the internal customer represents the firm. In fact, a growing body of empirical evidence suggests that there is a direct relationship between a firm's financial success and its commitment to internal marketing practices that treat employees as assets. However, there is a paucity of theoretical frameworks that explore these relationships in a systemic fashion. Based on the literature in marketing and human resource (HR) management, we propose a model that relates six key internal marketing practices to external customer satisfaction and loyalty, mediated by internal customer attitudes (i.e., loyalty to the firm, job satisfaction, trust in management) leading to extra role behaviors directed at external customers.

Organizations are increasingly taking a customer orientation in an attempt to enhance their competitive position. However, is this orientation an effective strategy? What effect does it have on employees? In practice, this approach often translates into asking service employees to be extra cheerful, friendly, and pleasant with customers. Many articles have suggested that this service with a smile emphasis has positive benefits; few suggest that it can also result in negative consequences. This paper examines two potential negative outcomes: sexual harassment by customers and the dysfunctional psychological effects of asking employees to display unfelt emotions.

Research on the differences in customer satisfaction between product and service organizations has focused on an output perspective, or how customers evaluate performance. This study takes this research inside organizations to analyze and investigate how key internal quality practices of product versus service organizations (employee management, process orientation, and customer orientation) influence customer satisfaction and business results. Using a national quality survey from 482 companies in Sweden, our analysis shows that for product organizations, internal quality practices influence customer satisfaction and business results primarily through an organization's customer orientation. For service organizations, both customer and process orientation impact customers directly, and employee management has a direct impact on business results. The research also supports the claim that organizations with a quality foundation are in a better position to adopt a customer orientation.

Drawing from literature in both organizational behavior and service marketing and management, we develop a conceptual model for explaining the effect of organizational size on customer satisfaction. We propose that organizational size affects customer satisfaction directly and through the intervening variable of employee job satisfaction. We focus on the second effect since it has not been previously identified in the literature. We then use the model to provide an explanation as to why a large company/small company hybrid can produce higher levels of customer satisfaction than either the small or large organizations in isolation — an explanation that also has not been previously discussed in the literature. We conclude by exploring the theoretical and practical significance of our model for future work.

This study examined employees' perceptions of the factors associated with a service quality initiative during and following organizational downsizing. The participants were employees of a large Canadian federal government department that began implementing a service quality initiative in 1995 and then reduced its workforce by 20% between 1996 and 1997. One hundred employees were interviewed in 1996 and 275 employees completed a questionnaire in 1997 and 14 months later in 1998. Overall, survivors perceived that the downsizing had an adverse effect on the department's quality initiative. Factors during the downsizing that were associated with greater perceived support for the quality initiative, service quality, teamwork and quality improvement efforts following the downsizing were job level (management), greater initial commitment to the quality initiative, lower perceived negative downsizing effect on the quality initiative, higher perceived organizational morale, and higher trust in the organization and organizational commitment. Initial commitment to the quality initiative was an especially important predictor of how remaining employees perceived the quality initiative following the downsizing. Respondents reported a significant increase in service quality and teamwork following the downsizing period suggesting that these key features of a quality program may be only temporarily affected by organizational downsizing.

Past research indicates that customer orientation is related to positive outcomes for the firm. Customer orientation has typically been measured by self-reports from service employees. Research indicates, however, that customers may not perceive employees to be as customer oriented as employees perceive themselves to be. This study extends past research by measuring perceptions of customer-oriented behaviors from the customer's perspective, not from the employee's perspective. Results from data gathered from 219 restaurant customers provide empirical evidence that perceptions of the contact employee's customer-oriented behaviors were positively related to two positive outcomes: (1) customer satisfaction with the service encounter and (2) customer commitment to the firm.