Linking service climate and customer perceptions of service quality: Tests of a causal model.

A set of foundation issues that support employee work and service quality is conceptualized as a necessary but not sufficient cause of a climate for service, which in turn is proposed to be reflected in customer experiences. Climate for service rests on the foundation issues, but in addition it requires policies and practices that focus attention directly on service quality. Data were collected at multiple points in time from employees and customers of 134 branches of a bank and analyzed via structural equation modeling. Results indicated that the model in which the foundation issues yielded a climate for service, and climate for service in turn led to customer perceptions of service quality, fit the data well. However, subsequent cross-lagged analyses revealed the presence of a reciprocal effect for climate and customer perceptions. Implications of these results for theory and research are offered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Service employees give as they get: Internal service as a moderator of the service climate–service outcomes link.

We lend theoretical insight to the service climate literature by exploring the joint effects of branch service climate and the internal service provided to the branch (the service received from corporate units to support external service delivery) on customer-rated service quality. We hypothesized that service climate is related to service quality most strongly when the internal service quality received is high, providing front-line employees with the capability to deliver what the service climate motivates them to do. We studied 619 employees and 1,973 customers in 36 retail branches of a bank. We aggregated employee perceptions of the internal service quality received from corporate units and the local service climate and external customer perceptions of service quality to the branch level of analysis. Findings were consistent with the hypothesis that high-quality internal service is necessary for branch service climate to yield superior external customer service quality. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Unit-level voluntary turnover rates and customer service quality: Implications of group cohesiveness, newcomer concentration, and size.

Despite substantial growth in the service industry and emerging work on turnover consequences, little research examines how unit-level turnover rates affect essential customer-related outcomes. The authors propose an operational disruption framework to explain why voluntary turnover impairs customers’ service quality perceptions. On the basis of a sample of 75 work units and data from 5,631 employee surveys, 59,602 customer surveys, and organizational records, results indicate that unit-level voluntary turnover rates are negatively related to service quality perceptions. The authors also examine potential boundary conditions related to the disruption framework. Of 3 moderators studied (group cohesiveness, group size, and newcomer concentration), results show that turnover’s negative effects on service quality are more pronounced in larger units and in those with a greater concentration of newcomers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A passion for service: Using content analysis to explicate service climate themes.

Climate is conceptualized as employee perceptions of one or more strategic imperatives made manifest through workplace routines and rewards. Service was the strategic imperative studied here. Notes from 97 panel interviews with 350 financial service company employees were analyzed for content to explicate the themes panelists use when asked to discuss the service climate of their organization. Quantitative analyses of the 33 coded themes revealed the routines and rewards most strongly related to service passion: responsiveness to consumers, hiring procedures (who and how), training (availability and content), and the way service is delivered. Some themes were also significantly related to a survey measure panelists completed giving their perceptions of customer views of service. Both the substantive findings and the content analysis methodology are discussed, and implications for future climate research are identified. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Transforming service employees and climate: A multilevel, multisource examination of transformational leadership in building long-term service relationships.

This longitudinal field study integrates the theories of transformational leadership (TFL) and relationship marketing to examine how TFL influences employee service performance and customer relationship outcomes by transforming both (at the micro level) the service employees' attitudes and (at the macro level) the work unit's service climate. Results revealed that, at the individual level, managers' TFL was positively related to employee service performance, which, in turn, positively predicted customers' expressed intention to maintain a long-term service relationship with the service employee and manager-reported number of the employee's long-term customers measured 9 months later. In addition, the relationship between TFL and employee service performance was partially mediated by employee self-efficacy. Furthermore, store-level TFL was positively associated with store-level service climate, and service climate further enhanced the relationship between individual-level TFL and employee service performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Customer service providers' attitudes relating to customer service and customer satisfaction in the customer-server exchange.

The authors proposed and tested a model describing the relationship between customer service providers' perceptions and attitudes toward their service-related duties and their customers' perceptions of satisfaction with their service experiences. Results indicated that the perception of having standards for service delivery in an organization is strongly related to line-level employees' perceptions of support from coworkers and supervisors. Perceived support from coworker, was significantly related to service providers' customer orientation, whereas perceived support from supervisors showed a weaker relationship to a customer orientation. Ultimately, service providers' customer orientation was strongly related to customers' satisfaction with service. Finally, a set of post hoc analyses indicated that coworker and supervisory support explained a greater proportion of incremental variance in the model than did perceived organizational support alone. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Manager personality, manager service quality orientation, and service climate: Test of a model.

This article conceptually and empirically explores the relationships among manager personality, manager service quality orientation, and climate for customer service. Data were collected from 1,486 employees and 145 managers in grocery store departments (N = 145) to test the authors' theoretical model. Largely consistent with hypotheses, results revealed that core self-evaluations were positively related to managers' service quality orientation, even after dimensions of the Big Five model of personality were controlled, and that service quality orientation fully mediated the relationship between personality and global service climate. Implications for personality and organizational climate research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Climate strength: a new direction for climate research.

Climate strength was conceptualized within D. Chan's (1998) discussion of compositional models and the concept of culture strength from the organizational culture literature. Climate strength was operationalized in terms of within-group variability in climate perceptions--the less within-group variability, the stronger the climate. The authors studied climate strength in the context of research linking employee service climate perceptions to customer satisfaction. The hypothesis was tested that climate strength moderates the relationship between employee perceptions of service climate and customer satisfaction experiences. Partial support for the hypothesis was reported in both a concurrent and predictive (3-year) test across 118 branches of a bank. In the predictive study only the interaction of climate and climate strength predicted customer satisfaction. Implications for future research on climate and climate strength are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Linking Organizational Resources and Work Engagement to Employee Performance and Customer Loyalty: The Mediation of Service Climate.

This study examined the mediating role of service climate in the prediction of employee performance and customer loyalty. Contact employees (N=342) from 114 service units (58 hotel front desks and 56 restaurants) provided information about organizational resources, engagement, and service climate. Furthermore, customers (N=1,140) from these units provided information on employee performance and customer loyalty. Structural equation modeling analyses were consistent with a full mediation model in which organizational resources and work engagement predict service climate, which in turn predicts employee performance and then customer loyalty. Further analyses revealed a potential reciprocal effect between service climate and customer loyalty. Implications of the study are discussed, together with limitations and suggestions for future research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Toward a better understanding of psychological contract breach: A study of customer service employees.

Experiences of psychological contract breach have been associated with a range of negative behavior. However, much of the research has focused on master of business administration alumni and managers and made use of self-reported outcomes. Studying a sample of customer service employees, the research found that psychological contract breach was related to lower organizational trust, which, in turn was associated with perceptions of less cooperative employment relations and higher levels of absenteeism. Furthermore, perceptions of external market pressures moderated the effect of psychological contract breach on absenteeism. The study indicated that psychological contract breach can arise when employees perceive discrepancies between an organization's espoused behavioral standards and its actual behavioral standards, and this can affect discretionary absence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The perception of organizational climate: The customer's view.

Conducted a study with 674 present and 87 former bank-account holders in which climate was defined as the summary perception that bank customers have of their bank, and perceived climate was conceptualized as an intervening variable (i.e., a summary perception based on specific service-related events but preceding customer account switching). Questionnaire data indicate that (a) present-customer intentions to switch accounts were more strongly related to summary perceptions than to specific service-related event perceptions of the bank and (b) former customers had significantly more negative perceptions of the bank and its employees than did present customers. Implications for future organizational climate research and for the relationship between employee and customer are discussed. (20 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

How does service workers’ behavior affect their health? Service climate as a moderator in the service behavior–health relationships.

To address the question of whether providing high-quality service deteriorates or benefits workers’ health, a contingency model was tested that focused on service climate as a moderator. This interacts with service behavior to affect workers’ perceptions of emotional exhaustion, hence their physical and mental health. Findings of this study with 328 nurses from 66 nursing units indicated that congruent conditions of service climate and behaviors benefited workers’ health, whereas incongruent conditions affected it adversely. The findings are discussed in light of stress, and emotion–work perspectives. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Employee and customer perceptions of service in banks: Replication and extension.

Replicated the 1st author and J. J. Parkington's (1979) research on the relationships between employees and customers in service organizations by analyzing survey data from 142 employees and 968 customers from 28 branches of a bank. Moderate support was found for the 1st author and Parkington's work on correlates of stress for boundary role employees. Support was also found for relationships between branch employees' and branch customers' service perceptions and attitudes as reported by the present 1st author et al (1980). Significant relationships were reported between branch employees' perceptions of organizational human resources practices and branch customers' attitudes about service. Employee attitudes and customer attitudes were related to their own and one another's turnover intentions. Results are discussed from the perspective of promoting an integration of consumer and organizational behavior in the service sector. (51 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Distinguishing between service relationships and encounters.

In 3 separate studies, the authors developed measures of different social mechanisms used in the interaction between a customer and a service provider and examined their effects. Service relationships occur when a customer has repeated contact with the same provider. Service encounters occur when the customer interacts with a different provider each time. Service pseudorelationships are a particular kind of encounter in which a customer interacts with a different provider each time, but within a single company. The 3 studies showed consistently that customers having a service relationship with a specific provider had more service interactions and were more satisfied than those who did not have one. These results held across 7 different service areas, 3 diverse samples, and 2 different ways of measuring a service relationship. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Organizational climate configurations: Relationships to collective attitudes, customer satisfaction, and financial performance.

Research on organizational climate has tended to focus on independent dimensions of climate rather than studying the total social context as configurations of multiple climate dimensions. The authors examined relationships between configurations of unit-level climate dimensions and organizational outcomes. Three profile characteristics represented climate configurations: (1) elevation, or the mean score across climate dimensions; (2) variability, or the extent to which scores across dimensions vary; and (3) shape, or the pattern of the dimensions. Across 2 studies (1,120 employees in 120 bank branches and 4,317 employees in 86 food distribution stores), results indicated that elevation was related to collective employee attitudes and service perceptions, while shape was related to customer satisfaction and financial performance. With respect to profile variability, results were mixed. The discussion focuses on future directions for taking a configural approach to organizational climate. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Do it right this time: The role of employee service recovery performance in customer-perceived justice and customer loyalty after service failures.

Integrating justice and customer service literatures, this research examines the role of customer service employees' behaviors of handling customer complaints, or service recovery performance (SRP), in conveying a just image of service organizations and achieving desirable customer outcomes. Results from a field study and a laboratory study demonstrate that the dimensions of SRP--making an apology, problem solving, being courteous, and prompt handling--positively influenced customer satisfaction and then customer repurchase intent through the mediation of customer-perceived justice. In addition, service failure severity and repeated failures reduced the positive impact of some dimensions of SRP on customer satisfaction, and customer-perceived justice again mediated these moderated effects. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mechanisms linking employee affective delivery and customer behavioral intentions.

Past empirical evidence has indicated that employee affective delivery can influence customer reactions (e.g., customer satisfaction, service quality evaluation). This study extends previous research by empirically examining mediating processes underlying the relationship between employee affective delivery and customer behavioral intentions. Data were collected from 352 employee-customer pairs in 169 retail shoe stores in Taiwan. Results showed that the influence of employee affective delivery on customers' willingness to return to the store and pass positive comments to friends was indirect through the mediating processes of customer in-store positive moods and perceived friendliness. The study also indicated that employee affective delivery influences customers' time spent in store, which, in turn, influences customer behavioral intentions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ethnic group perceptions of mental health service providers.

Assessed 121 male and 118 female Chicano, 124 male and 123 female Black, and 126 male and 125 female Anglo college students' perceptions of 100 characteristics of 6 service-provider groups and the likelihood that Ss would discuss 9 problem areas with professional groups. Analysis revealed main effects for race, sex, and provider groups; factor analysis of the 9 problem topics revealed personal-social and educational-vocational dimensions. Females were more likely than males to discuss both problem areas with provider groups. Blacks and Chicanos were more likely than Anglos to take personal problems to professionals. Ss preferred to consult psychiatrists and clinical psychologists for the same types of problems more than counseling psychologists, who in turn were preferred more than college counselors, high school counselors, and advisers. For educational-vocational concerns, Ss generally expressed a stronger probability of consulting providers other than psychiatrists and clinical psychologists. Methodological issues, previous findings, and implications for service providers are discussed. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Organizational change in a human service agency.

An organizational change consultation was conducted with a large nonprofit human service organization. The consultation began with negotiations to gain entry to the agency followed by start-up activities at all levels of the organization. Seventy-two individual interviews were conducted. Interviews surfaced issues and concerns related to the climate, management, and operations of the agency and its eight programs. The mirroring (feedback) activity brought attention to the most critical issues in the organization for which action plans were developed and implemented. Employee follow-up survey results indicate favorable ratings for most action items. Lessons learned in the SHARE (pseudonym) consultation are presented for consideration by consultants working in human service and other organization settings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A new look at psychological climate and its relationship to job involvement, effort, and performance

This study investigated the process by which employee perceptions of the organizational environment are related to job involvement, effort, and performance. The researchers developed an operational definition of psychological climate that was based on how employees perceive aspects of the organizational environment and interpret them in relation to their own well-being. Perceived psychological climate was then related to job involvement, effort, and performance in a path-analytic framework. Results showed that perceptions of a motivating and involving psychological climate were related to job involvement, which in turn was related to effort. Effort was also related to work performance. Results revealed that a modest but statistically significant effect of job involvement on performance became nonsignificant when effort was inserted into the model, indicating the mediating effect of effort on the relationship. The results cross-validated well across 2 samples of outside salespeople, indicating that relationships are generalizable across these different sales contexts.