The Effect of Management Commitment to Service Quality on Employees' Affective and Performance Outcomes

Abstract

A service recovery performance model is proposed and tested with data from frontline bank employees in Turkey. The model is derived from Bagozzi's (1992) reformulation of attitude theory. The empirical results suggest that top management commitment to service quality, as manifested by frontline employees' appraisal of training, empowerment, and rewards, has a significant effect on their perceptions of service recovery performance. The influence of management commitment to service quality on service recovery performance is mediated by frontline employees' affective commitment to their organization and job satisfaction. Implications of the results and further research avenues are discussed.

The Effect of Management Commitment to Service Quality on Job Embeddedness and Performance Outcomes

“…However, employees who are devoid of the requisite job and interpersonal skills are incapable of providing quality services and resolving customers' complaints effectively (Boshoff, Allen 2000). With this realization, employees' inability to respond to service failures can be remedied by training and development (Babakus et al 2003). That is, frontline employees are in need of basic skills training focusing on delivery of service quality and effective service recovery (cf.…”

“…Bergiel et al 2009). As cogently discussed by Babakus et al (2003), training will produce the intended outcomes provided that empowerment and rewards are in place. Likewise, empowerment will lead to the intended outcomes provided that it is used in combination with appropriate training and rewards.…”

“…There are at least two reasons for selecting such performance outcomes. First, service recovery performance refers to frontline employees' abilities and actions to resolve a service failure to the satisfaction of the customer (Babakus et al 2003). There are a number of customers' requests and complaints frontline employees have to deal with.…”

“…Management commitment to service quality refers to "employees' appraisal of an organization's commitment to nurture, develop, support, and reward its employees to achieve service excellence" (Babakus et al 2003: 275). A close examination of the services marketing literature delineates a number of potential indicators of management commitment to service quality (for example, training, empowerment, rewards, service technology, perceived organizational support, recruitment and selection, and servant leadership) (Ashill et al 2008;Babakus et al 2003;Kim et al 2009;Schneider et al 1998). Consistent with the work of Babakus et al (2003) and Pfeffer's (1994) list of best human resource practices, training, empowerment, and rewards are considered to be the significant indicators of management commitment to service quality in this study.…”

“…A close examination of the services marketing literature delineates a number of potential indicators of management commitment to service quality (for example, training, empowerment, rewards, service technology, perceived organizational support, recruitment and selection, and servant leadership) (Ashill et al 2008;Babakus et al 2003;Kim et al 2009;Schneider et al 1998). Consistent with the work of Babakus et al (2003) and Pfeffer's (1994) list of best human resource practices, training, empowerment, and rewards are considered to be the significant indicators of management commitment to service quality in this study. According to Boselie et al's study (2005) focusing on the linkage between human resource management and performance, training and development, contingent pay and rewards, and direct participation such as empowerment and employee involvement are in the top six human resource practices.…”