Management commitment to service quality and organizational outcomes

Leadership Style and Employees' Commitment to Service Quality: An Analysis of the Mediation Pathway via Knowledge Sharing

Very little attention has been given to understanding the commitment to service quality and desirable outcomes in the hotel industry. This study investigates the impact of directive and participative leadership on the frontline commitment to service quality through the mediation of knowledge sharing. This will eventually help us to generate the employees' commitment to service quality (CSQ) desirable behavior. The survey was distributed to 37 hotels. A total of 235 frontline employees participated in the survey. The study findings show that directive leadership has a negative relationship with CSQ. On the other hand, participative leadership positively influences CSQ. Notably, knowledge sharing mediates between directive leadership, participative leadership, and commitment to service quality. There were positive linkages between commitment to service quality and desirable outcomes, job performance, and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) and negative relation to turnover intention.

The impact of quality management practices on knowledge management processes: a study of a social security corporation in Jordan

Purpose

This study aimed to investigate the impact of total quality practices on knowledge management (KM) processes across a Social Security Corporation (SSC) in Jordan and explore the best approach to improve KM processes using quality management.

Design/methodology/approach

This study followed a quantitative methodology: a conceptual model was developed based on an extensive review of the related literature; an online survey was developed and distributed using the SSC's intranet; and 384 surveys were completed and used in the statistical analysis. The two-stage approach of structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed to analyze and interpret the data, and was used to validate the conceptual model of this research.

Findings

Based on the statistical analysis it was found that six out of seven independent factors relating to quality management practices were confirmed to have a significant impact on the knowledge management processes (KMPs). Building upon the findings an agenda for improving KM processes using quality management is proposed.

Originality/value

This study was conducted in one organization namely the SSC because it is the largest public service organization in Jordan and offers compulsory services. The inclusion of other public organizations and companies may reflect different findings. Future research may collect data from other service industries to get a more comprehensive perspective from developing countries such as Jordan. Moreover, the population of this study included only the General Director, General Director Assistants, and Administrative Managers. Front-line employees were excluded from the data collection because the study was conducted solely from a managerial perspective.

Internal and vendor employees’ unethical behaviors in the supply chain: the case of India

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of a corporate ethical policy, such as a code of ethics, on the unethical behavior of internal and vendor employees in the supply chain in India. It also aims to find whether International Standards Organization (ISO) certification of vendors affects the result and any significant relationship between management commitment and unethical behavior can be supported by the findings as well.

Design/methodology/approach

Empirical analyses were conducted on a survey consisting of 43 questions comprising 181 valid responses. Multiple regression analysis that includes four independent variables – code of ethics, management commitment, supply chain principles and personal values taking unethical behavior as dependent variable – was used to find the significance of the relationship.

Findings

The implementation of a code of ethics, management commitment, supply chain principles and personal values all have a negative association with unethical behavior. Personal values, measuring a firm’s financial aspects for non-compliance to ethical behavior, have a positive association with unethical behavior. The relationships of top management commitment, personal values with internal employees’ unethical behavior are significant. The significant relationship between management commitment and unethical behavior can be supported by the findings as well. It was also found that ISO certificates and firm size as the control variables did not have any effect on the relationship between the independent variables and unethical behavior. The analysis also shows that ISO 26000 certificate, the international standard for socially responsible operations, does not impact this relationship.

Research limitations/implications

Measuring substantial managerial effort for corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices by asking questions like, “how committed employees think top management is to social responsibility,” may not fully measure substantial managerial effort for CSR practices. To improve the results of the current study, future research can use the CSR index or disclosure as a measure to better reflect management commitment and practice for social responsibility. Second, the current study is limited to measuring how many occurrences of unethical behavior are witnessed by employees instead of what specific unethical behavior is more often witnessed. Considering India has the second largest population in the world, 181 responses may not represent the true practices in the business environment in India for generalization.

Practical implications

The findings suggest that management should put more of an emphasis on improving the commitment of upper-level managers to decrease the overall unethical practices of their employees. The study finds that employees’ personal values influence their ethical behavior. Therefore, communications and training of employees at all levels should emphasis on improving personal values.

Social implications

Businesses should influence academics to incorporate personal value building in course curricula. The Indian CSR law should incorporate the holistic view of CSR taking care of needs of all stakeholders under the provision of the regulation. In 2015, India became the first country in the world to legislate CSR practices in corporations but it misses the opportunity to sensitize the management and employees on ethical practices as it mainly identified philanthropic expenses as mandatory CSR spending and silent on ethical business practices.

Originality/value

The present study contributes to the literature by bringing supply chain context to the effect of different factors on unethical behaviors and interaction of internal and vendor firms in terms of ethical practices. There are several studies on business ethics in different countries including China, but in the case of India similar studies are not much. The present study fills the gap.

Role of internal and external organizational factors in TQM implementation

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to provide a conceptual framework for the development of total quality management (TQM) model for service organizations considering both internal and external environmental factors.

Design/methodology/approach

Through an extensive literature search, it is found that despite a large body of knowledge on TQM, there is hardly any research undertaken on the model of service quality including all external and internal factors that can affect the impact of soft and hard TQM factors on organizations performance. So, a systematic literature review has been conducted to extract the relevant journal articles for the study purpose.

Findings

The conceptual model fills this yawning gap and presents a framework of integrated relationships based on several constituent models. These are soft TQM factors, hard TQM factors and organizational performance. Moreover, quality improvement, market benefits, R&D performance and quality performance are used as mediators while industry rivalry and entry barriers are used as moderators between soft and hard TQM and organizational performance. The seven propositions, derived from these elements, highlight the dynamic relationship between above mentioned constructs.

Research limitations/implications

One major limitation is the testing of this model. It has not been tested in any environment or organization to assess its validity. Future research can be done to test the developed hypotheses. Besides three journals, other journals can also be focused in future to get detailed insight into different factors. Impact of IT on organizational processes toward TQM can also be studied in future. More rigorous statistical tests can also be applied to generate more findings with an extension of review time period and selection of more journals.

Practical implications

The model developed in this study can be applied in any service organization with slight modifications to enhance the service quality of organizations by integrating both internal and external aspects for quality improvement. By adopting this framework, organizations can increase their production quality.

Originality/value

This proposed framework will help organizations to effectively implement TQM in their organizations considering internal and external organizational factors.

Identifying the critical determinants of TQM and their impact on company performance

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to enrich the existing literature by determining the underlying structure (latent factors) of total quality management (TQM) practices and their impact on company performance outcomes in the Greek hotel industry.

Design/methodology/approach

The research questions were examined using a sample of 153 top-and middle-level hotel-quality managers. Exploratory factor analyses, coupled with multiple linear regression analyses, were used to examine the extent to which elements of TQM influence hotel performance.

Findings

The TQM factors revealed by the present empirical research in the hotel industry are the quality practices of top management, strategic quality planning, employee quality management, customer focus and employee knowledge and education. On the other hand, the performance dimensions revealed through the present study are summarized as: financial performance, customer focused performance and service quality performance. The results also confirmed that most of the TQM elements are antecedents of hotel business performance.

Practical implications

Hotel managers/owners using reliable and valid frameworks comprising TQM practices and performance outcomes may better address their efforts by choosing whether to invest in company refurbishing or better train their personnel to maximize hotel performance.

Originality/value

The purpose of this study is to enrich the existing literature by identifying and confirming the enablers and outcomes of TQM specifically within the hospitality industry. Moreover, the relationship between the implementation of TQM practices and superior company performance is also examined due to the past contradictory results regarding this matter.

Factors affecting service recovery performance and customer service employees

Purpose

Service recovery is very important to the insurance industry; it helps to maintain clients, it is a crucial competitive advantage for business survival and it adds value for the organization’s continued future. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the factors influencing service recovery performance (SRP) of customer service employees in the life insurance industry from three dimensions; organizational (customer service orientation and top management commitment), human resource management (rewards, training, teamwork and empowerment) and personal (affective organizational commitment, role ambiguity, role conflict and emotional exhaustion). This study also investigated job satisfaction and the intent to resign.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were gathered through self-administered questionnaires from 350 customer service staff employed by life insurance companies in the Northern region of Peninsular Malaysia by using a convenience sampling technique. Data were analyzed using multiple regressions.

Findings

The findings indicated that customer service orientation, training, empowerment, affective organizational commitment, role stressors and emotional exhaustion influenced staff’s SRP. The findings also showed that SRP influenced job satisfaction and intention to resign.

Practical implications

The research advances understanding of the influence of organizational, personal and human resource management factors on SRP and result constructs, namely, turnover intentions and job satisfaction. The researchers in Malaysia can use this model for future research in a service sector fields such as banking, retailing and hospitality to replicate and compare this finding. For practitioners especially the managers in insurance services providers can take actions and formulate proper strategies for customer service employees to deliver high level of performance in order to satisfied customer and continue stay in the organizations.

Originality/value

Very little attention has been given to examine the impact of human resource, personal and organizational factors on SRP and the influence of SRP on result constructs, namely, job satisfaction and intention to resign in the life insurances area. Furthermore applying equity theory especially in the SRP area was not given fully attention.

The impact of total quality management on service company performance: evidence from Spain

Purpose

– The purpose of the paper is to explore the impact of total quality management (TQM) factors on performance dimensions of service companies.

Design/methodology/approach

– A research project was designed in the Spanish services sector. Companies that had already participated in activities with regard to business excellence were randomly selected and approached through a structured questionnaire, yielding a sample of 151 responding companies. By analyzing TQM implementation and company performance through the exploratory factor analysis, specific TQM factors and performance dimensions are extracted. The TQM factors that significantly influence the performance dimensions are determined through multiple linear regression analyses.

Findings

– According to the findings, the factors describing TQM implementation in service companies concern quality practices of top management, employee quality management, process management, employee knowledge and education and customer focus. Similarly, the performance dimensions revealed concern financial performance, operational performance, customer satisfaction and product/service quality performance. The TQM factors concerning customers, employees and top management significantly affect the performance dimensions.

Research limitations/implications

– The subjective data were collected from quality managers of a small-sized sample of companies operating in a European Union country and belonging to different services sub-sectors. Based on these limitations, future research studies are recommended.

Practical implications

– By focussing on specific TQM factors, a service company can improve its performance dimensions. In doing so, it can lay the foundations not only to survive but to be competitive in the current global scenario that is characterized by an economic downturn.

Originality/value

– This paper describes a reliable TQM model that can be implemented in the services sector and a means by which a service company can improve its performance.