The effect of management commitment to service quality on frontline employees' job attitudes, turnover intentions and service recovery performance in a new public management context

Journal of Strategic Marketing

Volumn 16, Issue 5, 2008, Pages 437-462

  Ashill, Nicholas J ^a   Rod, Michel ^b   Carruthers, Janet ^b  

^a AMERICAN UNIVERSITY OF SHARJAH   (United Arab Emirates)

^b VICTORIA UNIVERSITY OF WELLINGTON   (New Zealand)

Author keywords

Frontline employees (FLEs); Job satisfaction; Management commitment to service quality (MCSQ); Organisational commitment; Service recovery performance; State owned enterprise (SOE); Turnover intentions

Indexed keywords

EID: 70349871674     PISSN: 0965254X     EISSN: 14664488     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/09652540802480944     Document Type: Article

References (124)

1. Ackfeldt, A.L., & Wong, V. (2006). The antecedents of prosocial service behaviours: An empirical investigation. The Service Industries Journal, 26(7), 727-745.
2. Alexandrov, A., Babakus, E., & Yavas, U. (2007). The effects of perceived management concern for frontline employees and customers on turnover intentions moderating role of employment status. Journal of Service Research, 9(4), 356-371.
3. Allen, N., & Meyer, J.P. (1990). The measurement and antecedents of affective, continuous and normative commitment to the organization. Journal of Occupational Psychology, 63(1), 1-18.
4. Argyris, C. (1998). Empowerment: The emperor's new clothes. Harvard Business Review, 76(3), 98-105.
5. Armstrong, S.J., & Overton, T.S. (1977). Estimating nonresponse bias in mail surveys. Journal of Marketing Research, 14(3), 396-402.
6. Austin, L.M. (2005). Benchmarking to economic value added. Benchmarking: An International Journal, 12(2), 138-150.
7. Babakus, E., Cravens, D.W., Johnston, M., & Moncrief, W.C. (1999). The role of emotional exhaustion in salesforce attitude and relationships. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 27(1), 58-70.
8. Babakus, E., Yavas, U., Karatepe, O., & Avci, T. (2003). The effect of management commitment to service quality on employees' affective and performance outcomes. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 20(10), 1-15.
9. Babin, B.J., & Boles, J.S. (1998). Employee behavior in a service environment: A model and test of potential differences between men and women. Journal of Marketing, 62(2), 77-91.
10. Bagozzi, R.P. (1992). The self-regulation of attitudes, intentions and behaviour. Social Psychology Quarterly, 55(2), 178-204.
11. Bagozzi, R.P., & Heatherton, T.F. (1994). A general approach to representing multifaceted personality constructs: Application to state self-esteem. Structural Equation Modelling, 1(1), 35-67.
12. Barclay, D., Higgins, C., & Thompson, R. (1995). The partial least squares (pls) approach to causal modeling: Personal computer adoption and use as an illustration (with commentaries). Technology Studies, 2(2), 285-324.
13. Bell, S., Menguc, B., & Stefani, S. (2004). When customers disappoint: A model of relational internal marketing and customer complaints. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 32(2), 112-126.
14. Bendall-Lyon, D., & Powers, T. (2001). The role of complaint management in the service recovery process. Joint Commission Journal on Quality Improvement, 25(5), 278 -286.
15. Bitner, M., Booms, B., & Tetreault, M. (1994). Critical service encounters: The employee's viewpoint. Journal of Marketing, 58(4), 95-106.
16. Boshoff, C., & Allen, J. (2000). The influence of selected antecedents on frontline staff's perceptions of service recovery performance. International Journal of Service Industry Management, 11(1), 63-90.
17. Bowen, D.E., & Johnston, R. (1999). Internal service recovery: Developing a new construct. International Journal of Service Industry Management, 10(2), 118-131.
18. Bowen, D., & Lawler, E. (1992). The empowerment of service workers: What, why, how and when. Sloan Management Review, 33(3), 31-39.
19. Bowen, D., & Lawler, E. (1995). Empowering service employees. Sloan Management Review, 36(4), 73-84.
20. Bowen, R., Gilliland, D., & Folger, S. (1999). HRM and service fairness: How being fair to employees spills over to customers. Organizational Dynamics, 27(3), 7-23.
21. Bretz, R., Boudreau, J., & Judge, T. (1994). Job search behaviour of employed managers. Personnel Psychology, 47(2), 275-301.
22. Brown, K., Ryan, N., & Parker, R. (2000). New modes of service delivery in the public sector. International Journal of Public Sector Management, 13(3), 206-221.
23. Brown, S., & Peterson, A. (1993). Antecedents and consequences of salesperson job satisfaction: Meta-analysis and assessment of causal effects. Journal of Marketing Research, 30(1), 63-77.
24. Chin, W. (1998). The partial least squares for structural equation modelling. In G.A. Marcoulides (Ed.), Modern methods for business research (pp. 295-336). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
25. Chin, W., & Newstead, P. (1999). Structural equation modeling analysis with small samples using partial least squares. In R. Hoyle (Ed.), Statistical strategies for small sample research (pp. 307-341). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
26. Churchill, G.A., Ford, N.M., Hartley, S.W., & Orville, C. (1985). The determinants of salesperson performance: A meta-analysis. Journal of Marketing Research, 22(2), 103-118.
27. Crowne, D., & Marlowe, D. (1960). The approved motive. New York: John Wiley.
28. Dabholkar, P.A. (2000). Technology in service delivery: Implications for self-service and service support. In T.A. Swartz & D. Iacobucci (Eds.), Handbook of services marketing and management (pp. 103-110). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
29. Devlin, M. (2006). Corporate governance: Hands off - is public sector governance a charade? Why the government should stop vetting and approving board members to our stateowned enterprises. New Zealand Management, August, 66-68.
30. Ellinger, A., Elmadaǧ, A., & Ellinger, A. (2007). An examination of organizations' frontline service employee development practices. Human Resource Development Quarterly, 18(3), 293-347.
31. Erakovic, L., & Wilson, M. (2006). The interaction of market and technology in radical transformation. International Journal of Public Sector Management, 19(5), 468-489.
32. Farrell, D., & Rusbult, C. (1981). Exchange variables as predictors of job satisfaction, job commitment, and turnover: The impact of rewards, costs, alternatives, and investments. Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 28(1), 78-95.
33. Fields, D., Dingman, M., Roman, P., & Blum, T. (2005). Exploring predictors of alternative job changes. Journal of Organizational Psychology, 78(1), 63-82.
34. Finnie, W., & Randall, R. (2002). Loyalty as a philosophy and strategy: An interview with Frederick F. Reichheld. Strategy & Leadership, 30(2), 25-31.
35. Fornell, C., & Bookstein, F.L. (1982). Two structural equation models: Lisrel and PLS applied to consumer exit-voice theory. Journal of Marketing Research, 19(4), 440-452.
36. Fornell, C., & Larcker, D. (1981). Evaluating structural models with unobserved variables and measurement error. Journal of Marketing Research, 18(1), 35-90.
37. Forrester, R. (2000). Empowerment: Rejuvenating a potent idea. Academy of Management Executive, 14(3), 67-80.
38. Frank, F., Finnegan, R., & Taylor, C. (2004). The race for talent: Retaining and engaging workers in the 21st century. Human Resource Planning, 27(3), 12-25.
39. Geisser, S. (1975). The predictive sample reuse method with applications. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 70(350), 320-328.
40. Greenleaf, R. (1970/1991). The servant as leader. Indianapolis, IN: The Greenleaf Centre.
41. Griffeth, R., Hom, P., & Gaertner, S. (2000). A meta-analysis of antecedents and correlates of employee turnover: Update, moderator tests, and research implications for the next millennium. Journal of Management, 26(3), 463-488.
42. Harman, H. (1967). Modern factor analysis. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
43. Harris, M.M., & Schaubroeck, J. (1988). A meta-analysis of self-supervisor, self-peer, and peer-supervisor ratings. Personnel Psychology, 41(1), 43-62.
44. Hart, C.W.L., Heskett, J.L., & Sasser, W.E., Jr. (1990). The profitable art of service recovery. Harvard Business Review, 68(4), 148-156.
45. Hartline, M., & Ferrell, O.C. (1996). The management of customer-contact service employees: An empirical investigation. Journal of Marketing, 60(4), 52-70.
46. Hartline, M., Maxham, J.G., & McKee, D.O. (2000). Corridors of influence in the dissemination of customer-orientated strategy to customer contact service employees. Journal of Marketing, 64(2), 35-50.
47. Hayes, B. (1994). How to measure empowerment. Quality Progress, 27(2), 41-46.
48. Hendrie, J. (2004). A review of a multiple retailer's labour turnover. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, 32(9), 434-441.
49. Heskett, J., Jones, O., Loveman, G., Sasser, W., & Schlesinger, L. (1994). Putting the service profit chain to work. Harvard Business Review, March-April, 164-174.
50. Heskett, J., Sasser, T., & Schlesinger, L. (1997). The service profit chain: How leading companies link profit and growth to loyalty, satisfaction, and value. New York: Free Press.
51. Hom, P., Caranikas-Walker, F., Prussia, G., & Griffeth, R. (1992). A meta-analytical structural equation analysis of a model of employee turnover. Journal of Applied Psychology, 77, 890-909.
52. Hom, P., & Griffeth, R. (1995). Employee turnover. Cincinnati, OH: South-Western.
53. Hood, C. (1995). The 'new public management' in the 1980s: Variations on a theme. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 20(2/3), 93-109.
54. Iaffaldano, M., & Muchinsky, P. (1985). Job satisfaction and job performance: A metaanalysis. Psychological Bulletin, 97(2), 251-273.
55. Iris, M. (1991). Broadening the market orientation: An added focus on internal customers. Human Resource Management, 30(4), 455-467.
56. Irwin, T., & Yamamoto, C. (2004). Some options for improving the governance of state-owned electricity utilities. Energy and Mining Sector Board Discussion Paper No. 11. Retrieved November 2007, from World Bank website: http://gsbnet.uct.ac.za/MIR/admin/documents/Reg%20Public%20Utilities%20Energy_ImptheGov.pdf.
57. James, W. (2005). The impact of corporatisation and national competition policy. Leadership and Organization, 26(4), 289-309.
58. James, W. (2006). A processual view of institutional change of the budget process within an Australian government-owned electricity corporation. International Journal of Public Sector Management, 19(1), 5-39.
59. Jaramillo, F., Mulki, J.P., & Marshall, G.W. (2005). A meta-analysis of the relationship between organizational commitment and salesperson job performance: 25 years of research. Journal of Business Research, 58(6), 705-714.
60. Jaramillo, F., Mulki, J.P., & Solomon, P. (2006). The role of ethical climate on salesperson's role stress, job attitudes, turnover intention, and job performance. Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, 26(3), 271-282.
61. Jones, E., Chonko, L., Rangarajan, D., & Roberts, J. (2007). The role of overload on job attitude, turnover intentions, and salesperson performance. Journal of Business Research, 60(7), 663-671.
62. Judge, T., Thoresen, C., Bono, J., & Patton, G. (2001). The job satisfaction-job performance relationship: A qualitative and quantitative review. Psychological Bulletin, 127(3), 376-407.
63. Kim, S. (2005). Individual-level factors and organizational performance in government organizations. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 15(2), 245-261.
64. Lashley, C. (1995). Empowerment through delayering: A pilot study at McDonalds. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 7(2/3), 29-35.
65. Lawler, E. (2000). Rewarding excellence: Pay strategies for the new economy. San Francisco, CA: Josey-Bass.
66. Lee, Y.K., Nam, J.H., Park, D.H., & Lee, K.A. (2006). What factors influence customer-oriented prosocial behaviour of customer-contact employees? Journal of Services Marketing, 20(4), 251-264.
67. Lee, Y.K., Park, D.H., & Yoo, D. (1999). The structural relationships between service orientation, mediators, and business performance in Korea hotel firms. Asia Pacific Journal of Tourism Research, 4(1), 59-70.
68. Liao, H., & Chuang, A. (2004). A multilevel investigation of factors influencing employee service performance and customer outcomes. Academy of Management Journal, 47(1), 41-58.
69. Locke, E.A. (1969). What is job satisfaction? Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 4(4), 309-336.
70. Lohmoller, J.B. (1989). Latent variable path modeling with partial least squares. Heidelberg: Physica-Verlag.
71. Lorenzoni, N., & Lewis, B.R. (2004). Service recovery in the airline industry: A cross-cultural comparison of the attitudes and behaviours of British and Italian frontline personnel. Managing Service Quality, 14(1), 11-25.
72. Low, G.S., Cravens, D.W., Grant, K., & Moncrief, W.C. (2001). Antecedents and consequences of salesperson burnout. European Journal of Marketing, 35(5/6), 587-611.
73. Luke, B., & Verreynne, M.-L. (2006). Social enterprise in the public sector met service: Thinking beyond the weather. International Journal of Social Economics, 33(5/6), 432-445.
74. Lynn, M.L., Lytle, R.S., & Bobek, S. (2000). Service orientation in transitional markets: Does it matter? European Journal of Marketing, 34(3/4), 279-298.
75. Lytle, R.S., Hom, P.W., & Mowka, M.P. (1998). SERV*OR: Managerial measures of organizational service orientation. Journal of Retailing, 74(4), 1-15.
76. Lytle, R.S., & Timmerman, J.E. (2006). Service orientation and performance: An organizational perspective. Journal of Services Marketing, 20(2), 136-147.
77. MacKenzie, S., Podsakoff, P., & Ahearne, M. (1998). Some possible antecedents and consquences of in-role and extra-role salesperson performance. Journal of Marketing, 62(3), 87-97.
78. Magnini, V., Ford, J., Markowski, E., & Honeycutt, E., Jr. (2007). The service recovery paradox: Justifiable theory or smoldering myth? Journal of Services Marketing, 21(3), 213-225.
79. Malhotra, N., & Mukherjee, A. (2004). The relative influence of organisational commitment and job satisfaction and job satisfaction on service quality of customer-contact employees in banking call centres. Journal of Services Marketing, 18(2/3), 162-174.
80. Mentzer, J.T., & Flint, D.J. (1997). Validity in logistics research. Journal of Business Logisitics, 18(1), 199-216.
81. Meyer, J., & Herscovitch, L. (2001). Commitment in the workplace: Toward a general model. Human Resource Management Review, 11(3), 299-326.
82. Meyer, J., Paunonen, S., Gellatly, I., & Jackson, D. (1989). Organizational commitment and job performance: It's the nature of the commitment that counts. Journal of Applied Psychology, 74(1), 152-156.
83. Meyer, J., Stanley, D., Herscovitch, L., & Topolnytsky, L. (2002). Affective, continuance, and normative commitment to the organization: A meta-analysis of antecedents, correlates, and consequences. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 61(1), 20-52.
84. Mohr, L., & Bitner, M.J. (1995). The role of employee effort and satisfaction with service transactions. Journal of Business Research, 32(2), 335-349.
85. Mowday, R.T., Steers, R.M., & Porter, L.W. (1979). The measurement of organizational commitment. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 14(2), 224-247.
86. Nunnally, J.C. (1978). Psychometric theory. (2nd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
87. Nwankwo, S., & Richardson, B. (1994). Measuring and achieving quality customer service in the public sector. Managing Service Quality, 4(6), 32-36.
88. Parasuraman, A. (1987). Customer-orientated corporate cultures are crucial to services marketing success. Journal of Services Marketing, 1(1), 39-46.
89. Parasuraman, A., & Futrell, C. (1983). Demographics, job satisfaction, and propensity to leave of industrial salesmen. Journal of Business Research, 11(1), 33-48.
90. Paulin, M., Ferguson, R., & Bergeron, J. (2006). Service climate and organizational commitment: The importance of customer linkages. Journal of Business Research, 59(8), 906-915.
91. Payne, S., & Webber, S. (2006). Effects of service provider attitudes and employment status on citizenship behaviors and customers' attitudes and loyalty behaviour. Journal of Applied Psychology, 91(2), 365-378.
92. Pfeffer, J. (1994). Competitive advantage through people. California Management Review, 36(2), 9-28.
93. Podsakoff, P.M., Mackenzie, S.B., Lee, J., & Podsakoff, N.P. (2003). Common method biases in behavioral research: a critical review of the literature and recommended remedies. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88(5), 879-903.
94. Reynolds, W.M. (1982). Development of reliable and valid short forms of the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 38(1), 119-125.
95. Rogg, K., Schmidt, D., Shull, C., & Schmitt, N. (2001). Human resource practices, organizational climate, and customer satisfaction. Journal of Management, 27(4), 431-449.
96. Rosenthal, P., & Peccei, R. (2006). Consuming work: Frontline workers and their customers in jobcentre plus. International Journal of Public Sector Management, 19(7), 659-672.
97. Russ, F., & McNeilly, K. (1995). Links among satisfaction, commitment, and turnover intentions: The moderating effect of experience, gender, and performance. Journal of Business Research, 34(1), 57-65.
98. Ruyter, K., & Wetzels, M. (2000). Customer equity considerations in service recovery: A cross-industry perspective. International Journal of Service Industry Management, 11(1), 91-108.
99. Salazar, J., Pfaffenberg, C., & Salazar, L. (2006). Locus of control vs. employee empowerment and the relationship with hotel managers' job satisfaction. Journal of Human Resources in Hospitality & Tourism, 5(1), 1-15.
100. Schmit, M., & Allscheid, S. (1995). Employee attitudes and customer satisfaction: Making theoretical and empirical connections. Personnel Psychology, 48(3), 521-536.
101. Schneider, B. (1990). The climate for service: An application of the climate construct. In B. Schneider (Ed.), Organizational climate and culture (pp. 383-412). San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass.
102. Schneider, B., & Bowen, D.E. (1995). Winning the service game is crucial. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.
103. Schneider, B., Ehrhart, M., Mayer, D., Saltz, J., & Niles-Jolly, K. (2005). Understanding organization-customer links in service settings. Academy of Management Journal, 48(6), 1017-1032.
104. Schneider, B., White, S., & Paul, M. (1998). Linking service climate and customer perceptions of service quality: Test of a causal model. Journal of Applied Psychology, 83(2), 150-163.
105. Singh, J. (2000). Performance productivity and quality of frontline employees in service organizations. Journal of Marketing, 64(2), 15-34.
106. Singh, J., Verbeke, W., & Rhoads, G. (1996). Do organizational practices matter in role stress processes? A study of direct and moderating effects of marketing-orientated boundary spanners. Journal of Marketing, 60(3), 69-96.
107. Sozen, S., & Shaw, I. (2002). The international applicability of 'new' public management: Lessons from turkey. International Journal of Public Sector Management, 16(6), 475-486.
108. Spector, P.E. (1987). Method variance as an artifact in self-reported affect and perceptions at work: Myth or significant problem? Journal of Applied Psychology, 72(3), 438-443.
109. Steers, R.M. (1977). Antecedents and outcomes of organizational commitment. Administrative Science Quarterly, 22(1), 46-56.
110. Stone, M. (1974). Cross-validatory choice and assessment of statistical predictions. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, 36(2), 111-133.
111. Sureschchandar, G., Rajendran, C., & Anantharaman, R. (2002). The relationship between management's perception of total quality service and customer perceptions of service quality. Total Quality Management, 13(1), 69-88.
112. Sweetman, K. (2001). Employee loyalty around the globe. Sloan Management Review, 42(2), 16.
113. Tax, S., & Brown, S. (1998). Recovering and learning from service failure. Sloan Management Review, 40(1), 75-88.
114. Tett, R., & Meyer, J. (1993). Job satisfaction, organizational commitment, turnover intention, and turnover: Path analysis based on meta-analytic findings. Personnel Psychology, 46(2), 259-293.
115. Thoits, P. (1995). Stress, coping, and social support processes: Where are we? What next? Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 36(5), 53-79.
116. Tsui, A., Pearce, J., Porter, L., & Tripoli, A. (1997). Alternative approaches to the employee-organisation relationship: Does investment in employee pay off? Academy of Management Journal, 40(5), 1089-1121.
117. Ugboro, I., & Obeng, K. (2000). Top management leadership, employee empowerment, job satisfaction, and customer satisfaction in TQM organizations: An empirical study. Journal of Quality Management, 5(2), 247-272.
118. Van Breukelen, W., van der Vlist, R., & Steensma, H. (2004). Voluntary employee turnover: Combining variables from the 'traditional' turnover literature with the theory of planned behavior. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 25(7), 893-914.
119. Wold, H. (1985). Systems analysis by partial least squares. In P. Nijkamp, L. Leitner & N. Wrigley (Eds.), Measuring the unmeasurable (pp. 221-252). Dordrecht: Marinus Nijhoff.
120. Yanamandram, V., & White, L. (2006). Switching barriers in business-to-business services: A qualitative study. International Journal of Service Industry Management, 17(2), 158-192.
121. Yavas, U., Karatepe, O.M., Avci, T., & Tekinkus, M. (2003). Antecedents and outcomes of service recovery performance: An empirical study of frontline employees in Turkish banks. International Journal of Bank Marketing, 21(5), 255-265.
122. Yoon, M., Beathy, S., & Suh, J. (2001). The effect of work climate on critical employee and customer outcomes: An employee level analysis. International Journal of Service Industry Management, 12(5), 500-522.
123. Yousef, D. (1998). Satisfaction with job security as a predictor of organizational commitment and job performance in a multicultural environment. International Journal of Manpower, 19(3), 184-194.
124. Zhao, H., Wayne, S., Glibkowski, B., & Bravo, J. (2007). The impact of psychological contract breach on work-related outcomes: a meta-analysis. Personnel Psychology, 60(3), 647-680.